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Wheel Bearings turns into my axle rebuild thread

5K views 47 replies 9 participants last post by  Uniblurb 
#1 ·
First a little history...
When I bought my 1st "mechanics spcl." ZJ Ltd W/Up-Country Pkg. it had a "roar/whine".
I had carrier & pinion bearings installed in both axles from a reputable shop across from Lucas Oil Stadium during construction.
That ZJ totaled due to front end collision:mad:.
A week later, my wife finds duplicate ZJ "mechanics spcl." w/o Up-Country Pkg. from same Chrysler Dealer:kiss:.
Get totaled ZJ as parts Jeep from Insurance co:highfive:.
Transfer rebuilt rear axle & U-C Pkg. Along w/a cornucopia of parts from the wreck over the last 5 years.:cheers2:
Rebuild front axle myself:2thumbsup: as the d-30 from parts Jeep was destroyed:rolleyes:.
Buy my wifes 2-wd ZJ & replace bearings in d-35 axle.:tea:

Present day; Since rebuilt d-44a axle started to roar I order outer wheel bearings as they weren't replaced in the initial rebuild & proceed to tear down to install.
All ready this far I decide to remove carrier and clean and inspect rear end.
Discover galled bearings and races, particularly on drivers side, of the rebuilt axle by a reputable shop with a state contract, that I transferred from parts Jeep.:(
order bearing kit from RRP.:cool:
At this point I started taking photos & will post them with-in the next 24 hrs.
I didn't intend for this repair to be a re-build thread but I guess it is now. I have discovered issues with the installation by a reputable...

More to come as I have to close garage & computer & go to work.
 
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#33 ·
Here are the photos of the fluid after just over 1000 miles of mostly highway driving after the bearing replacement. The 1st pic is fluid and the 2nd pic is, of course. inside the diff. No worse than my 1st fluid change after the shop did their thing. Sorry to disappoint, still hasn't grenaded, will let you know if it does. I know there are a lot of views just for that. Over 1000 views but few comments. Also will check fluid after another 1000 miles just to be sure.
 

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#35 · (Edited)
dave_dj1 said:
Sometimes we view just to learn, no need to clutter up a thread with derogatory remarks :)

How many rears have you set up? Believe it or not the backlash is very important. You may have just been lucky, I'd rather be lucky than good any day though :)
At least you go for it.
Kudos for that!
dave
I haven't set up any rear ends. I have replaced bearings in my 30, 44-a & my wife's 35. After spending almost 2 grand to the "respected shop" on the 1st 44-a & 30. I re-use the factory shims & set pre-load to factory spec on replacement. I use a local racing machine shop for machine shop services. My machinist is a rear end specialist. I understand backlash is important... I take a leap of faith that if I don't change gears, just bearings, and get a good gear pattern, especially with the large solid shims, that the repair works. Thanks for your positive words :)
 
#36 ·
Haven't posted in awhile so I thought I'd give an update after a year. Rear end is still going strong. No noise, no grenading. I am quite happy with my bearing replacements. Good luck to all who attempt diff bearing replacements.
 
#45 ·
If you're going to rebuild a 44-a then the bearing kit around 175.00 from Randy's. That was wheel bearings, pinion and carrier bearings plus crush sleeve and pinion nut as well as all the shims I didn't use. Oh yea, ring gear bolts too. That price was a year ago. If you rebuild it you may as well rebuild it:thumbsup:
 
#40 ·
Great thread and excellent photos!

I noticed you said in post #33, "Over 1,000 views but few comments.". I don't think the members are just laying in wait for your rear end to grenade. Please don't take offense to this but from my screen view your thread is difficult to read since your photos are so large/wide (800x600) it stretches the text out and I can't read all the text w/o constantly scrolling the posts back/forth. Granted I have the screen zoomed in a little to be able to read the text easier and don't know if others are having the same problem? You can see the screen expanded toward the left as you go from post #32 to #33 below.

http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f13/wheel-bearings-turns-into-my-axle-rebuild-thread-1551121/index3.html#post15751819

This isn't necessarily your fault since many forums have photo software which will adjust the size of the photos to fit the allotted screen space/width. But not this forum and I have to adjust my photos down to 640x480 to make sure they don't expand the whole page of a thread so all text can be read. And the photos I posted 1-2 years ago to fit the screen fully are now so small they can barely be read. So something has changed in the way photos are sized/posted. Again, no offense and just trying to make things better.
 
#43 ·
Thanks. I did make the photos smaller to meet forum guidelines. I take them with an I Phone then transfer to my laptop for editing & posting. I also wanted a true view of the gear oil and thought going any smaller might have looked like i was trying to hide or skew the result.

I do realize not everyone is waiting for my diff to grenade but in the past when I have posted what I have done as an example in someone else's thread, I get chastised for giving bad or incorrect information by people that seem like they are expecting mine to grenade. That is partly why I have been so detail oriented in the step by step photos showing what the shop did vs. what I do. I in no way expect anyone to swap their own gears without going through the entire set-up procedure. I do firmly believe that my way of changing bearings works but only if that attention to details is followed. If pre-load is wrong or the factory shims are destroyed or the gear pattern is wrong, all bets are off and you're setting up gears or having them set-up. Getting the proper bearing kit with new crush sleeve & pinion nut and having a FSM certainly help. I also think it is very important to have a good machine shop that can handle the extras that one may not be able to handle in the home garage. I'm lucky that I have a shop I've used since High School.

I am only relating my own experiences and if the back and forth helps someone decide they'd rather not attempt this, that's great too. In the end, if you have a GC with 100k or more on the clock and haven't had to replace the bearings, that vehicle will need it eventually. Whether you pay $1000 to have it done or do it yourself, it will need them.
 
#41 ·
800 x 600 has been the sort of a standard internet picture format for years. Apart from low- budget cell phones, who uses under 1280 x 1024 resolution screens (or their 16:9 variants) these day at all? 640 x 480 pictures are so small you don't even see them on a fullHD or 2.7k screen at all ;)

IMO, the pics are right size, and the thread in general is informative. Nothing to complain! :thumbsup:
 
#42 ·
That's the reason I commented Timo to see if others are seeing the same thing I am. It must be the fact I'm using an older square Dell monitor through a docking station and have my screen resolution off. I'll keep that in mind the 640x480 images are too small to see on many monitors/devices. I recently bought a HD widescreen monitor and time to set it up. Thanks!
 
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