Well, got home from London today about 1:00 and decided to finish my spark plugs...and then figured since the car is jacked up, might as well do the oil change...and then figure since I've got the jack and jack stands out, might as well get the rear diff cover off and the fluid drained...busy afternoon.

Now that I got the diff cover off, what should I be looking for? The ring gear looks to be in good shape. I just did a really quick look, but I didn't see any teeth chipped or missing. And the fluid, other than being black, didn't feel gritty or like it had metal pieces in it.

So how do I tell if the bearings are gone? What other things do I need to look at that may be getting worn out? AND the important question, how hard are these things to fix? I never done anymore than change the fluid before.

Any advice or help is very very greatly appreciated. I just wanna get my car back on the road as it's been out of commision for the last week.

 

Take a look at http://www.ring-pinion.com/tech.shtml there is some good info about rear ends.

Especially the part about proper break in of a new gear set, that is why new rear wheel drive vehicle break in is important!

Finally finished my 85 K10 rear end rebuild, all new bearings and seals for less than $320. Shop wanted over $700 for half of what I did.

Good luck, Bill

 

Your biggest prob in 7.5" rears are those spider gears inside the carrier. Take a look at those, you'll notice if something is not right just by looking at them.

As for the bearings & stuff, take a pry bar & put it under the carrier itself. Pry it up & down resting it againt the diff housing to see if the carrier itself moves. then put the prybar on the left & right side & pry again seeing if it moves.

If its tight, so is the rear-end.

Good Luck.

 

I've got a 7.75" rear actually. But I will take a look at the pinion gears and try the pry bar thing out tonight. Thanks.

 

Stroked: I tried the pry bar test last night and there is no movement up and down (very solid) and no movement left and right. So I'm thinking this means that my carrier bearings are good, I'm just not sure about the pinion bearing now. And based on Rachet's response in my other post, I won't know cause I don't want to disassemble the whole thing to find out.

 

If its more a whine than a buzz maybe the angles are just off. See what the sound sounds like at varying loads, no loads, hills etc... if it changes dramatically enough for a good shift in pitch then you just may need to re-shim it providing all the rest is in good shape.

 

It didn't seem to vary that much whether I was cruising or punching the throttle. Seem to be pretty consistent.

I think I'm at a point I'm confident that it's okay and I'm gonna put everything back together either tommorrow night or Thursday. If it blows up then it does or if I notice the noise come back or get worst, then I'll worry about it again. For now, I just wanna get my car back together and see how this Royal Purple stuff performs.