Rear axle slop

[Cydways]

I have a 1990 v2500 suburban with the 14 bolt semi floating rear axle. It clunks into gear in both D and R. Also after it gets warmed up there is a faint grinding/whirring nose coming from the rear. The u joints are good and the oil level is full. If I lay under the truck and turn the driveshaft by hand it will turn a good 60 degrees before the wheels start to turn.

Could this be a bearing issue or is my ring and pinion about completely worn out?

Any help is appreciated, thank you!

 

[Bextreme04]

Usually whine is due to preload and backlash out of adjustment. I would probably buy a rebuild kit for the axle(~$200) and then tear it down and rebuild it. Its highly unlikely you have worn gears. You can pull the cover and check though.

 

[Snoots]

Time for a new r & p.

 

[Cydways]

The truck has over 300k on it, would it be cheaper to just buy a used axle for it if the gears are worn?

How intensive is rebuilding the axle? I've seen you have to set the tolerances for the gears pretty accurately or the thing will destroy itself. Would the average shade tree mechanic be able to do that?

 

[Bextreme04]

The truck has over 300k on it, would it be cheaper to just buy a used axle for it if the gears are worn?

How intensive is rebuilding the axle? I've seen you have to set the tolerances for the gears pretty accurately or the thing will destroy itself. Would the average shade tree mechanic be able to do that?

Cheaper? Yes.

Better? Probably not.

You will have an unknown at that point, what if it needs to be rebuilt in a couple thousand miles or less? Then you are out the buying price of the used unit and you still end up paying for the rebuild. You should be able to get stock replacement gears and a rebuild kit for a few hundred dollars. You will take probably a whole weekend to remove and rebuild the rear end since you don't have any experience. There are plenty of good videos on how to do it and the only tool you should need will be a dial indicator and a magnetic base. You can get both from harbor freight for cheap.

 

[Blue Ox]

Cheaper? Yes.

Better? Probably not.

You will have an unknown at that point, what if it needs to be rebuilt in a couple thousand miles or less? Then you are out the buying price of the used unit and you still end up paying for the rebuild. You should be able to get stock replacement gears and a rebuild kit for a few hundred dollars. You will take probably a whole weekend to remove and rebuild the rear end since you don't have any experience. There are plenty of good videos on how to do it and the only tool you should need will be a dial indicator and a magnetic base. You can get both from harbor freight for cheap.

This.

Either learn it yourself or pay someone who knows. They're just okay rears and they have a tendency to dissociate bearings. The R&P may be salvageable, but you'll need to give it a serious lookit to see what you're dealing with.

 

[Ricko1966]

If the problem is recent, as in this didn't start thousands of miles ago and you've just decided to get worried about it. I will tel you from expierience I can pull the diff. replace all the bearings and put it all back together faster than you can disconnect all the brake hoses and cables. Unbolt your U bolts get 1 rearend out the other one back under bolted up hooked up and brakes bled. Your bearings are worn out, that's all.

If you decide to DIY post back I'll walk you through, no expensive tools, no black magic voodoo.

 

[Cydways]

Ok I have decided to rebuild the axle. Got the kit coming. Are there any particular videos or articles that would help? Also can I do this with the axle in the truck or do I have to take it out?

 

[Blue Ox]

The factory manual tells you what you need to know, although I'm sure there's plenty of YouBoob videos too. You should be able to find it in the Library section of this site.

I did mine in the truck. It's a little awkward, but other than that there's usually little reason to take the whole thing out.