Got a whining noise coming out of the rear-end. I believe the rear-end is not the original and the gears have been changed to 3.70. Had a mechanic take a look at it today and he told me it sounds like the rear-end is twisted. Says the pitch of the whine changes depending on which way you turn the car.

I guess anything is possible, but I've never heard of this. Is this something that is common with third gens? Is there a good way to confirm that this is the problem?

So lets say it is what he says it is. What would be my best, most economical option for resolving the issue? I definitely can't do the work myself. Here's the options that I can think of:

1) Replace the whole rear-end with a used one
2) Buy a new Jasper rear-end
3) By a used shell and replace the internals with my parts (assuming they are still good)

Thoughts,

Chris

 

I think he is nuts. I've never heard of such a thing.

It's probably a differential bearing. The differential bearings take all of the side load from the axle when you turn a corner. If the left differential bearing is bad then it will show up more when turning left. Same thing for the right bearing.

You will be taking a chance if you buy another junk yard rear end because just about all of them are going to have a lot of miles on them now. The chances of getting another one with a bad bearing are pretty good. Just don't take it back to this guy for a rebuild.

 

sounds like a bearing to me but thats just my two pennies post a vid of the noise?

 

Thanks for the replies. I'm not a "gear head" by no means, but the rear-end being twisted just sounds very strange. I was thinking bearing too.

 

If you're not comfortable doing that kind of work, I'd take it to one of the recommended transmission/rearend shops in your area and have them take it apart to inspect it to find out exactly what's going wrong. That howling-whine is just going to get worse over time until the bearings finally give and then you're going to have all kinds of problems.

 

A lot of people call themselves mechanics, but have trouble spelling it. You want to be careful who you listen to.

 

Thanks Ozz & Edward. That's just what I am going to do, take it to someone that I know and trust. The guy I took it to originally has a lot of experience with rear-ends. He setup a friends and it has been fine for over 10 years. He actually has a lot of racing experience and setting up rear-ends for race cars. I suspect the race experience is leading him toward his thinking of the rear-end being twisted.

I'll have it at another shop in a couple of weeks and see what they say.

Thanks,

Chris