I had a bad seal in the drivers side rear end hub, so like a good boy i parked the truck until i had the seal and changed it. Bye bye wheel and brakes, off with the hub, bearings looked great so i changed the seal quick and reinstalled everything. Having the 11.5 AAM i torqued the bearings to 22 ft/lbs while spinning the wheel, and upon a little test drive the leak stopped, but HOLY F*CK what a racket coming from the rear end! I dont know what happened but my god its snapping and popping enough to hear over that cummins upfront! i'm not an expert on differentials but, did i forget something? I know on our dump trucks if i remove both axles the "collar" can fall down and you cant get the axles back in, but i only removed the drivers side and it slid back in nice as can be? i havent read anything that says i forgot a step, but even when i opened the cover up on the pumpkin i didnt see a single chunk shaving or file which would lead me to believe something in the carrier let go!? could it just be the bearings? maybe since theyre used they werent pleased with being torqued back to 22ft/lbs? any help is appreciated since i have to haul our horse trailer to a show this weekend, and momma bear will be ugly if its not ready to go! Thanks for any help/input!

 

Did you lower the side of the axle that the seal was done to flood the bearings when you were done? I've heard of bearing issues happening if this isn't done. Topping up the axle alone isn't enough.

 

yes sir, i let it sit for almost an hour while i had supper with the passenger side up on the ramp, brought it back down and let it sit for another half hour before i checked/ topped it up, starting too loose my sense of humour with this thing!

 

Pull the axle and take the lock pin and snap ring off! Tighten nut real tight and back off 1/4 turn, put pin and clip back on turn wheel by hand should be smooth. You don't have to take the tire off! Hopefully you didn't destroy anything but i would inspect if any resistance is felt! Put the truck on jack stands and run it in gear listen and look! have the wife in the truck just in case!

 

i opened it back up, and put new bearings and races in both sides yesterday, used lucas 75-90 and got the additive, took the truck down the road and did figure 8's just like the additive advised, but the noise just got progressively worse! any ideas what the hell could of gone wrong? it sounds like a snapping or clicking and it for sure isn't wheel bearings, any input would be awsome

 

Put it on stands and run it! Check your u-joints!