Whine in Explorer rear axle??

[LAWDOGKMS]

I have a 97 Eddie Bauer Expy, with the 5.0 in 2wd..

About 20K ago, my wife noticed an oil spot on the driveway, we had it looked at, and it was a leaking pinion seal ?

During the time it was leaking, you could hear the rear end inside the truck a little, "whining" when going down the highway..

I don't drive it much, but when I do, I notice a little bit of "whine" remains even now, going down the highway..


Can anyone think of a reason for this??

 

[unclemeat]

The differential is low on oil, the gears have been damaged or bad bearings.

 

[DirtyDog]

I would say bad bearings. Same thing happened to me

 

[LAWDOGKMS]

Thanks all,

How expensive or difficult of a fix is it??

 

[Doug]

Definantly bad bearings.. and unfortunantly they're expensive to replace. Setting up gears after bearings have been replaced isn't something a backyard mechanic can do. I'm guessing around 4-500 dollars depending on how many bearings are bad. If i was you I'd take it to ford and get an estimate, and then depending on the price buy a used axle. If you're handy with a wrench you can install a new axle in a few hours and sell your old one for a few bucks.

 

[DirtyDog]

I changed all my bearings and seals in the rear end and it cost me about $325 CAN for the parts.

 

[Bronco638]

Setting up gears after bearings have been replaced isn't something a backyard mechanic can do. I'm guessing around 4-500 dollars depending on how many bearings are bad. If i was you I'd take it to ford and get an estimate, and then depending on the price buy a used axle. If you're handy with a wrench you can install a new axle in a few hours and sell your old one for a few bucks.

I checked with Jefe (Jeff) on this a a while ago. If it's a pinion bearing, then yes, there's more involved. But, if it's a carrier or axle bearing, you should be able to replace those without screwing up the backlash. The leak doesn't necessarily mean the pinion bearing is bad, it could just be the seal. In my experience, the axle bearings are the ones that hum/howl when going bad. I replaced the carrier bearings in my front axle (double checked the backlash) and everything has been fine. Unfortuneately, axle/carrier/pinion bearings aren't real cheap and it may not be a good idea to take a "shotgun" (replace 'em all) approach to fixing them. If you could at least locate the side of the whine/howl (driver or passenger side), you could start with the axle bearing and then work your way in (>>carrier>>pinion) from there.

My $0.02 - Dave.

 

[LAWDOGKMS]

Thanks,

I failed to mention in my first post, that the "leak" was fixed with the pinion seal replacement..

Now, I just have the "whine"..