Hello All. a question for you sport trac owners.

[Brent Kistner]

I have a 2002 Sport Trac with a ton of miles on it (224,000 ). It has had the dreaded rear axle whine for a while now and i have been planning to rebuild the thing, but i have been offered a second option and was wondering what you guys and gals thought of it. I am contemplating just simply swapping out the entire rear end of the vehicle with one that has been reclaimed from a front end wreck, instead of dealing with the shims and complicated (and a bit over my capacity) rebuild job. If all things are the same, gear ratios etc, what would be the downsides to doing this the simple way and changing out the fluids before the whine starts at all? have any of you dealt with "the whine" and how?

thank you for your time.
Brent

 

[ncranchero]

If they offer a even a short warranty just swap it, IMO. It's not like you're going to end up with one with more miles than what you have on yours. How's the cost of it? I can get one here for less than $200.00

 

[Brent Kistner]

i have found a couple, anywhere from $300 - $350, with 40,000 and 38,000 miles respectively. both of them look to be in very good shape. same gear ratio, etc.the parts alone for the rebuild are looking to be about twice that expensive... giving this even more thought.

so if i went ahead ans switched this thing out as a whole, has anyone had any luck in curtailing the whine by switching the fluids or is it a fix by rebuild only type of thing? i have heard stories that go both ways about this.

thank you again.
Brent

 

[ncranchero]

If either is a limited slip I'd go for that one. Actually, if I needed a rear I wouldn't put one back unless it was a LS. My F150 had LS and I was disappointed my Trac didn't. Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[rmcalis]

My '05 Trac had the whine caused by ring and pinion wear (4.10, limited slip). At 54k I changed the fluid to Royal Purple 75W-140 and included the Motorcraft friction modifier additive. I noticed no difference in the noise. I had mine rebuilt at the dealership to cure the problem.