98 Ranger Leaf Spring U-Bolts

[modelageek]

Just realized the actor is Chris Noth. Not North!

 

[Chris_North]

Oh, haha. My real last name is (so I am told) derived from the german word for North, so that's the best thing I could come up with for a username.

I've been spraying the bolts with PB Blaster when I park it at work and at home. At least I can find them, should they have a problem. Even if it's not the diff making the actual noise (it definitely sounds to be coming from rear-center) there is definite damage to gears and probably bearings in there. After pulling the cover off every one of the pinion gear's teeth are chipped, plus a few damaged other gears' teeth. The fluid was changed about a year ago, but now it's dark black and looks like the milky way. After wiping some of the oil off my hands it looked like I got glitter-bombed from all the metal flakes. The plug had over an inch of metal oil paste stuck to it, with some large gear chunks mixed in. I don't drive this truck hard, I'm not sure what happened. It was a little rough last year when I changed the oil, but not like this.

There is no play in the drive shaft, but there is a lot after the u-joint at the diff end. Not sure what is responsible but I can pull either rear wheel away from the truck about a 1/4 inch. I already bought salvage rear. through some googling I priced out a diff rebuild and they want $500 for a gear and bearing set before install, which is probably beyond my capability. For a trustworthy shop to just install the salvage one I was quoted $150.

 

[Chris_North]

Oh, haha. My real last name is (so I am told) derived from the german word for North, so that's the best thing I could come up with for a username.

I've been spraying the bolts with PB Blaster when I park it at work and at home. At least I can find them, should they have a problem. Even if it's not the diff making the actual noise (it definitely sounds to be coming from rear-center) there is definite damage to gears and probably bearings in there. After pulling the cover off every one of the pinion gear's teeth are chipped, plus a few damaged other gears' teeth. The fluid was changed about a year ago, but now it's dark black and looks like the milky way. After wiping some of the oil off my hands it looked like I got glitter-bombed from all the metal flakes. The plug had over an inch of metal oil paste stuck to it, with some large gear chunks mixed in. I don't drive this truck hard, I'm not sure what happened. It was a little rough last year when I changed the oil, but not like this.

There is no play in the drive shaft, but there is a lot after the u-joint at the diff end. Not sure what is responsible but I can pull either rear wheel away from the truck about a 1/4 inch. I already bought salvage rear. through some googling I priced out a diff rebuild and they want $500 for a gear and bearing set before install, which is probably beyond my capability. For a trustworthy shop to just install the salvage one I was quoted $150.