Pinion on its way out?

Shadetreemechanic

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That doesn't sound particularly like u joints, but an easy way to check them is to crawl under after an interstate run and feel them. Any one that is dry can cause vibration and it will be warmer than the others after driving.
 

david85

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Uh, yeah I can smell it alright. it smells kinda scary LOL

hope it's just something loose on the drive shaft. Oh, and i just realized a mistake in my last post: it should be 0.001" not 0.0001" ("ten thou", as we say)
 

Scotty4

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@u2slow in the topic of U-joints, I just went and shook all mine around to see which ones have play. Both front shafts seem to have play/lag when rotating tire back and forth, driver side looks a bit worse. Transfer case to front diff shaft looks like the front one is solid but the rear has some slop and is quite noisy.

Tcase to rear diff the forward one is solid, middle one seems to have no play but is tough to tell as the shaft has the rubber support here so could be messing with my eyes.

The rear one seems to have a smidge of play/lag but the noise could be the pinion as well as a bit of ujoint slop.

My next step will be pull the front shaft and drive without to see how that goes per your recommendation. And if it’s out, I’m going to swap them anyway.

Think all but two need changing?

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IDIBRONCO

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The rubber around your carrier bearing isn't in the best shape either. It would be a good time to replace that too. I had the rubber give out on mine a while back. I had to limp it about two miles to town. Not fun.
 

Scotty4

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Mid ujoint for drive shaft, you can hear the rear most joint/pinion:

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Here is the rear play without hearing the pinion noise:

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And the front driveshaft, noise at the beginning is my jack, was on a rock I guess:


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Rear shaft front joint:

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I’m just labeling the front two at the wheels as need to be done. The rest is like an opinion on.
 

Scotty4

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The rubber around your carrier bearing isn't in the best shape either. It would be a good time to replace that too. I had the rubber give out on mine a while back. I had to limp it about two miles to town. Not fun.

How easy is it to replace? I’m assuming it’s not crazy expensive.

Edit: looks like $25-$40 on rock auto just need to know the size. What do I measure?
 

david85

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That front transfer case output doesn't look good. Is that the output yoke itself moving? or was it just the U-joint slipping under the cups?
 

IDIBRONCO

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How easy is it to replace? I’m assuming it’s not crazy expensive.

Edit: looks like $25-$40 on rock auto just need to know the size. What do I measure?
I don't know for sure. I bought mine at a local parts store. They also listed two sizes. I bought both and returned the one that didn't fit. They can be a major PITA to get off of the driveshaft. I used a good quality cutoff wheel on a 4 1/4" grinder to cut most of the way through mine. Then I put a chisel end on my long barrel air hammer and it came off fairly easily. Maybe not real easy, but at least I didn't break a sweat.
 

IDIBRONCO

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I may have cleaned up the mounting area with a wire wheel on a drill before I put the new bearing back on. I don't remember that right now.
 

u2slow

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I'd say your rear pinion ujoint is on its way out (shaft and yoke don't rotate in unison).

Something is up with your front tcase output. Bearing?

Driveshaft support bearing... the rubber normally goes before the bearing. When the actual bearing starts to go it gets squeaky/chirpy in most cases. I've wondered if polyurethane caulking could be used to steady it up some again. (Haven't tried this yet.)
 

Scotty4

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I'd say your rear pinion ujoint is on its way out (shaft and yoke don't rotate in unison).

Something is up with your front tcase output. Bearing?

Driveshaft support bearing... the rubber normally goes before the bearing. When the actual bearing starts to go it gets squeaky/chirpy in most cases. I've wondered if polyurethane caulking could be used to steady it up some again. (Haven't tried this yet.)

Not in unison? How’s that work?

So my tcase may need a new bearing too? Guess I’m going to order one of them up when I get a chance. If I remove the shaft and it gets rid of the vibration, I may drive it 2WD cross country this summer depending on how soon I can fix it.

The support bearing doesn’t seem like a great design.
 

IDIBRONCO

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I may drive it 2WD cross country this summer
Unless you take a wide detour, you shouldn't need 4X4 for that.

The support bearing doesn’t seem like a great design.
I don't consider it as a not great design, just an old design. It was probably almost genius whenever is was invented. These days, most "modern" diesel guys would probably consider mechanical fuel injection as a not real great design. Not having any experience with it, how was mechanical fuel injection on a gas engine? I know that it was first introduced a long time ago.
 
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