Differential rebuild

[icecold]

Any shop recommendations in calgary to get a differential rebuilt, pinion bearing is shot in my f150. The only reputable place I know for this work is pats driveline and they are booking about a month out. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

[aardvaark]

I got one done at a trans shop several years ago in Red Deer. Maybe call some of the trans shops and see if they have a guy that does that

[ManitobaSlim]

Google maps driveline shop. Theres Driveline specialties and standendens too.

[lannie]

Are you sure you need a total rebuild of the diff? If it is just the pinion bearing you should be able to get that done in many shops. I would just phone around and talk to service people. Who diagnosed pinion bearing and did someone tell you you need a diff rebuild? Bi g difference between a pinion bearing and diff rebuild.

[W921]

Originally Posted by icecold

Any shop recommendations in calgary to get a differential rebuilt, pinion bearing is shot in my f150. The only reputable place I know for this work is pats driveline and they are booking about a month out. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

I wouldn't just let anybody do it. Pinion bearing preload and spacing between ring and pinion have to be perfect. Lot of little things have to be perfect or won't last.
What about replacing whole rear end with a low mileage junkyard one?

[W921]

Originally Posted by W921

I wouldn't just let anybody do it. Pinion bearing preload and spacing between ring and pinion have to be perfect. Lot of little things have to be perfect or won't last.
What about replacing whole rear end with a low mileage junkyard one?

PS how do u know the pinion bearing is gone? Is it just leaking oil around where your driveshaft is going into the case? If so its just a seal or possible the output yoke that needs to be replaced and thats no big deal.

[Grizzly Adams1]

Replacement rear axle from the wreckers was my fix, a do it yourself operation.

Grizz

[Grizzly Adams1]

Originally Posted by W921

PS how do u know the pinion bearing is gone? Is it just leaking oil around where your driveshaft is going into the case? If so its just a seal or possible the output yoke that needs to be replaced and thats no big deal.

If the drive shaft has play, you have a problem.


Grizz

[icecold]

Thanks.for all the replies. Was considering getting a scrape axle did that on an older truck I had. Figure the pinion is shot based of the sound, louder when on the gas, not terrible coasting and different again when breaking. Ford had replaced the pinion seal under warranty when they noticed a leak and I suspect the nut was just impacted back on and the preload maybe not properly checked. Figure if the pinion bearing is got be be replaced the carrier needs to come out and possibly shimmed so those bearing as well. Rebuild was maybe not the best term. Swapping an axle myself no problem but anything pinion/carrier I'll take a pass especially being my daily driver.

[Smokinyotes]

This may be a dumb question but I assume you have checked the u joints?

[Peace Meal Farm]

Originally Posted by icecold

Thanks.for all the replies. Was considering getting a scrape axle did that on an older truck I had. Figure the pinion is shot based of the sound, louder when on the gas, not terrible coasting and different again when breaking. Ford had replaced the pinion seal under warranty when they noticed a leak and I suspect the nut was just impacted back on and the preload maybe not properly checked. Figure if the pinion bearing is got be be replaced the carrier needs to come out and possibly shimmed so those bearing as well. Rebuild was maybe not the best term. Swapping an axle myself no problem but anything pinion/carrier I'll take a pass especially being my daily driver.

This is correct. You can make a bad pinion bearing 'talk' to you with throttle application (and you need incredibly little throttle application to make it moan). Secondary signs of bearing failure can also be a leak from the rear pinion and play in the flange.

IF the flange is tight and IF the gearset is not whining when coasting then you're likely a good candidate to slap a new set of pinion bearings in there.

It's not a difficult job. Pull the rear calipers, rotors and axle shafts. Pull the carrier, pull the pinion nut, pull the flange and then remove the pinion assembly. Use a bearing splitter and a press to remove the inner pinion bearing and retain the selectable shim which is underneath it for your reassembly. Re and re the bearing races with a drift.

Assembly is the reverse of removal, with the exception of installing a new crush sleeve. When torqueing the (new) pinion nut collapsing this sleeve is a bit of a bear, but it takes all of the guess work out of reassembly. Tighten the pinion nut until there is no more play in the pinion. Keep tightening the nut until it takes 9 inch pounds of torque to rotate the pinion.

Slap the rest back on and call it good.

It's not a big deal. Any competent mechanic can do this.

[icecold]

Originally Posted by Smokinyotes

This may be a dumb question but I assume you have checked the u joints?

Yes they are fine. Was hoping that was the problem fairly cheep and easy repair.

[icecold]

Originally Posted by Peace Meal Farm

This is correct. You can make a bad pinion bearing 'talk' to you with throttle application (and you need incredibly little throttle application to make it moan). Secondary signs of bearing failure can also be a leak from the rear pinion and play in the flange.

IF the flange is tight and IF the gearset is not whining when coasting then you're likely a good candidate to slap a new set of pinion bearings in there.

