Metal shavings in front diff??

Jeepfan30

Jeepfan30

Member
I'm not a gear expert by any means, but is this too much metal shaving? Had gears done 10,000 miles ago and did a 500 mile fluid change, this is what I see today. Front diff makes a very very low pitch rumble that I can only hear between 5-20 mph. Pitch doesn't change on coast or deceleration. Doesn't change when turning left, or right. I am kinda thinking bad carrier bearing? Pulling the cover now to take a look.
View attachment 185972
 
Evil

Evil

New member
Take some pics of it when you get the cover off. That does not look good. Check the ring gear edges for roughness.
 
Evil

Evil

New member
Its hard to tell from the pic but do any of the teeth look or feel chewed up on the edges? Can you rotate it by hand smoothly and if so do you hear any metal on metal crunching?
 
WJCO

WJCO

Meme King
That's a lot of fucken metal. Did you do the gears or have someone else do them? If a shop did them, should be under 12/12.
 
Jeepfan30

Jeepfan30

Member
Shop did them, lots of metal for sure. Teeth all look good, I don't see anything visually wrong inside, smooth operation.
 
Evil

Evil

New member
Any way to pull the driveshaft and see if your pinion is loose? If it moves in and out its loose. This would cause a "low speed rumble"
 
Jeepfan30

Jeepfan30

Member
Pinion is solid. I tried pulling in and out, and up and down with no movement. The sound I hear is comparable to wheel speed, not driveshaft speed.
 
WJCO

WJCO

Meme King
Jeepfan30 said:
Pinion is solid. I tried pulling in and out, and up and down with no movement. The sound I hear is comparable to wheel speed, not driveshaft speed.
Click to expand...

You could always pull the carrier bearing caps and inspect the bearings. Just make sure you know what to torque them back to and keep any shims in order. You won't disturb any of your differential measurements (backlash, pinion bearing preload, pinion depth) by doing that as long as you put everything back in the same spot.
 
Evil

Evil

New member
Jeepfan30 said:
Pinion is solid. I tried pulling in and out, and up and down with no movement. The sound I hear is comparable to wheel speed, not driveshaft speed.
Click to expand...

I got it. If your pinion was loose or the gears were not meshing right, it would cause the rumble you described in your OG post. Id call the shop up and see if they will fix it under warranty. Granted if it did spin a bearing you would hear it and feel it while rotating the assembly.
 
WJCO

WJCO

Meme King
Check your spider and side gears for chips too, but with that type of metal, it would be bigger chunks if those gears were damaged. And you don't have any axle bearings in the front to worry about, so it's sounding like a carrier bearing..................
 
Evil

Evil

New member
With that much metal coming out of it, you would see something not right. I would do what WJ said. Everything you take off goes back the same exact way. The carrier bolts go back in the same hole you took them out of and the caps go back the same way you pulled them off.
 
Jeepfan30

Jeepfan30

Member
I looked at everything as I turned the wheels, got a good look at all the teeth and they look good. I sprayed it down with brake cleaner, checked the torque on the carrier bolts and filled it back up with fluid. I'll take it to the shop that did the install and see if they can find a problem. I have been thinking carrier bearing for awhile now, but wouldn't I still hear a bad carrier bearing after 20 mph? It's a pretty faint sound I hear, only with windows up, radio off and driving slow. Thanks for all the feedback guys.
 
Jeepfan30

Jeepfan30

Member
Well, found the problem today. While installing a Detroit Truetrac in my Dana 30 I found a fried pinion bearing along with other pitted bearings. I bought a master install kit for the Trueurac install, just in case we found a bad pinion bearing, good thing I did. My friend used to be a mechanic for Chevy and taught me so much today as we completely stripped all the old bearings and races, installed the Trueurac and re-set up the existing Yukon 4.56 gears. The growling noise is now gone and my gears are as quite a they were from the factory. The new 4.56 gears never were the same after the shop in Oahu installed them, can't believe I paid them so much for shitty work. Picture of the pinion race below, bearings were all pitted, preload was definitely too light before.
View attachment 190425
 
WJCO

WJCO

Meme King
I would take a picture of the mileage on your vehicle and the damaged parts and at least try to fight the shop for repairs if it's under their 12/12 warranty.
 
Jeepfan30

Jeepfan30

Member
It's outside 12/12 unfortunately. I brought it to the shop about 500 miles after the re-gear because something didn't seem right. They said, "buy a new rear driveshaft, the sound is coming from the rear". The last thing I want is for that shop to touch anything else of mine, nice to have knowledgable friends that can do it right for case of beer!
 
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