front differential side bearing replacement.. done!

sorry i didnt get a pic of it.

 

Where did you get your CV shaft from?

 

I also replaced my driver side Diff seal, I have a few photo's somewhere. Took a few of us about 4 hours, I maybe should of replaced my axle because the seal replacement didn't fix my growl. It stopped my leaking diff, I have since had my diff replaced.

 

Mike, did your leaky seal ever cause a drip to form?

 

So is the verdict that the OP was just yanking our chains? I haven't been keeping up on all the front diff vibe threads, but everything I have read up to this point suggests that such a bearing replacement is not possible unless you take the diff off the truck and crack it open.

 

Even if it does fail again, if it meant that I could run my lift at a higher setting I'd be all for a 5 hour DIY job that involves a $50 replacement bearing and a borrowed puller from autozone, even if I have to do the procedure twice a year.

 

Sorry, I just re-read the original post, and now realised he said Diff Bearing and not diff seal.
I have not, and I don't think it’s possible to replace the side bearing without removing the whole diff.
I looked at a diagram somewhere and determined it impossible to get the bearing out of the axle shaft opening.
I may be wrong about it being possible!
I have only changed my Side bearing Seal.

 

No, it was just wet.

 

Cool thanks.

 

C'mon Metallikatz3, I see you lurking in the thread...... spill the details bro!

 

Sorry guys. I've just been really busy with work for the past month basically. I'm still alive and the fix is still holding up.

I started to take some pictures but it just got annoying while wrestling with everything. It wasn't an easy fix, I'd rate it a 7 out of 10.

Parts required are:
Needle Roller Bearing - 90364-35010 $11.31
Oil Seal - 90311-47012 $7.56
Cardone CV Shaft - 665235 $44.79

Its very straight foreward though. Here's the basic steps I took.

1. Jack up truck and remove the wheel.
2. Take off the caliper and rotor (more room to wrestle with the CV shaft)
3. Remove the dust cap over the axle nut
4. Remove wheel nut (I had to use an impact gun, I could not even budge it with a 3ft breaker bar)
5. Separate the upper ball joint and steering tie rod to pull the spindle out far enough to get the cv off.
6. pry out the cv from the diff. (Oil will leak from diff at this point)
7. Remove cv shaft from truck and set aside
8. Pry out oil seal from diff
9. Use slide hammer to pull out bearing (pain in the ass)
10. Install new bearing (I put mine in the freezer for a while)
11. Install new oil seal
12. Wrestle new CV shaft into place
13. Bolt everything back in and torque it down.

I know these are very general steps, and they may not be correct per the FSM (which says to remove the diff anyway) But they worked for me.

 

If you are serious about this (which it sounds to me like you are), then I'm going to mail you a case of your favorite beer if I can successfully do this fix.

 

I'm dead serious about this.

My old bearing didn't visibly look damaged, although several of the needles did fall loose while removing it (I did count them to make sure none dropped into the diff) There were also some grooves on the CV shaft, not deep but I didn't feel comfortable re-using it considering the work involved removing it.

 

Dammmm, I wish there were pics.

If someone made a video of this procedure and charged $100 for it, I would buy it in a heartbeat.

 

So you'd pay $100 for a lot of cursing and busted knuckles??

This was by no means easy, but still much easier then dropping the differential

 

I had the dealer replace my bearing but my noise is still there.... So the next thing they want to try would be wheel bearings. But they havent changed my CV axle.. Do you guys think I should replace the cv?

 

If they are footing the bill under warranty, then why not?

 

I think we should automatically be changing the CV axle if we're changing the bearing. With my diff drop uninstalled and the new diff, I can feel the vibe. I'm thinking it's due to the wear that was probably on the CV axle and the techs just swapped the diff without ever looking at it. I'll probably put the diff drop back in to take the pressure off the bearing again.

So my opinion is that if you have wear marks on the CV axle (whether they're measurable or not), it makes sense to me that it could then cause more wear/strain on the bearing (and continue the vibe). After all, the bad needle bearing has to be scoring the CV axle (and we've seen that from the pics in the other thread). I would think it would score it in an even fashion, but that's not necessarily the case when looking at the pics. The safe bet is then to replace it while you've got it all apart anyway and not risk the scored axle putting any strain on the new bearing.

 

Definitly think the CV should be replaced. I did not, and after 1000 miles do believe it has worn my new bearing slightly.

OP congrats on it coming out with the slide hammer, I know that it's no easy task. I take it you got your CV from Rock Auto? Did it have remanufactured bearing surfaces?

Thanks

 

but we're taking about a tiny margin of error right? even the worn CV axle shows relative minute wear pattern? It's not like chucks of the surface was missing..

So are we saying this minute wear is extremely hard to achieve when the bearing and CV are both in good standing? It feels to be it would be very easy to acquire that minute wear again with new hardware..