HO LI FK! I thought for sure I had cocked up my front end rebuild.
Recently I regeared my baby and added ARB's to the rear and front axels. While in the front end I changed EVERYTHING. Took me three weeks of on and off work, waiting for new parts etc. etc.
About a hundred miles into the gear break-in a funny vibration started when I was floating between active acceleration and engine breaking, in that odd place where the drive train has no load on it, then it turned into a growl and when I hooked up the trailer it turned into a howl and was getting worse and I was terrified I had screwed something up.
Did I mess up the pinion bearing preload? No, couldn't have, bought the special torque wrench, followed the FSM and everything.
I greased the outer axel shafts right... of course you did, you packed the new spindles with grease, had to drive the grease into the needle bearings.
Did I forget to torque the wheel bearings?
I went back over everything in my head, could find nothing that I forgot, but damn, something horrible is going on!
Was damn near having a panic attack trying to think of ways to explain to my wife how I had managed to F-up near on 4 grand in parts and three weeks of shlepping my ass to work an hour before her shift and bumming rides home with coworkers. It wasn't pretty.
I checked the drive shafts, looking for loose u-joints. Couldn't find anything.
I finally pulled the front drive shaft and took it for a quick run... nothing, perfectly smooth.
Re-examined the U-joints and lo and behold one axis of the pinion end had a clicking, sticking bearing. No play, just a ratcheting feel in one spot.
#1 daughter picked up new u-joints at the stealership this afternoon and my boy helped me install them tonight after work....
Peace and quiet, smooooooth running. Ahhh crisis averted.
All that soul searching and panic over a damned U-joint that happened to die at the most inopportune time.
I guess the moral of this story, this tale of woe, have faith your abilities; sometimes there's just more s*** that needs fixing.
Ah well, my minor momentary panic is now over.
Recently I regeared my baby and added ARB's to the rear and front axels. While in the front end I changed EVERYTHING. Took me three weeks of on and off work, waiting for new parts etc. etc.
About a hundred miles into the gear break-in a funny vibration started when I was floating between active acceleration and engine breaking, in that odd place where the drive train has no load on it, then it turned into a growl and when I hooked up the trailer it turned into a howl and was getting worse and I was terrified I had screwed something up.
Did I mess up the pinion bearing preload? No, couldn't have, bought the special torque wrench, followed the FSM and everything.
I greased the outer axel shafts right... of course you did, you packed the new spindles with grease, had to drive the grease into the needle bearings.
Did I forget to torque the wheel bearings?
I went back over everything in my head, could find nothing that I forgot, but damn, something horrible is going on!
Was damn near having a panic attack trying to think of ways to explain to my wife how I had managed to F-up near on 4 grand in parts and three weeks of shlepping my ass to work an hour before her shift and bumming rides home with coworkers. It wasn't pretty.
I checked the drive shafts, looking for loose u-joints. Couldn't find anything.
I finally pulled the front drive shaft and took it for a quick run... nothing, perfectly smooth.
Re-examined the U-joints and lo and behold one axis of the pinion end had a clicking, sticking bearing. No play, just a ratcheting feel in one spot.
#1 daughter picked up new u-joints at the stealership this afternoon and my boy helped me install them tonight after work....
Peace and quiet, smooooooth running. Ahhh crisis averted.
All that soul searching and panic over a damned U-joint that happened to die at the most inopportune time.
I guess the moral of this story, this tale of woe, have faith your abilities; sometimes there's just more s*** that needs fixing.
Ah well, my minor momentary panic is now over.