8.8 Howl.....Input Appreciated

[ajdurling]

Hi everyone, I realised I did something stupid (and Ford), after it was too late.

I have an 06 Ranger 4x4 Sport, and had a flat tire one night, miles from anywhere. I put on my spare, and went on my way.

After a number of miles, (100ish), I noticed that my rear end was starting to make noise. I had no choice but to continue.

By the time I got home, it was getting really bad. I took off the diff cover to inspect, and everything looked normal, and the fluid was still clean.

I had the tire fixed, and noticed that the size on the spare is 235/75/16, and the tires on the truck are 255/70/16. It all started to make sense. Why Ford would do this is beyond me.

I am assuming that the different sized tire may have caused more heat than normal possibly mimicking a continual cornering situation, which may in turn be causing the gear set and or bearings to prematurely fail.

Has anyone experienced this or something similar? I would suspect that maybe the clutches in the traction lok are really damaged causing the howl, but would like some input before I attempt anything.

Diff is a 8.8 Traction Lok with 4.10's

Thanks to all for reading

 

[88_Eddie]

are you the original owner? if not, the PO could've put 255's all around and not bothered with the spare......i dont think ford would do that

i had a 215 spare once, when i had 235's, but i only ever used it on my front 2 tires and never in 4wd. i ALWAYS make sure i have a same sized spare now


if everything looked fine when you took the diff cover off, i bet it's fine....but i wouldnt drive it like that anymore

 

[COPPERHEAD85]

My dads 90ish (not for sure the exact date in 90) Ranger sport 4X4 has 16" factory wheels with a 15" factory spare.....

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

Yes, that is the stock size spare, but it is not a problem as the 235/75r16 is only 0.6% smaller of a tire diameter wise than the 255/70r16.

 

[IRKillroy]

it was probably because of a dealer upgrade the original owner purchased.

Dealers do that you know. Ford doesn't care as long as the dealers buy the cars from them.

And Yes that small size difference would make the smaller tire the permanant drive tire due to be that much smaller, however, it won't cause anything to prematurely wear out.

I think it's just a coincidence that you lost a bearing.

I drove about 400 miles on my 89 ranger with a spare until I upgraded to swamper thornbirds and there was a huge difference in tire size between what I had and the spare... no bearing failure.

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

Now....is this noise constant? Does it get louder as you go faster? Is it only under acceleration? Deceleration? While coasting?

 

[ajdurling]

It is the factory spare.

It makes noise constantly from about 15mph and up, accel, decel, and cruise. Accel and cruise it howls, on decel it sounds like there are a bunch of marbles bouncing around inside. No vibration or any other abnormalities though. The traction lok seems to work.

Im thinking maybe if I replace the clutches for the traction lok, and the diff bearings I will get rid of the noise?

Suggestions?