I am having a slight grinding/growling noise coming from what seems to be DS rear. Intensifies when let off the gas... Hoping it's just wheel bearing and not pinion bearing or worse. Changed fluid today and visual inspection turned out ok, although slight amount of fine shavings at bottom of diff so maybe problem is here and not a wheel bearing. Thoughts? 1998 xj w Dana 35

 

I seem to remember a differential doing that, long time ago, howling when I let up. I forget the specifics, like most of the 70's! You might feel the nose of the diff. after you've been cruzen on the hwy., see if it's hot. Or a bearing letting the ring gear shift on deceleration. Guess you have it back together...wonder if the carriage would move pried with a bar. Shavings eh? What does it sound like from the passenger side?

 

On and or off the gas is in the diff or u-joints, not the wheel bearings. Wheel bearings will generally change sounds when cornering and you load/unload the bearing

 

I appreciate your help. yea it's back together... I am going to diagnose it further, but it seems as tho you hit the nail on the head. Thank you! I'll keep you guys updated.

 

Hey thanks for your reply, that's some good information. Damn... and I always baby the thing too! Except of course when I'm wheelin' hahaha

 

One more piece of advice i'm seeking: What's the worst that'll happen to my Jeep if the Pinion Bearing or U Joint goes out (or whatever it is that's happening..) would my rear end lock up and cause me to go into a roll or spin? Thanks for your help everyone, it's much appreciated



-Dave

 

Generally a wheel bearing takes the seal with it and you will see oil drain down from inside the drum.
Pinion bearings can make a racket too and sometimes not be bad enough to leak yet.
IF you just pulled the cover and didn't go deeper you get to do it all over again.

Pull the cover, C clips (assuming it has them, my 87 doesn't) and pop the axles out and inspect the bearings then goto the yoke and pull it and the carrier, Its got to be there IF its in the rear end and not the transfer case.

 

It really depends on what the problem is on how bad it would be if it just went out on you all at once. ie: I had an s10 back in the day that the spider gears shattered while I was going 70mph all it did was kill the engine and I drifted it to a stop on the side of the road and restarted the engine and it wouldn't pull out that's when I knew something was bad wrong but I got a new rear end out of it thanks to new car warranty

 

If you let out the clutch and look down and see the drive-shaft is going around and your not moving, I wouldn't drive it far. I don't think anyone wants to go on record and say it's OK then find (or not), that something awful happened. I've had two or three go and it's never locked up. I'm sure it could happen, then over the cliff you go, or into oncoming traffic. They can get REALLY loud. Way back, differentials where one thing they had a tough time machining. The nature of the curved gears in a small space I would guess. I haven't heard of anyone putting sawdust in there diff to quiet it down, lately! You might want to fix it. It's not getting any cheaper!

 

You really should put it on a lift, drop the rear DS and make sure the nut on the pinion gear is tightened to the proper ft. lbs.
The droning sound you are hearing is most likely your pinion angle being bad.

I had a sound like this coming from my 8.25 recently, and when i dropped the DS i could instantly tell the pinion nut wasnt torqued down properly since only 1 thread was visible while 3 threads were visible on the front axle. After i torqued it down properly the sound went away.

 

Thanks for your continued support and suggestions on this topic. I appreciate it. Looking forward to a weekend day I can reasses this situation.

-Dave.

 

did you ever find out what was exactly wrong with the rear? I have a 99 doing the same thing, the spyder gears look to have some wear on them but not sure if thats making the noise or not?

Thanks