mfisher2112

Cool. Thanks guys. This will probably explain why the driveshaft is vibrating as well if its pulled backwards too far.

ol"blue

That'd be my guess.

mfisher2112

Well, I did as instructed. Its definitely better, but still not right. There is some play in the pinion gear front to back which I'm sure isn't supposed to be there. It seems like the DS seated properly, but there is still some noise coming from the front which I think is unrelated. I'm just hoping I didn't fubar that pinion gear. I'm close to giving up on this because replacing the pinion gear is not in my skill set.

ol"blue

Are you saying that now the yoke/pinion on the new axle can be pushed towards/away from the axle housing? That's not good, and is not related to anything you did in mounting the axle. It's from a bad pinion bearing. That axle could have even more excessive wear inside, like bad ring & pinion gears, bad carrier bearings, or bad wheel bearings IMO.
And that's the second axle you've gotten from them, correct? That's a lousy way to do business. If it were me I'd call them up and make them bring me a good axle this time. JMO

KD3NE

I agree!!!!!

Check the next one before you put it in the jeep.

The owner of the Jeep the bad one came out of may have junked it for that reason.


Thats' why I like pick-n-pull.

I needed a rear for a 96 XJ and found a 99 XJ that looked like the front end was wrapped around a tree.



Pulling was easy .... one cordless sawmill .... three batteries .... 4-6 new blades.

Wrenched out what would come easy and cut the rest of it.

I pulled one rear drum off and was amazed to see BRAND brakes and brake hardware.

I pulled that rear and was charged $91 ( $69 rear - $22 two new drums )

I almost think the owner just had the brakes done and on his way home wrecked that XJ.



Now I am shopping for a spare rear for the two 98 Grand Cherokees we have here ..... one of them is noisy.




.

mfisher2112

Yes, it plays front to back. And its the THIRD rear!

ol"blue

The 3rd one, that's even worse! Well you know how I feel, so I won't say it again. It won't help to repeat it. I just hope you get satisfaction from them.

mfisher2112

I've got half a mind to drive the thing up there and demand my money back at this point. Because its in the damned jeep now, which means pulling it back out again. They do offer 30 day warranty, but this is ridiculous. The first one wasn't even the right rear, the second one was just a mess with gears loose in the pumpkin, and this one now has a bad pinion which didn't present until after I got it in and drove it.

ol"blue

I'd pull the axle, take it back, and demand my money back. At least then you could go else where and find the correct axle in good shape.

ok93zj

If it wasn't die the bad yoke on the first axle I would have kept it. I put a d44a in my zj after the 35 blew up and it's done me good and I wheel my jeep kinda hard when I want to.

ok93zj

For** not die. Dang phone.

mfisher2112

Yeah, the problem is the only other place that has it wants $450 for it.

mfisher2112

Ok, so with the jeep on the ground, the yoke and pinion doesn't budge, the u-joints are solid as a rock, nothing is budging under there. I solved the DS vibration be re-seating the rear properly which fully seated the DS and stopped the vibration.

So here's the problem now.

There is a "growl" that seems to be coming from the front of the vehicle.

What I know:

There is a pull to the right that does NOT get worse when applying the breaks.

The steering wheel is cocked to the left about 30 to 35 degrees while driving straight.

Both of the above were there before replacing the rear.

There is no shaking in the wheel either while driving or when applying brakes.

There is no vibration in the steering or pulsing in the brakes.

Right before I changed the rear, I had really bad steering drift that caused me to have to constantly correct my steering. When I had someone follow me, he told me the rear of the jeep swayed and wobbled while driving.

Replacing the rear corrected the steering drift.

When I replaced the rear, I noticed the passenger side rear tire is worn on the outside edge.

Could this be as simple as I threw a tire out of round driving a bad rear?

Or should I be chasing wheel bearings in the front?

I jacked both sides of the front up and tried shaking the tires up and down and left to right and couldn't get any play.

I'm going to go back out and release the steering lock and try spinning the front wheels to see if there is any noticable noise from the front wheel bearings.

Just want to also say thanks, you guys have been awesome.

ol"blue

Does the growl start around 35 MPH?
Go for a drive where you can make turns at that speed. If the noise gets louder going around a right turn, the left hub bearing is worn/bad. (Weight transfer causes increased load- louder noise).
If it gets louder on a left turn, it's the right hub bearing.
If it doesn't change with steering, or RPM's, only with speed, it sounds like the pinion bearings. They change sound slightly under accelerate and coast conditions, but sound similar to worn carrier bearings, or worn ring and pinion gears. You'd need to remove the diff cover to tell which it is. JMO

mfisher2112

Thanks blue. I'll do that today before work.