TraviZ

iTrader: (2)

Is thier a visual way of seeing if a rear end needs to be rebuilt? a 10bolt specifically.

XChris1632X

well a couple are if its locked up and your car doesnt move. or if it makes loud awful noises. or if you want new gears. just kidding. good question though. id like to hear some tips on getting to it before its too late.

TraviZ

iTrader: (2)

well i just got this axle and i know nothing of its history or how many miles, i popped the cover on it and everything looks perfect. i turn the thingy the driveshaft bolts to, and both sides turn the same direction. so i know posi is working i think?

DJP87Z28

It would be a good idea to replace all the bearings and the seals since it that old and mileage is in question.

TraviZ

iTrader: (2)

good idea, but when money is an issue, and it did come out of a 305 auto :P

KnightWarrior

How hard or expensive is it to rebuild the rear? My pinion seal is leaking and I know the axle is all original with 225,000 miles. Might be time. Thing is it's just a rear-drum, non-posi rear with 3.36? gears.

TraviZ

iTrader: (2)

runs about 100 bucks for the rebuild kit, and then the time, im scared to do it cuz ive never delt with backlash, depth and all those other little things you have to do. and if youve never done it before, prepare to pay a pro to do it.

blue86iroc

iTrader: (2)

If you don't have limited slip, check out the condition of the side gears and spider gears (the side gears are the splined pieces that the axle shafts fit into; the spider gears are attached to the carrier by a center shaft and rotate perpendicular to the rotation of the axle). Full load is placed on these gears during forward or rearward (i.e. non-differential) motion and they tend to deteriorate over time, especially if the vehicle is driven hard. If it's an automatic, shifting the transmission into D while still moving backwards in R also accelerates wear because the gears are slammed into each other as the direction of motion changes.

My friend, who owns a Jeep Wrangler, recently blew up his spider gears by dropping the clutch on dry pavement (with 33-inch tires on an axle that is barely strong enough for 30s). Whenever we took everything apart, we could see that there were significant wear marks on the remains of the gear teeth which probably led to the failure of the part.

I replaced the fluid in my Jeep's diff last week and the side/spider gears didn't look too hot. I wonder if those funny noises in 4WD are related?

dyeager535

With the cover off, rotate the axles/pinion, and as suggested, watch everything for movement and wear...limited slip diffs hold together pretty well. An open I'd be more concerned with.

You can pop the axles out and check the axle bearings for wear. I would NOT recommend replacing the bearings unless there is an obvious problem...it's very hard to do, and once you run a repair bearing, (which would probably be necessary) your axle is pretty much shot and you'd need new ones. The axle bearings very very rarely fail, but they do dig into the axles. You'd know if one failed though, thats for sure.

Setting up a crush sleeve rear axle is quite difficult and time consuming when done right, (as you understand) and if not done right, is more "dangerous" than leaving a used setup in place. If not done right the first time, you will more than likely end up tearing it back out, if it doesn't self destruct on you first.

HalfInchWrench

The quick and easy thing to do is pull off the cover and change the fluid and while you are in there, have a look at everything. There shouldn't be chunks missing out of the gears.

Bearings are usually fine long as the rear has never blown up. All the bearings are easy to deal with except the pinion bearing. Setting up pinion preload is tricky. To do it 100 percent correct requires some fany measuring tools. Sure you can put everything back using the same shims and hope it works out ok. It might and might not. Then you need an arbor press just to get the pinion bearing off and on ect.

If you do decide to take the rear apart and put it back, make sure you mark the relationship between the teeth on the ring gear and the teeth on the pinion. The same teeth should be put back together exactly as they were. Otherwise you run a chance of introducing gear whine which may have not been there before.