THERE is a whining noise coming from the rear end of my 2002 dodge ram. 2WD 4 door.I remover the rear tires & brakes & it sounds like the noise is coming from the area of rear end & drive shaft. The faster you go the more noise it makes. I`m wondering if it could be a bearing in the nose of the pig. Or if it could be the bearings in my U-joint going bad. Has any body had this noise in your ram?

 

I'll guess you have a 9 1/4, 12 bolt cover on the back. 8 1/4 has 10 bolts. It has two likely problem areas, 1 the crush sleeve is loose which you can feel if you grab the yoke and move it up and down, 2 the spiders are worn which you can easily be seen when the cover is removed.
Not likely a bearing as the axle bearings are huge.

 

Being a 9 year old truck, it may need bearings. If the pinion can be moved up and down or side to side then there is probably some damage done to the pinion bearings and either the pinion nut came loose or something happened to the crush sleeve. You'll have to pull the cover off and inspect everything else and look to see if anything else comes out with the fluid for material.

 

Thanks for the Info. I have a 12 bolt rear end. I checked & there is no movement in my yoke. I can`t move it in-out, up-down, side-side. The guy at auto parts said maybee u-joint? But nothing loose there either

 

YOU ARE RIGHT!!! I removed my 12 bolt cover & the spider gears are loose. I`m hoping that it is not too much of a job to fix this . Thanks Dave

 

Straight forward repair, easier with a friend you can trust that won't crush your hand. Put the side gears in first, roll in the small gears, rotate the differential case and slide in the pin. If the pin does not go in, roll them out and move one tooth and try again. It really isn't that difficult, go slow and have patience.

 

Well it ended up being the pinion bearing. The race & some of the rollers were deteriorating. I got every thing apart except the races. I`m going to do that tomorrow.

 

These things only last 9 years?
Are you sure there was enough lube in it. How much came out when you opened it up. I have trucks from the 70's and 80's with no problems.
On a side note u joints do not wine, They will wobble causing a vibration or clunk but I never heard em whine. Get a new parts guy that one is just trying to sell parts. You need one that wants you to be happy.

 

Wear is a bit premature. You should have changed the oil at 5 years or so. No filter so the fine metal just gets to circulate through the bears and gear teeth, bushings, etc.

 

the truck has 165,000 miles on it. It probably had close to 2 1/2 qt. of oil. The only time I seen a U-joint go bad was 25 years ago. I `t rattled & clunked when shifting. I guess I was hoping something easy to fix!!! I was told that I have to pull the pig out & TAKE IT TO a shop to have the pinion races removed. I can`t believe that there is not a race puller that somebody makes , soo you can do this in the truck! Any Suggestions? Thanks Dave

 

Baloney! There are notches in the case at the bearing race seat to allow a punch to get to the back side and knock them out. The tricky part is getting them back in, proper diameter seal, bearing driver is best but a small brass punch (long for the big one) tap tap tap and patience, no problem. I can grow huge amounts of patience when I'm saving dough and taking one of those 9 1/4's is a pain. They are heavy.

 

165K for mileage and that rear end needs a rebuild? I can't say I'm surprised. They don't build stuff like they use to.

Coronet hit it right on the head though. Shops rebuild these axles in the truck all the time. 2.5 qt isn't bad, I thought they held 3 tho. big question is, how often was the fluid changed and what is the truck used for?

 

Yea, I found the notches & was able to get the races out & in pretty easily. I started to assy the pinion, I got the bearings together & put the yoke on & it didn`t tighten up. There was a little slop, like the crush sleeve was holding it apart. I`m going to look for some info about assy? Dave

 

Here's an ATTABOY for ya, non refundable or transferable. Keep up the good work.

 

When you pulled the races out, did you see any shims? you will want to put them back in from where they came out as they help to setup the pinion depth.

Go to Yukon Gear's website and download thier install instructions. That will tell you what your pinion bearing preload should be and explain how to do everything that you need.

 

When you get ready to run a pattern, copy and print out my profile picture. It shows how a pattern should look and what needs to change if it looks a different way. All the good install kit intructions should also have something like this if not more in depth.