i will say this never buy a car that has sat for 10+ years lol. i guess im down to my rear axle now. moisture must of gotten in the housing and cause rust on the bearings. ive got a bad whine coming from the rear that gets louder the faster i drive. when i put the clutch in the noise goes away. so from what i have read it must be the pinion bearings. so im just going to open it up and change everythign that needs to be changed. here is my question though

ive never rebuilt a rear b4, i know there are shims everywhere in there, since im using my same ring gears and everything else, just changing the bearings, can i be safe to put the same shims in the same place and be ok? i have access to a press but no access to a micrometer or anything like that. and mark every thing else to make sure it goes back in the same place?

 

Using the original shims is a good place to start, but not always correct when changing bearings. The replacement bearings could be slightly different in thickness and throw things off. Pinion depth changes of less than .002 inch can make a difference, so it's best to do a pattern check and a backlash check before disassembly so that you will know what to shoot for when you put it back together. Take pictures of the pattern and save them so you can go back and look at them when you do the assembly. Read the sticky on the 10 bolt and go down to the parts about how hard is it to change gears. Read this and you will see how to check pattern and backlash and how to set the pinion bearing preload.

 

If the whine quits when you push in the clutch, probably not the pinion bearings; since those keep right on spinning. Not sure what you could have read that would have told you that, but if it did, time to find some other reading material I'm afraid.

What did the fluid in the rear look like when you changed it the first time after you noticed this? Did re-changing it help?

 

ive actually never noticed the noise b4. i have put about 3000 miles on the car since i got it, i just repainted it and did a 5 speed swap. right now im waiting on the carpet to come in so im test driving it with no carpet in the car witch i know makes it louder.

what i read is that if the noise gets louder as you go faster it is the rear pinion bearing, then if you take the load off it ie put the car in neutral the noise will go away. so ive tried every part i could clutch in noise is gone, car in neutral but still coasting at 60 noise is gone, now when i get off the gas car still in gear the noise makes a different tone and there is a sweet spot for example if in 5th running 55 if i just give it enough gas to kinda match the rear end, what im trying to say is im still giving it gas but the car is slowing down just a bit the noise will go away. and i can tell anything when im flooring it cause the exhaust is to loud. but just cruising it is unbearable.

the only thing i could think of that i changed since the restore is i lowered the car, so the pinion angle is slightly different

at first i though it was the trans. like i said i did a 5 speed swap and the noise seemed to be louder, well i don't know what happened but i was pulling in my driveway and the trans started making a loud knocking noise, pulled it out and couldn't find anything broke but tons of metal in the fluid, i got a wc t5 locally from a friend and installed it, well the knock went away and now i can definitely tell the noise is coming from the rear