I have a 2000 Ford F350 4x4. I have been experiencing some issues that started about two months ago. At first, whenever I would hit a bump I would get a short vibration, similar to when you hit rumble strips on the highway, which the went away when you either hit another bump or flicked the truck into 4 High. This problem disappeared afer a week or two. Then I began hearing a whirring between 5 and 30 mph. I replaced the drivers side wheel bearing, and nothing changed. I began hearing a grinding noise in the drivers side, like when a backing plate is scraping. It got increasingly worse, and three days ago I hit a bump and heard a loud grinding noise in the front end, and the left front wheel locked up (hubs unlocked, 4x4 engaged). I turned 4x4 off and have a consistent grinding noise.
Yesterday I jacked up the front end and spun the passenger side wheel after discovering the universal joint on the axle shaft had gone bad. Whenever I spun the wheel, i heard a grinding from INSIDE the differential.
Today I removed the differential cover to find that I had no gear oil in there. At all. I have had the truck since July and HAD oil then, and found no leaks in the seal around the diff cover.
I did however find this:
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It doesnt look good to me. Does anyone have any idea what my differential shredded? Everyhting looks ok, apart from a thin film of fine metallic dust.
image2.JPG

 

Looks like a shim got left in there by accident or crush washer. If you have no gear oil it has to leak out somewhere so there is a bad seal somewhere

Can you post a pic of the spider gears and pin

 

I believe it is the pinion bearing that was shredded. Here's what I found



I will roll the truck back and post a picture of it as soon as possible

 

There has to have been a leak for it all to be gone.

 

Yeah that looks like the cage for it. Well what's left of it. Pull the front driveshaft. I bet there is a ton of play on that pinion. That's a better pic too. Most likely you lost the seal lost the oil and finally the bearing cage

 

The guy I purchased the truck from said there was a leak at the bottom of the diff, but I checked it daily and never saw any signs. Maybe it only leaked when the truck was hot, I don't know. I bought Royal Purple 75w90, I'm going to run some of the MasterPro through it first to clean up the deposit once I get everything working again.

 

You'll need to redo the front gears. Everything must come out. You can reuse the gears but might as well get new R&P. You'll need new bearing and seal kit and clean all the metal out.
Keep the old shims as a starting point to set up new gears

 

You also mentioned one of the u-joints as bad?


I would not engage any of the front end till you address the hubs and the u-joints. Sounds like this truck has been neglected so you will want to be through in the repairs.

 

In the 15 years the guy owned it he only used 4x4 twice, so it's no surprise to me that everything isn't working properly. It didn't start until after the first time I used 4x4, which makes sense. 2001F350dualwheel, What exactly does "redoing" the front gears entail? And which seals will I need to replace? I'm going to slap the diff cover back on for the night and resume the project on Monday when I have free time, so any input in that timeframe would be much appreciated.

 

Basically you'll need to
Pull wheels off
Pull hubs and axle shafts
Drop differential and ring gear
Remove driveshaft
Pull pinion gear
Replace all seals and bearings at the differential and pinion.
(If it was my axke I would pull the whole axle out set it on a set of stands and rebuild it all from end to end)
Set up the gears. This will require knowing how to install gears and setting up the correct pinion depth diff carrier and backlash and preload. It's a pretty involved process . If you have never done it you'll most likely need to take it in. Unless you know how to read a caliper and a dial gauge (don't mix up your bearing caps. Mark them left and right.)
Cost will probably be around 900-1100 bucks parts and labor at a shop. Maybe cheaper if the dude isn't busy and needs money.

The reason you need to redo the bearings is because all these metal shavings along with no gear oil pretty much destroyed the bearing surfaces on the axles.


I guess you could disconnect the front driveshaft and just not run in 4x4 just keep hubs in Free setting.

Wanted to add. You will need a hydraulic press to pop bearings off and install new ones

 

Might just be better to see if you can get one out of a junkyard at this point. One alternative.

 

Take it to a rear end shop and get it done right the first time. Usually they guarantee there work so no worries. You may need some special tools to do this job correctly. Have them check the other rear end at the same time. I'm pretty handy with tools and do lots of my own work but would never attempt a job like this.

 

It also looks like the lock bolt for the round pin is missing...

 

A ring and pinion isn't something to want to try if you don't know how to do it. It can be done if you want to try and keep asking for tips. You can save your diff carrier but you need everything else. Going price for a front axles, it will be cheaper to fix yours

 

That could be what took out the bearing.