Isadora is upon us in Alabama and I spent last night on my back in 4 inches of water taking on and off drive shafts trying to find the whine in my drivetrain. Please give me any thoughts or flames on this issue.The whine is constant when in motion and goes up in pitch as I go faster and then down again when I slow down.

I have 4 new ujoints and have cleaned and regreased the drive shaft yokes but still have a whine in direct proportion to the speed I drive. . The diffs are topped-off with clean 90wt. Last night I noticed that with the front drive shaft attatched there is 1/8 inch of rotational play in the front drive shaft.

On a good or new BW should there be any rotational play on the front d.s ? I understand the front output shaft off the BW can have some play itself but with the front DS attached should there still be some roational play ?

My VC is good I think as I can run with front or rear ds only and still have power and can turn tight circles with no tire chirping. All I can think is that my rear diff or pinion needs to be rebuilt. Anyone have any thoughts on this ? I am at my witts end....:mad: :confused: :mad: and do not want to spend the money I have put-away for 35's and a locker on trouble shooting or a diff rebuild or a transfer case.

tallbrad,
Now I would really be worried if I ever heard of a disco or rangie that DIDN'T whine! :eek:

In all seriousness, I would doubt that you would be able to do a noise diagnosis in wet weather. At least I can't. Anyway, in my very LIMITED experience in drivetrain, a speed dependant whine that goes away with throttle on or off is usually in the diff/carrier. Usually backlash? But my experience here is limited. I would think that that are too many variables to diagnose what an 1/8 of an inch of play in a front driveshaft while its in. Take out the shaft and check the play at the flange ends. Then go where it leads you.

My .02, which is probably overvalued in this case.

j

Brad,

Some play is normal, its a combo of the backlash in the diff and the play in the t-case. Based on a whine,my guess would be bearings in the diff or maybe wheel bearings. When was the last time they were repacked(wheel bearings)? If it is more like a whirrr or has vibration to it, then I'd say driveshaft unis, but that doesn't sound like your problem. I'm not familiar with the inside of a BW, but FWIW my old green 90, as it got up in miles, developed some rather loud gear whine in the t-case. In fact the current owner just replaced it. Same type thing, it increased in pitch as you accelerated, it was however, most pronounced right as you let off the gas at speed and gear overrun was induced. I'd start with the inexpensive things like checking and repacking wheel bearings, or pull the diffs and have a look at those bearings. One thought just occured to me, pull the rear half shafts and drive around, that will eliminate the rear diff at least, you can obviously do the same for the front just not that easily(unless you've gotten really quick at changing those 10 spliners/cvs:D )

Johnathan

I'll throw my .02 cents in here as well. My advice is probably overvalued as well, but I always hate it when I have a problem and no one answers. I'd rather have some bad advice that gets me thinking rather than getting no advice and leaving me in the same place (woah, that's a bit esoteric eh??).

Anyway, I don't think it's your wheel bearings. Unless they are run bone dry they never go bad. I've removed and repacked at least 100 bearings and I've never seen one go bad that was treated right. Some have had over 500,000 miles on them and still going strong.

Rust will change all of the above, but I would think that rust in the bearings, or a seized bearing for that matter, would NOT cause a speed dependant whine. But, in your case, the whine is relative to speed correct?

Hmmmm....

The BW t-case is silent in all cases, even when completely toasted (as mine is right now). I've never heard one whine ever.

I do like Tisdale's advice about pulling the half-shafts and/or drivelines to eliminate sources of the vibration. Sometimes figuring out what something IS is to find out what it is NOT. (esoteric again...)

Good luck (maybe I helped, maybe not....)

:flipoff2:

'Tis - I think you hit the nail on the head.

By now leaving the rebuilt and known good drive shafts on and removing the rear half shafts (aka called inner axles) I will stop the movement of the rear diff bearings and pinion bearing..which will hopefully stop the sound and I'll know what to look at.

The wheel/hub bearings are all brand new and have been inspected so they are not the culprit. BorgWarner tcase has been drained and inspected for bits and pieces, non found.

Either way, I guess this will give me the chance to get a much needed lesson in diff set-up

Thanks much!

My rear diff was whining a bit - pulled it apart to replace the R&Ps to 4.11s and the ARB carrier was broken in half. Second one I've broken. Ended up getting a new ARB and the carrier design has been changed and looks much stronger now. The 4.11s are noice. 5th gear is usable again and low first is more controlled...:D
Probably nothing to do with your problem though! :flipoff2:

ct

On my luch break I went out and pulled the rear axles and took a test drive and the noise went away. whew..... so it is the rear diff, either r&p or carrier or pinion bearings...

My friday just got a whole lot better... Maybe I'll even get up to Tellico Oct 26th to hand you a cold beer 'Tis.

Thanks

Put some 33" or 35" Super Swampers on it and the whine will magically disappear! It worked on mine.:)

Brad,

My previous BW had lots of whine. Does your whine go away when you put some pressure against the Tcase shifter? There was a TSB about this noice and the cure was to repair/replace the rubber isolator in this region. Some of my whine was caused by sloppy chain and scarred up splines. My chain was really stretched as it slapped the case upon sudden deceleration. I found another case and tossed in a new chain and everything was fine afterward. To check the chain tension, if you haven't done already, open up the fill plug, use a long screwdriver to feel the chain. Anything more than .75" of play might mean chain stretch.

Good luck.

After another weekend in 2wd I am here to report that the BW and VC is much tougher than 'people' told me...so far that is.....

I have always had fears that running with just one drive shaft will kill the VC asap. I have now run hundreds of mile with either only a front or rear drive shaft and when the missing drive shaft / diff is re-assembled the 4wd always kicks in. I want others to know that you can run around with just one drive shaft and enjoy donuts and burn-outs..if you have to that is..

Yes - I will let everyone know when it finally goes :barf:

Alia176 - That is a great tip on checking the belt stretch and after reading some of Paul T's posts I was starting to think about mine for the first time, after 170K it has to be needing some attention.

UPDATE -

Pulled out the diff last night and inspected it.. one of the bearing cap bolts had worked itself loose and was making the noise. Might be able to go tonight to get a lesson in diff set-up..

whew.....

Congrats dude on your find. There are few websites that talk about ARB locker install which should give you some ideas on how to check your bearing caps and such. Minnesota LR club is the one I used to install my ARBs so they might be a good source of info.

Good luck.