I went to my uncle's shop yesterday, and was checking a leak in my rear diff, and I grabbed the driveshaft, and hey, it moves! Oh joy! The entire yoke moves front to back, and left to right. He couldn't get it into the shop until this weekend, and neither of us have the correct tool for it. So I gotta wait until Friday to take it to the shop. Not driving it right now, I think it might be the bearing. Gawd, and I just bought this truck like 4 weeks ago!!! :mad3:

Ok I'm done now.

If you need to drive it between now and when you can fix it, just pull the rear drive shaft and run in 4WD....not good over long hual, but will get you through the week.

Don't be suprised if the ring and pinion gears are trashed, since the pinion bearings need to be tight to keep them in proper mesh....look at it as an oppertunity to re-gear for some cool looking, axle twisting, big tires.

sounds like you have a 8.8
Pull the drive shaft and put a impact on the pinion nut, it only take about 10 mins start to finsih, some people will want to set up the gears and a new crush sleave, but get someone who knows gears and they can get it close enough, i have done about 30 of these and on friends and customers and never had one come back

I can vouch for that. I had the same problem, so i hit the pinion nut with the inpact gun and have not had a problem for the last 2 years!

Well I hope it is just the nut. I have only drivin with it like that two times, had to come home from school and my uncles shop. I was thinking of dropping the rear driveline and just going in frontwheel, but I don't have the right socket. It looks like what my uncle called a 12 point nut. (something like that) Well, I am taking it to the shop Friday morning, and they are gonne check the gears out for me, and fix the problem, hopefully they won't try and screw me over.

You have to have a 12-pt box end wrench to get those DS bolts out.

That nut didn't just loosen up all of a sudden... either the bearings are wearing out, or the crush sleeve buckled. If those are Koyo bearings, they're probably crap by now. I'd call up Randy's or someplace and get a new set of Timkens for it.

It's a PITA to put bearings in it, but you shouldn't have to change the shims to get a good pattern, and it's the best course of action if you're planning on keeping the truck.

Of course, you can always stick a socket on the pinion nut and crank it down like the others have suggested. I think 150# is about the number you're looking for, tho it's better to go by the preload (6-8 in-lb?)

*But*, if it's anything like my old 8.8, by the time the pinion flange would move that much, the gears were junk. <shrug> Good luck.

Well, I just got word from the shop. They said that the ENTIRE rear end is shot. Yoke, ring and pinion, axles, everything. He said it seems to look like it's been like that for about over a month. So that means I bought a truck with a thrashed rear end! Gawd that just pisses me off so fawking much!! Oh well, at least it will be ready for wheeling on Sunday.

Well I just got back from the shop. The entire ring and pinion was completely shot. The axles were ripped to crap. And the grand total came to
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1,128. and some cents

It cant hurt the axles. Ring & pinion=yes bearings=yes but carrier and axles=no What rear are we talking about? 8.8?

Save your self $1000 and hit the yards. Nice thing about a truck that is a dime a dozen, so are the used parts.

Maybe if there were metal shavings floating around in the diff, it could've scarred the bearing surfaces on the axles?

Well I don't know, but he showed me the axles, and there were some nice little holes where bearings sat. If you held it in your hands horizontaly it looked like the bearings had moved side to side, and the marks (more like scars) were on the outside edge of the axle. Well, I am just glad that it if finaly fixed and I got it back. He aslo threw in a Trac-Loc for no extra charge. And I had a chance to test it off road at Prarie City today. It did pretty damn well for a limited slip, seemed to be locked the whole time.

Originally posted by Joshua J. Allan
He aslo threw in a Trac-Loc for no extra charge.

That's just him feeling a little guilty for charging you $1128 when you coulda bought 10 replacements for $60-75 a pop at a u-pull-it.

Yeah I know it was just a wee bit expensive :rolleyes: but I don't care. I just have my truck back :D and it works.
Next time I will be doing it on my own.