Weird vibration noise in '07 Mountaineer

[oharris]

My daughter's boyfriend's '07 Mountaineer (V8 AWD) has a weird noise/vibration at part throttle. If feels like it is under the driver's feet. I removed the front drive shaft and the noise went away. I found a bit of a catch in one of the caps on the u-joint, so I replaced the u-joint, but it didn't change anything. Any ideas what this might be?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Explorer_PL]

It's either output shaft bearing on the TC or front differential.

 

[oharris]

I let this go for a few weeks and it got bad enough that I can see the problem. It's the pinion bearing on the front diff. Any advice on replacing it?

 

[thebrakeman]

We had that vibration (although we felt it under the driver's butt thru the seat). Chased it to the front diff. I can't remember which component was bad in there, but he said it "spun" a bearing.

It's a standard open diff.

 

[Explorer_PL]

I had the rear output bearing on my transfer case fail and it was causing humming noise, vibration and TC fluid leak. I checked the prices for a rebuilt TC or get it fixed and it was in 1000-2500 range. I got a used TC from an 07 truck with 47k miles for $ 150 and it's been great since then. I saw the front carriers for about 300-400 price range.

 

[pami9899]

I let this go for a few weeks and it got bad enough that I can see the problem. It's the pinion bearing on the front diff. Any advice on replacing it?

did you fix the problem?how did you replace the front pinion bearing?