I took it out, changed the seals...and replaced it. I torqued to the specs listed inmy previous post....now I am getting a whirring noise, almost like brrakes are dragging, but it's from the Diff.

I don't want to tear the thing apart again but it looks like that's where I am heading...what should I look for? what could this be?

just replaced the seals? or also replaced the carrier with a different carrier.

was it hard to get out, easy to get in? you mighta missed a shim between the carrier bearing race and the housing. if your axle came with one.

I put the same carrier back in. I never took the carrier bearings off. There were no shims inside (that I could see.).

I have heard to re-torque the carrier bearing retainer bolts to anywhere from 45 lbs (FSM) to 85. I torqued at 70.
if this is over-torqued could it be what is making the noise?

what axle is this? a D44?
are you 100% sure you didn't put the bearing races in on different sides?

Originally posted by Sundowner
what axle is this? a D44?
are you 100% sure you didn't put the bearing races in on different sides?

It's D30. But what sundowner said.

You have to put the bearing races and the carrier bearing retainers in the exact same orientation that they have always run in. Otherwise you get a different gear mesh (can be seen in the contact patch) bearings don't seat properly in housing, etc.

For example- if the letters/numbers read up to down on your carrier bearing retainers, you do not want them to read down to up when you put them back in.

Did you make sure of all that already?