your pinion opinion please

richard allison

richard allison

New Member
hello everybody. i could use your help with my ranger danger. i have a 2004 ranger xlt. the rear diff is 7.5 28 spline LIMITED SLIP. recently one of the spider gears shattered and it was ugly. it even punched a hole in the cover. in order to replace all spider gears and clutch plates we had to remove the carrier and remove the ring gear to get the parts in and out. the pinion gear had small chips about the size of half of your pinky fingernail at the very tip edge of the gear. i found paint marks on the ring gear but no marks on the pinion gear to match it to. i suspect if there were any they may have been chipped off. the pinion gear did not feel bad when rotated by hand and i could not get any wiggle out of it. all assembled well and filled with 80w-90 with motorcraft additive.
now when driving i have a light grinding noise when coasting or deaccelerateing from any speed. there is no problem or noise when accelerating or cruisng. i can stop the grinding if i brake and a little gas at the same time. i replaced both u joints just in case with no difference. now i wonder if i should replace bearings or the ring and pinion as well or if i overlooked something. any thoughts would be appreciated please.
 
Did you torque the nut for the pinion gear or just snug it?
I ask, because it sounds like its moving as you drive and it shouldn't.....could be where your grinding noise is coming from.
 
i did not touch the nut or the pinion at all. i did spin it by hand and did not notice any problems but i could have easily overlooked a problem. my gut tells me there is more damage from the spider gear shattering such as perhaps the bearings. please also note that there is no noise when it is cold but will start again after a mile of travel.
 
You might be right.
Sounds like you need to pull it apart again and inspect everything (don't forget to replace the crush sleeve when you put it back together)....or just get another axle.
 
The setup of your ring and pinion (pinion depth, ring gear backlash etc) is designed to keep everything quiet in all conditions. With the noise you are describing, it sounds like something on the coast side of the ring and/or pinion has been damaged. if you don't hear any noise accelerating, the "drive side" of the ring and pinion hasn't been affected. With that being said, you can probably drive that thing for the rest if it's life with no other issues. However, if you are looking to make the noise go away completely, you are probably going to have to replace the ring an pinion.
 
richard allison said:
So my bigger question is if I should replace the pinion altogether due to the small chips at the tips of the small end ?
Click to expand...
I blew out the spiders in a '73 Chevy Vega I used to have. Big ol' hunk taken out of my pinion. I just dropped in another set of spiders and it drove fine for another couple of years until I sold it (not sold because of rear end).
 
well that's good information. So i have some time before i replace the pinion and ring which i will do as i like to do the fix rather than band aid or dealing with it.
 
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