The car is a 2000 Firebird 3.8l

The problem I am having is that I hear a whine coming from the rear end, I read in another post which described the noise exactly that I need to change the pinion bearing. I was looking online at prices for the new bearing, and I found a front and rear pinion bearing. Which one do i need? Also is there a tutorial on rebuilding this rear end so I can see how to change it?

If there are any other parts I need please let me know.

Thanks guys

 

don't you think the first setp would be to figure out what you need instead of guessing? if it is the pinion bearing you can tell which one you need by looking at both of them.

 

Yes that is a good idea, i did figure however that one of them may have been notorious for the noise. I would love to take them out and have a look, but considering I dont even know where it is, it doesnt help. Thats why I asked for a tutorial, I would like to inspect them, I just wanted to be looking at the right thing.

P.S. in the last month, the car has been in the shop twice with the rear end, the first time the ring and pinion were changed. the second time it was leaking and i believe the pinion seal was changed. The car never made this noise (had it since it was new) after it went in the shop it came out doing it, I took it back and the man said that the car has always done it, i wanted to kill him. So i dont want it going to anymore shops i wanna finish this one myself.

 

you might wanna see if the rear end has enough fluid in it becouse when you change the seal a lot of fluid can be lost also is this a posi unit if it is the shop might not have put any posi additive back in the rear just a thought.

 

It's not a posi, but I am gonna check the fluid. I was actually going to this weekend, but I got caught up in painting the front end. I had to pay the damn shop $650 to fix the rear, I think I might have to go back and show them some dissatisfaction if ya know what i mean.

 

I hate to say it, but it sounds like the shop botched the entire job. Whenever you put a new ring and pinion in, you're supposed to get an installation kit which includes both new pinion bearings and carrier bearings, shims, crush sleeve, pinion seal, etc. Even if they did replace all that, chances are they set up the gears wrong, which will cause them to make noise. They probably also got the pinion bearing preload set incorrectly which can cause even a new pinion seal to leak, and can also wear out the bearings in a real short time, which could also be the source of the noise. Your gears wear a pattern in very quickly, and if they're set up wrong, the contact pattern will be wrong, and they'll never run quiet again. You should try very hard to get them to refund your money for all the "work" they did. Whoever did the setup work obviously didn't know what the hell they were doing. At this point in time, you'd probably be better off costwise picking up another rearend and just replacing it, unless you can get a refund and have someone knowledgeable do the work all over again with brand new parts again. You can usually pick up an entire non-posi rearend at most wrecking yards for $100-$150. Even if you just change the pinion bearing out again, you should always replace both of them, including the races. If the contact pattern on the gears ends up being okay, you can try replacing the pinion bearings and crush sleeve(crush sleeves aren't reuseable), and shim the carrier for the proper amount of backlash. Hope this helps.

 

That helps alot, thanks. Me and a friend of mine are gonna go by the shop when we get time this week. We have been known to be quite persuasive. Looks like a new rear wont be a bad idea once i take my money back.

Thanks for all your help

 

Yeah, I'd be real tempted myself to be very "persuasive" too with the dumbasses! Best of luck man.