Gear noise questions

[Zombie]

OK, before I buy more than I need too, I'll throw this out there.

When I bought my jeep, there was a slight whine to the front diff. Supposedly this is fairly common to 5.9 Grands.
Fast forward to after a lift, some gnarly mud tires, and breaking the front driveline wheeling. I found a crack in the lower control arm bracket. I welded it up, added some gussets, and skidplated for front of the bracket. I kept the groud on the same side of the diff as the work, to avoid any weirdness in the bearings, and things seemed ok.
Fast forward a little more, and I replaced the super noisy Uniroyal mudders with some BFG ATs. Drove away fron the tire shop, and wow... the front diff is LOUD!

a couple months later, it started growling instead of whining, and it would make weird grindy noises on deceleration. I pulled the inner axle shafts, and front driveline, and have been running it hollow ever since.
I've had a few changes in plans and I'm getting ready to fix my crap pile so I can at least have a little fun, so I need to address the diff. I haven't pulled the cover yet, and I know that will be a good place to start, but I'm tryign to get a handle on the costs for now...

1)Should I just order a new R&P, and a master kit and start fresh?
2)What are the chances my R&P are re-usable?
3) STFU N00b, pull the cover, post pics and let us decide.

Thanks guys. Gears scare me, cause I don't know much about them.

 

[mbryson]

Have you got outer stubs in the unit bearings? If not, stop driving it PDQ and get some in there.

 

[Zombie]

Yes... outer stubs are in the unit bearings. I didn't want to do the three wheel tango.

 

[Greg]

IIRC, those 5.9 Grands are known for gear problems. My friend had one, less than 20k miles on it & he had to have new gears put in both ends.

You could probably take it to one of the local drivetrain shops & they could tell you what's going on. I'd recommend Six States, Gaylons in Lehi, etc.

 

[I Lean]

1) Yes.
2) Probably re-usable, but not if your goal is a quiet gear set. Once they're worn in weird pattern (if they were set up wrong or have bad bearings), they'll always howl.
3) Sure, if you want to. Doesn't always tell everything since bearings can be the source of noise, but....

 

[d-stumph]

1) Yes.
2) Probably re-usable, but not if your goal is a quiet gear set. Once they're worn in weird pattern (if they were set up wrong or have bad bearings), they'll always howl.
3) Sure, if you want to. Doesn't always tell everything since bearings can be the source of noise, but....

totally agree, once they have been set up wrong and wear in a bad pattern, they will always make noise. bearings usually dont growl

I would pull the cover and look at the oil, if it has big metal chunks in it or even a lot of little ones, or there looks like scratch marks/indentions/grooves (i dont know exactly how to describe them) on the ring gear (each tooth in a uniform pattern) I would replace the ring and pinion and do a master install kit (full bearing set). and unless you are proficient at doing gears (reading pattern, setting backlash, setting pinion depth) i would just pay the extra couple of hundred dollers and have a shop do it for you and let them have the liability of it being wrong. if you want to do it yourself there are killer deals on gears and master kits out there but unless it is done right you will be in the same situation a few thousand miles down the road