Swapping 1995 7.5 Rear End

[Eddie Mac]

My sons 95 splash standard 5speed with a 7.5 & 3.73 gears and makes a big clunk when the clutch is released and makes clunks with what seems every rotation of the drive shaft. My neighborhood mechanic says replace the rear end. Should we 1st look to tighten pinion nut? and/or grease the yoke? If we do swap out I located a 1989 ranger with a 7.5 & 3.45 gears, can we direct swap for ours? Thanks for your help!

 

[Shran]

U-joint?

 

[Eddie Mac]

My mechanic said the u-joints were ok. He jacked up the back end and the checked the u-joints and then checked the drive shaft, there seemed to be play in the rear end. He said get an used rear end but I read about the loose pinion nut issue on rangers and thought that might be the issue.

 

[Captain Ledd]

The driveshaft balancer didn't come off did it? (up by the transmission) That threw me for a loop for a little while.

If it's making clunks with a seemingly driveshaft rotation then more than likely it's something to do with the driveshaft.

I'm not entirely convinced it's the axles fault from that description.

 

[Eddie Mac]

Thanks for the suggestions we'll check them out!

 

[Wicked_Sludge]

you cannot just tighten the pinion nut without cause damage to the rear end. there is a specific amount of preload the pinion has to have on it which requires an in-lbs torque wrench and special proceedures to set it up. ive never heard of a pinion nut backing off before.

the axle you found will work, but make sure it has the same brakes as your current axle (9" or 10") and realize that the lower gear ratio will hurt acceleration.