I have been hearing this high pitched whine from my 55 Ford at about 55 mph for a while now. Having only one good ear, its been hard to figure out where it was coming from. When I was greasing the u-joints last weekend, I grabbed the driveshaft to give it a test wiggle, to see if the ujoint was moving around. Well the ujoint is OK, but the yoke out of the rear end is flopping around a little. Maybe more than a little. This entire rear end was supposedly rebuilt with all new internals before I got the car. Am I going to have to pull the whole chunk out to fix it, or is it possible pull off the yoke and fix whatever is in there? I guess I'll never know what needs to be done if I don't tear into it... Its my only driver right now, so I can't have it apart forever. Maybe I'll swap out the center, then fix it and put it back. Setting up gears isn't my expertise. Hoping to avoid replacing everything if I can help it.
sounds like a possible ring and pinion gear going bad , mine started making a whining noise and that was the cause !
If the pinon yoke is wobbling, my vote is the pinon bearing, though usually you have a shit of an oil leak when this happens. If so, plan on pulling the 3rd member, new bearing and seals, there is a crush washer, the depth has to be set right.
I would put it up on jack stands pull the axels and drop out the third member and take a look at the pinion bearing and use some white lube on the ring and see how the ring and pinion are tracking . I would say the tracking isn't set up right and that is where the Wine is from . Didn't you say it was just rebuilt ? Doesn't sound like it was adjusted right . Just my 2 cents !
It wasn't "just" rebuilt, not while I've had it, which has been a couple years now. It probably hasn't been driven daily since it was rebuilt, until the last 3-4 months. Its been getting louder. I guess I put that in there to indicate they weren't old 200,000 mile parts, but it sounds like its going to be the whole center coming out. I was thinking either the pinion bearing, or the crush spacer was missing or they reused the old one. I guess I'll find out.. Now if it is a bad bearing, if all the other ones look Ok should I still replace them all?
drain the gear oil and look for metallic particles. if there are none, you may have caught it before damage. check the pinion retaining nut to see if it came loose.might just need some loctite and retightened.
if the yoke is moving around that much and it's not leaking any oil....maybe it's all out of oil that would cause a whine too
If they are all old, might as well since it's all apart. If one bearing failed, the others cant be far behind.
Easy fix might be (if you are lucky.) See if there is end play in the yoke. If so, a big pipe wrench and a socket with a breaker bar....tighten until endplay is gone, then a touch more to put just a little drag on it since it's tapered bearings. Case like that, they may not have got it crushed enough, like mentioned, or maybe they didnt get the new outer race pressed in all the way. Or yank it. I saw a great step by step rebuild on here...link to a ford site.
Is there an actual torque spec for it? I need to go digging through my books..I'd like it to be something like that. The local parts house wants $325 for all the bearings and seals. I don't have the $$. Thanks guys for the input so far.
My vote is for the pinion bearing also. But, you could just drive it until it explodes and then you'll know for sure, but I dont think you should do that. I had a bearing cage on one of mine that started singing when I was 200 miles from home. I got it apart and it fell apart in pieces. So, dont go too long is my advice.
if you have a donor rear swap out the center chunk and look at the other later. it sounds like the pattern is off (maybe didn't crush the ring enough or wrong amount of shims).
this is where I would start. Since the gears have been run with the pinion moving around they will always make some noise. Use red loctite. There is not a torque spec for the nut but you will want 5-6 inch pounds of rotational drag on the pinion alone but that will be impossible to measure with the diff assembled. you will have to take out the pinion support.
my new ring and pinion came with a note that said the gearset may be 'noisy'. mine has a whine at about 50mph
Sure, when you are under it, you need to hold the yoke with something. It takes a lot to crush that sleeve. Just did one today, but on the bench. I think books say around 150 ft pounds, but it is never consistent. I end up with the yoke in a big vise and a big bar most of the time. Too cheap to buy a better impact. Regular impacts wont crush it.
Check this out.... http://www.ford-trucks.com/article/idx/9/065/article/Ford_9_Inch_RebuildGear_Setup.html
Nine inch rear axles weren't used in 55. First year was 57. That said, a 54 year old car could have any number of modifications. Make sure you know what you have befroe tearing a daily driver apart. If the problem was merely a whine, you could probably drive it indefinitely. If the pinion is loose as you say, it needs attention soon. Rear end repairs have a difficult learning curve, Best bet, get money and help.
Its definitely a 9 inch rear end. There is nothing factory left of the drivetrain or suspension except the upper and lower control arms. I'm going to swap out the center with another if there is terminal damage. If I need to rebuild it, I'll do it later. I'm hoping its not fatal..I'll update you guys with what I find.
Desert- buy the book "differentials-identification,restoration and repair" By jim allen and Randy Lyman. You will quickly discover that there is no black art to rear ends at all. and most of the "special tools" required ain't that special at all, either. I didn't mess with them much for Years. I figured they needed to be one more notch in the gunbelt, and they are really bone simple. about the most difficult part of the whole deal is setting up pinion depth, and even that is ess than rocket science. I got my copy at Amazon. it's awesome. it reads well, (not like stereo instructions) and has a very detailed identification section as well. they go so far as to mention things like what estimated torque ranges they will live well in. Best 11 bucks I ever spent.
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