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On the one sunny 70* day last week, I drove home with the windows down. And with the windows down, and no heater fans blowing, I was able to hear the most horrific rear end howl at 60-80 mph that got louder and higher pitched with increase in speed. My '97 blew the rear after making a very similar howl (which I had known about for a while and was searching for a good replacement) so I slowed down and got home in one piece.
Those will be off to the machine shop in the morning for new bearings on both sides and new seals in the tubes. I've already printed out Habanero's picture of how things are supposed to go together and will remind them to measure everything before disassembly. Dave Featherstone at Automotive Parts and Machine have done some really nice work for me setting up my 22RE over the years, I doubt they will have any trouble with this.
New bearings on both rear axle shafts. Everything buttoned up, bled, and torqued. Test drive is maybe 10% quieter. I think the next step is to pull the diff, but that will probably wait until warmer weather and the purchase of a cheap temporary 3rd I can throw in.
My thought was to get a non-locked 3rd to put in my locked housing. Well that isn't a direct bolt in and I'm not mucking with my good, non-leaking housing. I have access to an e-locked rear from an '04 Tacoma axle code B03A, which upon further investigation is the bigger 8.4" Tundra rear, so no bueno. Why I never thought to rebuild the axle from my '97 that had a blown 3rd, I don't know. Well $220 later and i have a used West Coast eBay 3rd coming for the '97 non-locked housing. Hopefully that will be here in a week or so and i can get my 3rd out to Zuk for a rebuild.
3rd assembly is boxed and headed to Arizona for some love from Zuk. It had some crunch when you would spin the pinion. I can also confirm after counting teeth that it is a 4.30 ratio. 43 on the ring and 10 on the pinion.
Im in the process of swapping over to a non-e axle housing to go with my eBay cheap 3rd which is a 3.90 ratio. So no 4x4 until that’s swapped back!!!
Zuk is done repairing my rear 3rd and it's on it's way home. Well it's on it's way to @aowRS's house because @Zuk mixed up our two shipping labels, More on that when I do my 3rd rebuild recap. Today's issue is the Digital Climate Controller. Since I bought the truck it has had a finicky climate controller. Sometimes the fan speed knob would work, sometimes it would change vents, sometimes the buttons would work, and sometimes I would start the truck and the display would show hieroglyphics and nothing would work. This is a relatively common failure and there are several eBay vendors that offer a repair service.
for quite some time. It would always be too hot in the Summer or too cold in the Winter for me to pull my controller and send it away. Since I was going to be using the truck for minimal duty with the rear project, I pulled the trigger. And man, why did I wait so long?!?!
I bought the repair service from eBay, went to https://www.autoecu.com/ and created an account, filled out the repair work order form, and packaged up my controller for the mail. I received and email when they got my controller and an email the next day when they were done with repairs with a tracking number for the return trip. When it arrived it was well packaged. Custom tape Lots of bubble wrap More bubble wrap Shrink wrapped to seal in the flavor I wasn't sure if they were going to actually repair MY unit, or just swap out a working unit. I've heard bad stories from "the internet" about that sort of behavior. So I marked my unit before it left and the marks were there upon return.
Installation (and removal) are pretty simple and I was able to cut a corner or two. Normally you would remove the bezel around the shifter so you have access to the clips at the bottom of the center dash bezel. Since I was working towards the top of the center bezel, I took my chances that I could pop the top and tilt the bezel out enough to gain the room and clearance I desired... and I was right. Popping the top of the bezel 1 screw on the left 2 screws on the right FaceplatePush everything back in place
Auto mode works!!! outside temp now works
Everything works at it should!!!!
Zuk is done repairing my rear 3rd and it's on it's way home. Well it's on it's way to @aowRS's house because @Zuk mixed up our two shipping labels, More on that when I do my 3rd rebuild recap. Today's issue is the Digital Climate Controller. Since I bought the truck it has had a finicky climate controller. Sometimes the fan speed knob would work, sometimes it would change vents, sometimes the buttons would work, and sometimes I would start the truck and the display would show hieroglyphics and nothing would work. This is a relatively common failure and there are several eBay vendors that offer a repair service.
for quite some time. It would always be too hot in the Summer or too cold in the Winter for me to pull my controller and send it away. Since I was going to be using the truck for minimal duty with the rear project, I pulled the trigger. And man, why did I wait so long?!?!
I bought the repair service from eBay, went to https://www.autoecu.com/ and created an account, filled out the repair work order form, and packaged up my controller for the mail. I received and email when they got my controller and an email the next day when they were done with repairs with a tracking number for the return trip. When it arrived it was well packaged.
...Everything works at it should!!!!
Nice! It isn't everyday you get quality service from an eBay listing!
It always puts a smile on my face when I finally fix something that has been broken for a while.
