rear end whining!!

hey guys so today i replaced my leaky pinion seal. it has been leaking since i had it rebuilt a while ago. i cant remember the mileage. back story is it started whining then so i pulled the chunk and took it to a toyota shop. they determined the pinion bearing was bad and rebuilt it for 450 parts and labor. i put it back in filled up with dope till it ran out of fill hole. a couple of days later started leaking. took it back and they said i overfilled it. fast forward to today. pulled everything apart new OEM seal in new OEM pinion nut i put it back on exactly the number of turns i took it off plus about an 1/8 of a turn more. within about 10 miles it started whining alot more on decel. so at this point am i screwed or can i back off the pinion nut and cross my fingers??

 

Hard to say. Sometimes diffs make noise for 10s of thousands of miles with no problems. Sometimes they break within 50 miles.

You have to decide how far you're willing to take it knowing a breakdown could happen any minute.

That said - since it started after you fucked with the pinion nut, you're probably screwed. I'm betting the original pinion nut deformed when it was torqued, and the new pinion nut did not achieve the same torque (and thus appropriate pinion bearing preload) as the old one.

This is why all the major diff guys use solid collars. Much easier to deal with the pinion...just torque it to spec and you're good...no crush sleeve to fuck things up when all you need to do is change a seal.

One ghetto fix you could try:

Disclaimer: Try this at your own risk. It could just as easily make the problem worse as help. I am not responsible if you destroy your rear end.

You could try torquing the pinion nut up about 5ft. lbs at a time, with a test drive between each. If you get lucky, you may "walk" the nut back to proper torque and thus proper preload. Caveat: If the pinion nut is *already* overtorqued, you're just gonna make the problem worse.

The best thing to do at this point: Pull the third member, get an inch-lb torque wrench, and check pinion start tq to see if it's in spec. Get some gear paint and run a pattern as well while you have it out. That'll at least tell you whether it's a pinion preload or depth problem.

 

If my brain is working correctly if its only on decel I think is not tight enough..... I'm tired so I may be wrong.

 

thanks for the replies guys my luck im screwed. ill email zuk at gear installs.com and see what he thinks. any more ideas would be great.

 

This is typically the case, yes.

 

Dude, your playing with fire messing with the pre load , depending how long ago it was done I'd say the pre load wasn't right when you got it back, Or possibly the pinion bearing was never changed (thats what starts the howling) I've got my 3rd member out right now, getting ready to rebuild tomorrow

pinion bearing (inner) is toast bot the outer is worse, my pinion didn't walk it fuckin ran..

 

not an adjustment for home mechanics, backlash and torque on pinion is critical and require special tools....

 

backlash isn't adjusted via pinion pre load

 

backlash isn't adjusted via pinion pre load

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

correctomundo, however, assuming that everyone has some knowledge on rear gear setups......once the CORRECT pinion preload/backlash is set during initial setup................. however, not tight enough or cranked too much after assembly (as with I turned the same amount of turns plus about 1/8 more) and the backlash will be affected ever so slightly, it only takes a micro maladjustment and the ring and pinion are toast...

Been there before...

 

The backlash is affected, but it's because pinion preload being incorrect allows the pinion to change depth dynamically during acceleration and deceleration (if too loose) or be stuck too deep (if too tight). The incorrect mesh of the gears is where backlash goes to hell.

Getting the pinion preload "right" again is key, but he may not be able to do it without disassembling the whole setup. So yes, he's in a bad situation.

 

Yes bad indeed. This is why I was putting off replacing the seal for so long.

 

stopped by the shop today that rebuilt my third member. import support in Cleveland tn. consensus is that i did not get the pinion nut tight enough. gonna drop it off tues morning and let mikey take care of it. i considered tightening it up myself but i def would rather spend a little money instead of a lot. ill keep you guys updated

 

Sub'd goodluck OP

 

so i dropped my truck off this morning and they had it fixed this afternoon. pinion nut was too loose causing pinion to slide back and forth. so maybe counting the number of turns does not work?? IDK maybe i lost count or something i am human.he torqued the nut to 109 ft/lb and it good to go. no more whining on decel and it cost me only 47 bucks instead of 600 for a used e locker or 450 for rebuilding it again. thanks for the replies and help guys

 

thats a pretty good deal! only 47.

my rear end is whining too, but an acceleration. my trusty mechanic friend determined it was gear noise from the gears not wearing right after my regear (possibly from over heating due to a leaky pinion seal myself). the pinion bearing had 20k on it, so it was still in good shape.

I replaced my pinion seal myself, and I was iffy about the pinion nut as well, but i followed some advice and put it back on, torquing it down about and 8th turn past where it was before and staked it. for now the noise is the same and no leaky seal. guess ill see what it does

 

OP, keep an ear ready for any changes in rear end noise, once the hardened finish of the worm and ring gears get really hot from poor backlash adjustment, further degradation will probably occur, it even probably already started a new wear pattern on the gears, sometimes a complete readjustment, pinion torque and backlash setup from scratch might save it or at least prolong its lifespan....

It took a whole week for my 4.56 to start whining again after a similar experience, shortly after that it became unbearable....

 

hey guys just an update over 1000k miles regular driving and pulling a trailer and no noise yet hpoefully im out of the woods