Well I think I will be able to sleep again. As some of you may know I have been plagued with a noise in my transmission that has proven almost impossible to trace. It all started with a standard manual GS 24v Manual running standard diffs.
Almost in one go, I swapped the diffs for ones from my auto that had only done 79,000 miles (Silver Phoenix) which weren't needed as I put in 4.56's to cope with the 37's. So these diffs had done nothing.
I put on 35's. I also put in a new transfer box to gain the viscous coupling and finally a pretty new 100 series 5 speed box. As well of course as a big lift from EFS. On over run especially I was getting a grumble / rumble noise which sounded pretty worrying. Trying to solve this has seen three transfer boxes, two gearboxes, drop boxes for the suspension and hours and hours of grief.
Yesterday I pulled the diff. On the short axle, everything looked good. On the long side, there was a definite loss of grease in the CV. I believe that the vibration that I have been having has caused the grease to flow out of the CV as it really doesn't move otherwise. I have been managing the vibration by balancing the throttle to minimise the effect. You can see the CV grease effect here. All the extra grease was sitting in the knuckle.
I have put an old and worn diff in and the vibration has gone but I can't stand the whine I get from it. So this morning I pulled the original diff apart.
Errm, any metallurgists out there? It's only the main carrier bearing. All the others are fine. Not every roller is like this, most yes, but it's an odd pattern.
These were original OEM Koyo bearings. So hopefully a clean and tune up and it will be back in action.
It does mean pulling the axle apart again, but I can do that pretty much blindfolded now. And if there's no other work to do it's pretty quick.
So that's hopefully that. I couldn't see the bearings in situ of course but I used the Milwaukee to spin it up using the pinion and immediately got the same phasing / grinding noise I hear in the cabin.
And relax ....
Almost in one go, I swapped the diffs for ones from my auto that had only done 79,000 miles (Silver Phoenix) which weren't needed as I put in 4.56's to cope with the 37's. So these diffs had done nothing.
I put on 35's. I also put in a new transfer box to gain the viscous coupling and finally a pretty new 100 series 5 speed box. As well of course as a big lift from EFS. On over run especially I was getting a grumble / rumble noise which sounded pretty worrying. Trying to solve this has seen three transfer boxes, two gearboxes, drop boxes for the suspension and hours and hours of grief.
Yesterday I pulled the diff. On the short axle, everything looked good. On the long side, there was a definite loss of grease in the CV. I believe that the vibration that I have been having has caused the grease to flow out of the CV as it really doesn't move otherwise. I have been managing the vibration by balancing the throttle to minimise the effect. You can see the CV grease effect here. All the extra grease was sitting in the knuckle.
I have put an old and worn diff in and the vibration has gone but I can't stand the whine I get from it. So this morning I pulled the original diff apart.
Errm, any metallurgists out there? It's only the main carrier bearing. All the others are fine. Not every roller is like this, most yes, but it's an odd pattern.
These were original OEM Koyo bearings. So hopefully a clean and tune up and it will be back in action.
It does mean pulling the axle apart again, but I can do that pretty much blindfolded now. And if there's no other work to do it's pretty quick.
So that's hopefully that. I couldn't see the bearings in situ of course but I used the Milwaukee to spin it up using the pinion and immediately got the same phasing / grinding noise I hear in the cabin.
And relax ....