Out with the older and in with the old, wait what? After a slight detour I have my rebuilt diff back from Zuk. @aowRS and I sent our 3rds in at the same time and Zuk mixed them up and sent mine to Andreas and vice-versa. Fortunately we live close enough that shuffle parts wasn’t too much of a hassle. Plus I got some diff gaskets out of it!!!
Here is the carnage of my original 3rd. Only 126k miles but nearly 20 years and 15+ of those I don’t have any maintenance records. So the rear was making a decent howl that got significantly louder with speed. Autopsy revealed a pinion bearing race started to spall. It doesn’t look bad, but boy did it sound bad…
And here are the obligatory Zuk bench porn shots. Gauges and patterns and jigs, oh my!!!!
While my diff was being rebuilt, I took the time to clear up some quality of life issues with the rear axle housing. If you convert a non-locker rear housing to an e-locker housing, you have to grind 2 notches in the opening to allow the ring gear to fit. In e-locker housings, the notches are already there, but are incredibly tight when pulling the 3rd. To get mine out, I had to pull up on the 3rd, then rotate the pinion to get the teeth to clear, then pull up some more, and rotate some more, and do this while trying not to drop 68 pounds of differential on my foot.
The solution, clearance the housing to the gasket like you would porting an intake. I used the gasket as a template for how much material to remove, marked it, ground it, and checked for fit.
I think it came out pretty well and the 3rd dropped right in on reassembly. I took this time to wire wheel the axle housing and throw a coat of paint on it. As Zuk pointed out over the phone “So this is the rust I keep hearing about” Yes Ken, THIS is the rust. And mine isn’t even bad.
Today’s the day!!! Well yesterday was really the day.
E-locked diff is assembled, axle housing is ready, and I’ve got the day off to swap things over. And to continue the quality of life improvements, I found a huge sale on a master bushing kit. Ideally I would have liked the black bushings, but for $80 off I’ll take the red.
Swapping out the bushings was relatively straight forward now that I have a hydraulic press. Seriously why did I not buy one of these sooner. A) it is incredibly easy to push parts apart or together, B) it is way cheaper than taking even 1 set of bearings to the machine shop to get pressed, and C) who doesn’t like buying more tools?
It’s pretty straightforward, use a socket bigger than the bushing as a base and one smaller as a drift, and apply pressure. For years I have torched these until they would burn away and then dremel or hacksaw the sleeves. Hours wasted and who knows how many toxins I’ve exposed myself to. And any of the bars that were really rusty crusty, got a hit from the wire wheel and a coat of paint before the shinies get pressed in.
The red bushings just scream fast and furious scrub. Oh well.
Now I have to trace down a driveline vibration around 80. I lined up the rust outline on the flange with the driveshaft, plus I didn’t have this issue with the eBay 3rd like 3 days ago when I started taking everything apart. I don’t know if bearings need to wear in? Or what?
No. But the firmer poly bushings may be transmitting a vibration that was previously masked by the softer, old rubber bushings?
I definitely noticed a vibration difference after installing poly body bushings all around. It wasn't anywhere near significant, but it was there. Plausible.
It's a very low sound unlike the pinion bearing that was like a deeper version of gargling. And it really only shows up when I'm doing above 75. Since I've backed my cruising speed down to <70 for mpgs, I'm just going to "monitor it".
Well that's what the mechanics at work tell me they're doing when they ignore all my repair tickets.
Hopefully the weather will hold up and I can get some of the bushings replaced in the front end. It's been fun taking off-ramps at faster than normal. The ebay axle had bolts busted off in the holes for the rear sway bar, so while I was in the temporary set-up I didn't have one. Let's just say those things do more work than you would believe.
After a 150 miles or so I replaced the rear diff oil with some Valoline Synthetic 75W-140 on Zuk’s recommendation. I used some regular dead dinosaur 75W-90 for the “break-in” to flush out any remaining metal after clearancing the axle housing. The fluid looked pretty clean and then magnet only had a small amount of fuzz. I think we’re good to go.
oil change with 5.5 qts of valvoline high mileage and a D3 filter. I finally got around to cleaning, painting, and rehanging the front skid plates. I also dropped off the 2 wheels that need the rims swapped so it will work with the TBU.
Once the tire gets swapped to the correct rim I’ll rotate the tires. I also sprayed the sway bar bolts and steering rack bolts with PB in preparation for swapping bushings. I’ve always had luck with a few applications of PB over the course of a few days.
04-09-2018 | 04:35 PM
I think the next step is to pull the diff, but that will probably wait until warmer weather and the purchase of a cheap temporary 3rd I can throw in.
I wasn't sure if they were going to actually repair MY unit, or just swap out a working unit. I've heard bad stories from "the internet" about that sort of behavior. So I marked my unit before it left and the marks were there upon return.