It's not a difficult job. Pull the rear calipers, rotors and axle shafts. Pull the carrier, pull the pinion nut, pull the flange and then remove the pinion assembly. Use a bearing splitter and a press to remove the inner pinion bearing and retain the selectable shim which is underneath it for your reassembly. Re and re the bearing races with a drift.

Assembly is the reverse of removal, with the exception of installing a new crush sleeve. When torqueing the (new) pinion nut collapsing this sleeve is a bit of a bear, but it takes all of the guess work out of reassembly. Tighten the pinion nut until there is no more play in the pinion. Keep tightening the nut until it takes 9 inch pounds of torque to rotate the pinion.

Slap the rest back on and call it good.

It's not a big deal. Any competent mechanic can do this.

I have "the fear" I'll find myself in a situation where I'll be in need of figuring out a case spreader and while I do have tourue wrenches they are all the click type. my understanding is you need the dial variety. I do have a press and bearing spliters just not the confidence I won't find myself redoing the job a year later or that I find the carrier bearings are shot and all of a sudden I'm having to gear pattern. Seems simple enough but at the same time...

[W921]

Competent mechanic haha they are in short supply. They are all technicians now a days
Kind of hard to do this stuff in driveway though. You have to clean all the old oil out of rear end. I'm not familiar with half ton rear ends but on one tons I made special tools to kind of scrape it out but scrapping and blowing with air to get last bit out is messy and takes quite some time. If you dont get it all out you risk metal chips going in new bearings. I wonder how big shops clean them out? I'm sure they would have a faster method?

[HyperMOA]

Originally Posted by W921

Competent mechanic haha they are in short supply. They are all technicians now a days

If you dont get it all out you risk metal chips going in new bearings. I wonder how big shops clean them out? I'm sure they would have a faster method?

Lots of them, do you want to pay for them?

Brake clean.

[Grizzly Adams1]

Originally Posted by icecold

I have "the fear" I'll find myself in a situation where I'll be in need of figuring out a case spreader and while I do have tourue wrenches they are all the click type. my understanding is you need the dial variety. I do have a press and bearing spliters just not the confidence I won't find myself redoing the job a year later or that I find the carrier bearings are shot and all of a sudden I'm having to gear pattern. Seems simple enough but at the same time...

I've always believed it's the most demanding part of the entire drive train with the most critical tolerances and selective part fitting to get it right.

Grizz

[Coiloil37]

Get on the Calgary Jeep forum here

https://forum.calgaryjeep.com/

and look in the classifieds. I believe the guys name was Bill who regeared my old axles and he lived in Langdon. I may have the name wrong but you’ll find him on there and he’s done hundreds of axles. I beat the hell out of mine for a few years and they were perfect. Or next time you see a real 4x4 and not a mall crawler just ask him who he used. That fraternity knows people who perform that service.
Literally any 4wd or Jeep site will have guys who do it as anyone who wheels seriously has regeared their axles. I would get his details myself but their website blocks traffic from this country.

[Peace Meal Farm]

Originally Posted by icecold

I have "the fear" I'll find myself in a situation where I'll be in need of figuring out a case spreader and while I do have tourue wrenches they are all the click type. my understanding is you need the dial variety. I do have a press and bearing spliters just not the confidence I won't find myself redoing the job a year later or that I find the carrier bearings are shot and all of a sudden I'm having to gear pattern. Seems simple enough but at the same time...

I hear you. Best of luck whichever way you opt to proceed.

For what it's worth I use a 1/4" drive click type torque wrench to do these. I set it for something very low like 2 or 3 inch pounds and then scale up an inch pound or two at a time. Truthfully you can do it by feel - light drag on the pinion when rotated is where it's happy, but since it's hard to convey a 'feel' in the workshop manual it's safer to go with spec.

[ram crazy]

Originally Posted by Peace Meal Farm

I hear you. Best of luck whichever way you opt to proceed.

For what it's worth I use a 1/4" drive click type torque wrench to do these. I set it for something very low like 2 or 3 inch pounds and then scale up an inch pound or two at a time. Truthfully you can do it by feel - light drag on the pinion when rotated is where it's happy, but since it's hard to convey a 'feel' in the workshop manual it's safer to go with spec.

16-29 inch pounds of rotating torque on the pinion and when ever you change a pinion seal always use a new crush sleeve. If your putting new bearings in as long as you keep all your shims behind the bearings in the right order you shouldn’t have too much issues. Use gear paste to check tooth pattern, it’s not rocket science!

[W921]

Originally Posted by HyperMOA

Lots of them, do you want to pay for them?

Brake clean.

Technicians seem to be lost if computer doesn't tell them what is wrong.
To young. Never was trained on or worked around the age period of trucks or equipment that I'm interested in.
I hope a rebuild shop would do more than just spray brake clean.

[HyperMOA]

Originally Posted by W921

Technicians seem to be lost if computer doesn't tell them what is wrong.
To young. Never was trained on or worked around the age period of trucks or equipment that I'm interested in.
I hope a rebuild shop would do more than just spray brake clean.

