Rear end howl/whine at 60mph....NO MORE HOWL!! issue solved.....ITS BACK!!!!! :(

I found small metal flakes (1/8"-1/16" in diameter) during the last rear gear oil service attached to the drain magnet...never seen this before on any prior rear diff oil swap...Im pretty sure these flakes are from a worn roller bearing or many of them....what do you think??

 

I would say so. I chased my tail on this once before on a 1st gen. Brand new bearing was junk from the factory. We ruled that out because it was new... I had a solid drive line made new wheel bearings, tires the list goes on. Same thing as you described finially pulled the diff and swapped the bearing and it was fixed.

 

thanks for your input buddy!

 

I cant wait to fix this & update the forum
Im sure others are dealing with this & would love the insight

 

I bet hopefully it fixes it

 

thanks to all for advice offered

 

This happened to me. I did the ecgs swap. I drove mine forever with it like that. so annoying trying to diagnostic. push up on your drive shaft at the rear end. you'll see it move, a lot. Its not suppose to move at all. that's what sold me. When i'm under the truck now I just give it the test feels solid

 

Don’t forget to let us know the results of the swap.

 

I disconnected the driveshaft at the diff flange & found no movement of the pinion gear spline/flange
(I also tested for movement prior to disconnecting the driveshaft, which produced zero up/down/left/right play)

so I am not having that occur on my issue

but I do notice some play when I attempt to turn the flange with my hand (it rotates about 1/4")
wondering if this is normal????
note- I have both the rear wheels on the ground

should there be any play or movement in the flange when I attempt to turn it?

I believe this issue just started on my truck within the last 5-10k miles (I have 305k on my taco)
is the movement in the flange a sign of a worn crush sleeve?

 

I did this yesterday....the rear diff flange/pinion spline rotates roughly 1/4" with my hand
(I did it with ratchet first, as you described, which also produced play/rotation)
should there be any rotation in the flange? (note- I have the truck on the ground, all wheels, when conducting this check)

 

here is a quick video I took of the flange rotation
https://youtu.be/qKP1wDl1ni8

is this normal TW peeps????

 

That’s normal. It’s your backlash in your gears. Just because there is no up and down play doesn’t mean the bearing isn’t bad. Here are a few ideas.
1. Have you drove around in 4 high? Maybe it’s not from the rear end, pretty common for the front diff needle bearing to go bad.
2. Pull the rest of your driveline and drive in 4high (making the truck front wheel drive) this will take all the load off your rear end.

 

this past December, I replaced the front needle bearing with the ECGS bushing....so its not that
(I have also replaced all 4 wheel bearings & front cv axles)

is it safe to drive the truck with rear shaft removed? will that cause damage?
I thought to do the same, but didnt want to fuck my truck up any further...lol

 

Ok glad that’s covered than. Yea it’s fine as long as you pull the drive line completely out. Transfer case to axle. Make sure to not pull the slip joints apart unles you make a mark where to put them back together. The drive line is balanced and that will throw that off

 

I am finding many metal flakes in the diff fluid....which must be bearings
I took the whole 3rd member out about a month ago....all the teeth on the ring/pinion/spiders looked fine as did the carrier bearings
but there is no way to visually inspect the 2 pinion bearings as they are buried in the 3rd member

when I had the 3rd member out, is there any way to check the pinion bearings on a bench test?

 

Perfectly fine because now the tcase can’t bind in turns and the front diff is open.
Obviously you don’t wanna tow or haul heavy like that but I’ve done this more than once in cases of trail/off-road damage to the rear drive train

 

thanks for your reply/info!

 

I will admit....I am truly sick of trying to address this howl....what a PITA
the old me would sell & run
but I really wanna figure this out...the truck runs great aside from this howl

 

Jack it up, put jack stands under the axle, block the front wheels, listen to the bearings with a mechanics stethoscope while somebody else drives the truck.

 

another great test suggestion
will do!
thanks buddy