Here's about how much the pinion should move without moving the ring gear. But the proper way is to measure is hold the pinion, and move the ring gear. Think it's 6-10 thousands play on a 10.25

And if you get aggressive with it, it will make some noise even full of gear lube.


As far as your rear end, I'm not seeing anything that's sticking out as definitely wrong. Witch is kinda odd being it got really hot n smoked. It sucks not being able to feel/see what's going on personally, it's a lot easier to find a issue with hands on. Idk where else to point you really. But I didn't hear that noise it made in the first vid, so to narrow that down, I'd start bolting it back together one piece at a time tell you find the noise again.

In the one pic you posted it looked like the race was blued, but the other pics it looks good, so idk what to tell you there....


was there any in and out play if you tried to pull on the pinion?

 

Well that's what I decided to do as far as back together one piece at time.

• One axle stub, rotate listen, other axle stub rotate listen, not able to repeat the volume of the original sound from the video yesterday - it was quieter all three times but still there. The left bearing cap was off during this step and drive shaft was down.
  
• Put the bearing cap back on and repeated the above three times (one axle, other axle and both axles in), with both axles in, cap on, driveshaft off you can definitely hear the sound but not as loud as yesterday. Only change from yesterday is driveshaft off and I cleaned up the bearing cap before I re installed it.
  
• Reconnected the drive shaft, and repeated the above three times, with truck in neutral and wheels up (one axle, other axle and both axles in), same sound and a touch louder, had a friend do the turning while I listened at all four points - pinion, left wheel, right wheel, rear side of differential. It's loudest in the rear of the differential.

The pinion flange - had very little up/down or side/side movement and I yanked it with everything I had. Maybe an 1/8" of movement.

All the above tells me a bearing inside that differential is making that sound and the more you load it the louder it gets but no one component made it clearly louder. I'm not convinced it caused the extremely hot driver's wheel though.

So pulled the left rear caliper off and replaced the slide pins - had a new set already and put it back on, while I waited for the RTV to setup.

Not exactly a solution but after considering everything, I am going with the common sense answer -two times same wheel smoking hot -2 weeks of "fine" in between = a caliper is sticking intermittently. When I pulled it off it moved, but that doesn't mean it didn't stick previously.

That sound is going to bug me until I find it because I know it's something that is not right- sounds like a bearing that's too tight. I guess when it shows itself it will be a good reason to put the 4.30 gears in that I've wanted for while now.

So filled it back up and gonna drive it until something else shows itself or I get the time and dollars to look into get the new gears.

BTW got a new fire extinguisher while I was out.

 

Well only red flag I see is the pinion. You should not have any up/down, or in/out movement. It should basically be like a wheelbearing and have no free play, And spin easy by hand.

I do agree it's a good time to upgrade to lower gears, only downside is you have two axles to regear. You can't really set the pinion bearings, or check them for that mater with the carrier in place. That has to come out to set it. There's a crush sleave in it, and it's a mother to get to crush sometimes.

 

Well that's not what I wanted to hear, but kind of came to that conclusion based on that last video I took. Taking the driveshaft off made a huge difference in what I could see and feel and in that video you can certainly ear it more towards the pinion. When I listened myself it honestly sounds louder at the rear but the cover was off so I guess that makes sense.

Gonna keep my eyes out for a set of 4.30 axles front and rear - yeah I know they are hard to come by - but maybe I will get lucky. Paying the labor plus new gears for both is going to be pricey. But if I'm going to pay labor to have the rear torn down and the pinion replaced I'm not putting 3.73 back into it.....that would be like paying 500$ to repair a 20 year old dryer that's too small and takes forever to dry a load when you can pay $1,100 and get a brand new mac daddy dryer that will last you another 20 years.

 

Hahaha Apoc - just now actually saw this one. See you are still a hoot!

 

Out of curiosity try to snug up the pinion shaft nut it should already be snug and not turn easily, It probably won't fix anything at this point with metal in the pan but have seen used axles that have been worked on have that nut work loose or worn pionion bearings cause problems. I'm kind of wondering if that piece of metal isn't from the front pionion oil deflector? The ring gear is on the driver side and any slop in the pinion bearings would mess with the gear alignment and cause heat which would be transferred more to the driver side of the carrier but I would expect considerably higher pionion temps than you found in that case....? Seriously just pull it apart already and end the guessing game . Lol

 

There is nothing wrong with trying to tighten the pinion nut SOME.

I really hate to tell anyone to spend $ but in reality you need to pull it apart, replace all the bearings and seals. There is nothing worse then having a rearend go out on you when you least expect it!

Years ago, a buddy of mine needed an engine installed. I went over the truck for him and told him he also had a rear end issue. On the test drive I had an axle try to pass me when I made a turn!

You can do the rearend yourself. The hardest part is swapping the bearings.

 

I think the smoke is your caliper sticking. I know you replaced the pins, but the pistons can stick. We just replaced the drivers side on ours a couple months ago. The pistons were stuck bad enough it was hard to pry the caliper off. I would try this before you do any more with the axle bearings.

Is your axle limited slip? Usually when you turn the wheel end the spider gears spin instead of the whole carrier turning. The spider gears have a shim between them and the carrier housing. Could that piece of metal be one of those shims? The caliper sticking would cause a lot of load on the spider gears.