Brake clean will clean out any debris in a housing. Even the nooks and crannies of rough castings. I am not speculating, I am telling you what is done. Compressed air as you mentioned just shoots debris down the axel tubes and casting irregularities, brake clean flushes it back to the pumpkin housing.

[W921]

Originally Posted by HyperMOA

Brake clean will clean out any debris in a housing. Even the nooks and crannies of rough castings. I am not speculating, I am telling you what is done. Compressed air as you mentioned just shoots debris down the axel tubes and casting irregularities, brake clean flushes it back to the pumpkin housing.

Metal debris in the oil doesn't disappear into thin air because of break clean. Axle tubes need to be scraped out and cleaned out. Pumpkin has to be all cleaned out every nook and cranny to suit me. If the original axle lasted 40 or 50 years the rebuilt one should last the same. Commercial big trucks used to have a half million mile warranty.

[HyperMOA]

Originally Posted by W921

Metal debris in the oil doesn't disappear into thin air because of break clean. Axle tubes need to be scraped out and cleaned out. Pumpkin has to be all cleaned out every nook and cranny to suit me. If the original axle lasted 40 or 50 years the rebuilt one should last the same. Commercial big trucks used to have a half million mile warranty.

You do whatever you want. I get paid to do this sort of thing every day. I can clean out a D11 transmission tub with brake clean in likely less time and cleaner than what you do with your diff. You asked, I answered.

No commercial truck ever had a half million mile factory warranty. There are BS extended warranty programs that have 1,000,000 mile warranties but they actually had rebuild programs to meet those milestones.

And lots of rebuilds will outlast many factory jobs because guys like me pay more attention to tolerances than Mexican or Brazilian labour on an assembly line.

[artie]

for those of you that have old cans of brake clean around get rid of them
They have found they have something in them that causes Parkinsons Disease
Tri chlorethlene I believe
I saw Princess Auto saying they sell brake clean ethylene free so probably jobers also have some
read the labels

[-JR-]

Originally Posted by artie

for those of you that have old cans of brake clean around get rid of them
They have found they have something in them that causes Parkinsons Disease
Tri chlorethlene I believe
I saw Princess Auto saying they sell brake clean ethylene free so probably jobers also have some
read the labels

Been a mechanic for over 40 years and meet hundreds of other mechanics that use brake clean just for cleaning parts every day . Never meet one yet that has Parkinsons

[Grizzly Adams1]

Originally Posted by artie

for those of you that have old cans of brake clean around get rid of them
They have found they have something in them that causes Parkinsons Disease
Tri chlorethlene I believe
I saw Princess Auto saying they sell brake clean ethylene free so probably jobers also have some
read the labels

Carb cleaner isn't what it used to be either. I had some lying on a shelf, finally ate it's way out the bottom of the can.

Grizz

[Coiloil37]

Originally Posted by artie

for those of you that have old cans of brake clean around get rid of them
They have found they have something in them that causes Parkinsons Disease
Tri chlorethlene I believe
I saw Princess Auto saying they sell brake clean ethylene free so probably jobers also have some
read the labels

All brake/carb cleaner is far worse than probably anyone on this thread is aware. If you want to hear some info from a chemist read here.

https://alantani.com/index.php?topic=17698.0


The thread is about cleaning and lubricating fishing reel bearings but when he gets into the chemistry you get a free education if you pay attention. The best meat and potatoes is on page two but it’ll only take a couple minutes to read it all.

People are lazy so prob nobody will read the thing but there’s some good info in there and your warning is still valid even if guys want to pretend it’s safe to use because they’ve used it their whole career without noticing adverse health effects.

[HyperMOA]

Originally Posted by Coiloil37

People are lazy so prob nobody will read the thing but there’s some good info in there and your warning is still valid even if guys want to pretend it’s safe to use because they’ve used it their whole career without noticing adverse health effects.

Everything I work with as a mechanic has adverse health effects. That includes the oil in your vehicles. Should I change the oil in your vehicle to water to avoid exposure? Or should I use effective products in conjunction with a respirator and gloves?

[W921]

Originally Posted by HyperMOA

Everything I work with as a mechanic has adverse health effects. That includes the oil in your vehicles. Should I change the oil in your vehicle to water to avoid exposure? Or should I use effective products in conjunction with a respirator and gloves?

I bought a sand blaster. Well they are not even sandblaster anymore because sand is health risk so I bought a media blaster. I'm not making it up but it even had a warning about the vibration of holding the blasting gun was supposed to cause stupid health problems. I can't even remember exactly it was because it was so stupid. Wreck my tendons in California or cause arthritis or something.
The health warning are on everything so if you follow them you would never do anything

[Grizzly Adams1]

Originally Posted by W921

I bought a sand blaster. Well they are not even sandblaster anymore because sand is health risk so I bought a media blaster. I'm not making it up but it even had a warning about the vibration of holding the blasting gun was supposed to cause stupid health problems. I can't even remember exactly it was because it was so stupid. Wreck my tendons in California or cause arthritis or something.
The health warning are on everything so if you follow them you would never do anything

Even ladders come with hazard warnings now.

Grizz