Here we go again. Just after my BC trip something in the driveline had started howling, it got worse over a few days so I crawled under the truck and found a thick goo seeping from the oil seal, when I grabbed the pinion not only did it have immense play in all directions, I could rotate it almost 1/4 turn with the tires on the ground. I figured the pinion bearings had worn completely, I decided to call Alberta Driveline and inquire on my issue. (The shop that has working on the rear end since day 1 of my ownership).
I called the shop first thing Monday morning and told them what had happened. I was told that the pinion bearings were sixteen months old, four months over the given warranty terms from March 2010. I decided to cut my losses and start tearing into. The oil was so thick it had the consistency of ketchup, I let it drain for almost half-an-hour and decided to pull the cover and start scooping out goo. I was scooping oil from the bottom of the differential when I felt an object, a bolt. At this point I started inspecting the differential, and it became known to me that 7 out of 9 bolts holding the cylinder cap on the locker had backed out, been chewed up by the ring and pinion and mixed with the oil damaging anything that needed lubrication in the axle. I called it a night and would call the shop in the morning.
That next day I talked with the owner of Alberta Driveline about the issue (who has been there as long as I have ever been to Alberta Driveline). He gave me permission to finish removing the third member and bring it to the shop so we could deal with it. The diagnosis of the third member showed that the bolts had indeed backed off and caused the issue, they had not been installed correctly in January when the spider gears were replaced. They ordered the parts and called me three days later letting me know that the differential was ready to be picked up. Upon pickup we went over the differential, the pinion bearings were replaced (they fell apart upon disassembly), as well as the pinion seal and crush sleeve. I was told the carrier bearings were fine. Backlash was set to 10thou, and the locker was air tested and locked with no leaks when they applied their shop compressor to it. I asked about what looked to be a poor drive side pattern on the ring; they assured me that under load it would be fine. I was told that they would cover all the labour, and I will cover the parts; that seemed fair to me, this was four months out of the warranty period, they could have denied warranty. Up to this point I am very impressed with the customer service; they admitted their faults and repaired them.
I took the third member to another driveline shop that carries ARB and have a proper tool with a regulator to test for air leaks in the locker. Upon inspection he noticed that out of the three air seal housing screws, two were tight while one was only half threaded in. I was upset, if that had not been noticed, I’m sure it would have fallen out within a few hundred kilometres. Backlash was checked as well, 16thou. When we applied air to the locker not only did it not lock, but you could feel the air from the seals on your hand and see the oil bubbling. Back to Alberta Driveline I go.
I talked to the owner once again, and told him everything that I had just discovered. When he saw that the bolt was not tightened he looked speechless. He took the differential and told me they would check it over. About two hours later I got the call it was ready to go. We went over the differential again, he showed me the adjusted backlash, the air seal bolts were tightened, and new o-rings were installed. Now I’m seriously double guessing the workmanship, are the carrier bearings good? Is the drive pattern going to be fine? Either way I was on my way home, with a new updated receipt with “no warranty” at the bottom.
I decided to check the carrier cap bolts that they replaced, because at this point my trust level with their work is pretty low. Some of the bolts were nowhere near tight, and there looked to be a slight sign of red loctite on only one bolt, but the others showed no solid evidence. It looked as if they went to the used bolt bin, found the same thread pitch bolts, and grinded them to make them fit. They were covered in greasy gunk, so even if red loctite was applied, it was not in the environment to cure. This was the worst bolt of all, it had been grinded down so the head had a small enough diameter to fit in the locker; how the hell do you properly torque a bolt when there is no head, let alone no threads. I pulled this bolt out using an 8mm 1/4 socket with my fingers.
After I cleaned all the bolts, threads and applied loctite I started re-assembling. I replaced the axle bearings, seals, and ARB air line fittings. I took the truck for a test drive, the rear howls like a motherf**ker! It's obnoxious, anything over 50km/h under load puts a high pitch howl throughout the interior of the truck. To add to the issues the locker made some crazy snapping noises when taking the odd turn for the first couple hundred kilometers, and the locker is not locking properly. So where am I at now you ask? I'm ordering a new locker, a new ring and pinion, new bearings, a solid spacer, and replacing everything. I'll be using a shop I trust because this is the last time I ever want to deal with the rear end on this truck, $5000 on a rear end in two years is stupid. I don't want to take this picture again in the future.
