Thoughts on a rear end noise?

[jakegator]

Hello again its been a while (good thing I suppose) but you guys were helpful before so I have another question for you. I recently did a tire rotation to see if my front end wobble/steering wheel shake at 65+ mph was due to worn tires (did ball joints a few years ago and never got an aliment, will be getting that next week when new tires come). Anyway it fixed my issues and made it feel great! Unfortunately since it is much quite I can here a few more noises. The one this post is about is a rattle/chatter. Its definitely metal sounding. And its definitely coming from the rear, passenger door back. I looked to see if anything is loose and there wasnt anything. The spare tire hanger is no longer there. I just put the back up and pulled the tires off thinking something in the e-brake system was bad (like a spring). It wasnt. Now I suspect bearings. When you turn the wheel it does make an obvious noise on both sides coming from the axle seal. It axle also doesnt spin smooth almost feels like a bearing is flat? Is it common for both sides to do this? The noise seems to only be NOTICEABLE up to 25 mph. I say noticeable cause it is not a quite car one of the cats has a small leak and the tires are heavy tread mud tires. Anyway does this noise sound like just bearings (which im going to replacing since the car has 231500 miles on it and they are probably tired anyway) or is this something else?

It's a 98 explorer, 5 spd, 231500 miles.

Thanks!

 

[manimal]

You can't really be sure unless you remove the entire rear brake assemblies and spin the axle shaft all by itself.

The bearings aren't a big deal to replace but you will need a slide hammer and bearing/race installer kit, which are available cheap at Harbor Freight

You will have to pull the center pin and C clips on the diff carrier to remove the axle shafts, so might as well check the carrier bearings while you're there.

 

[jakegator]

Yea I read a pretty good write up on here on how to do it, seems straightforward enough. The parts should be here in a week so ill update the post when I get the bearings/axle shafts in.

 

[bobflood]

Do yourself a favor and replace the parking brake shoes while you have the rear axles out. Even if you never use the parking brake, the shoes still deteriorate over time. They are a PITA to do with the axles in - don't ask me how I know!!

 

[jakegator]

So heres another one for you. I did the bearing and axles today all seemed to go smooth. Broke the pinion lock bolt but got it out no problem and put a new one in. My noises are gone. However less than a mile after driving it began to sputter then wouldnt accelerate. Thought i messed something up so i put it in neutral (manual) so it wouldnt die and it still died? Eventually got it back to my drive way where it completely died and wouldnt start again. After about 5 minutes of sitting it did start. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Im not sure if it is related to what i did or not.