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You will be glad you did a TT. My noise from the diff was the bearings, same noises and circumstances. Mines been perfect for about 80k now.
Gonna need a little advise/help on the rear end. I'm still waiting on the dealer to let me know what specialty tools they have that I can borrow, yes they will loan me tools, but I don't need every single specific tool listed in the shop manual, I just don't know what I can improvise on, or just buy a cheap knockoff.
A recent "Sticky Situation" in my front yard with the camper proved the current limited slip clutch diff was fully slipping. To boot I have what sounds like pinion bearing noise under load. The rear end is all original to my knowledge, so I'm not picking and choosing, at what to replace, it's all getting rebuilt.
Got things started this weekend, have no clue what I'm doing, but things are making sense, and seem to be progressing OK. Haven't identified any bad bearings, or cups as of yet, but there are some wear points here and there which may be giving me my noise, including the axle bearings, or the LS bearings. I got things removed, and the outer pinion bearing cup installed, The Ford dealer loaned me 2 Rotunda kits but they are incomplete, and we never found a specific kit for this job. About a billion dollars later this weekend, I have ordered a ton of one time use tools, and 2 Rotunda kits. I'm feeling wear on the accell face of the ring gear teeth that has created a deeper area where the contact point has been, the right carrier cup appears to have been spinning against, or wearing into the right shim, there is a definite ridge there, and the outer pinion surface that contacts the outer bearing cup looks scored too. This may all be from loss of pre-load on the pinion bearing from age and wear.
I took a similar, but slightly different, route , put a Eaton Detroit truetrac in the back.
And a basic lunchbox locker in the front (swapped a dana 60 in the front, lots of locker selection for the 60, not so much for the normal dana 50 that excursion's come with).
Hopefully I'll never get stuck in my yard, because if do, the dang yard will be tore up afterwards with now actual 4x4 going on (which would suck for trying to get grass to grow again).
I took a similar, but slightly different, route , put a Eaton Detroit truetrac in the back.
And a basic lunchbox locker in the front (swapped a dana 60 in the front, lots of locker selection for the 60, not so much for the normal dana 50 that excursion's come with).
Hopefully I'll never get stuck in my yard, because if do, the dang yard will be tore up afterwards with now actual 4x4 going on (which would suck for trying to get grass to grow again).
My set up is almost identical, except I went with an E locker instead of a lunchbox. I will pretty much guarantee that you won’t get stuck. This set up is absolutely insane and having that locker upfront makes it grip in the worst conditions.
My set up is almost identical, except I went with an E locker instead of a lunchbox. I will pretty much guarantee that you won’t get stuck. This set up is absolutely insane and having that locker upfront makes it grip in the worst conditions.
and I love seeing the progress. I’ve probably said it 100 times now, but your attention to detail is so far above and beyond most guys, and that to me is a big part of what makes this truck so great.
My set up is almost identical, except I went with an E locker instead of a lunchbox. I will pretty much guarantee that you won’t get stuck. This set up is absolutely insane and having that locker upfront makes it grip in the worst conditions.
My set up is almost identical, except I went with an E locker instead of a lunchbox. I will pretty much guarantee that you won’t get stuck. This set up is absolutely insane and having that locker upfront makes it grip in the worst conditions.
and I love seeing the progress. I’ve probably said it 100 times now, but your attention to detail is so far above and beyond most guys, and that to me is a big part of what makes this truck so great.
Thanks, but I really have no idea what I'm doing here, I'm stumbling through, spending too much money on specialty tools, when I could probably do shortcuts, as I've seen in videos, but since I've never done this before, I'd rather do it with the correct tools the first time, that way I can understand the reason the shortcuts are done the next time. All I need to do is damage the housing, and I'm screwed. So we learn by choice. I decided to do the "in vehicle repair" here instead of removing the axle, and bringing it to the back of the garage under the new lean-too. It's rainy season here, and winter, with the time this will take, it may show signs of rust from moisture.
I took a similar, but slightly different, route , put a Eaton Detroit truetrac in the back.
And a basic lunchbox locker in the front (swapped a dana 60 in the front, lots of locker selection for the 60, not so much for the normal dana 50 that excursion's come with).
Hopefully I'll never get stuck in my yard, because if do, the dang yard will be tore up afterwards with now actual 4x4 going on (which would suck for trying to get grass to grow again).
The embarrassing thing I never mentioned after getting stuck in my own front yard was how I got out.
I tried myself with the neighbors tractor, but even though it was in 4x4, i never knew to press the foot pedal to lock in the diff, so the tractor was just spinning it's wheels.
A little bit of left foot heel on the diff lock pedal and that little tractor would've probably pulled you out. I have a similar sized Kubota tractor (an L3130 to be exact), and its pretty amazing how much work a little 31hp tractor can get done.
But getting an Excursion pulled out by a 1/2 ton Chevy,,,,just embarrassing.
...
Looks great! I enjoy watching the details on this because I will have to do it one day as well. Truetrac is the route I'd like to go in axles with 4.30s or 4.56s to make up for the little 5.4L under my hood.
I know what happened to your rear diff. It's those dang wheels again.
Too bad I don't need them now, or I could take them off of your hands.
My neighbor keeps telling me it's because of my new tires, had I had the Kevlar GoodYear Wrangler's back on there I probably would've made it through. They were not practical for towing, which I started doing a lot of.
Didn't make much progress today. Ran to town, the post office for one of my tool orders, (sig required), received other tool deliveries (lots), and the press arrived today. Got the large pinion race installed, then put together the press, surprise, nowhere was it mentioned that the press was shipped with no hydraulic fluid, I think I have some.
The large bearing race installer can be used with one of the OTC driving handles, I have the long, waiting on the short to arrive. Because I was in a sitting position, it was tough to get the race to bang in straight, it kept going in crooked, so I switched to the OTC draw bar that I also bought, and installed both race drivers and draw bar between the races, and drew them in to their seats. Went in very smooth. Tomorrow, I should make some progress, the large bearing needs to be removed from the old pinion to see if there was a shim between the bearing and stop on the pinion. Then I can prepare the new pinion for installation. I am still waiting on one more Rotunda axle service kit to arrive.
I do know there are several shortcuts, I have watched many videos of the 10.5 being rebuilt. I chose to go the shop manual route with as many of the OTC tools I could round up as I have never done this before. Going forward, I will learn the the shortcuts as I perform the work based on the shop manual.
Bearing seal plate, T75L-1165-B, (205-090) Aftermarket
OTC large handle D81L-4000-A (205-D055)
Differential Gauge Handle T76P-4020-A11 (205-111) Aftermarket
OTC Large pinion bearing cup installer. D81T-4616-A (205-D049)
OTC Large pinion bearing cup installer. D81T-4616-A (205-D049)
OTC Drive Pinion Depth Gauge. (205-423)
OTC Draw Bar T75T-1176-A, (205-098), Carrier bearing remover set 205-S419, Collets (205-430), sleeve (205-431), Step Plate (205-432)
I'm feeling wear on the accell face of the ring gear teeth that has created a deeper area where the contact point has been, the right carrier cup appears to have been spinning against, or wearing into the right shim, there is a definite ridge there, and the outer pinion surface that contacts the outer bearing cup looks scored too. This may all be from loss of pre-load on the pinion bearing from age and wear.
That pool was bought for the top end injector work, and for cleaning the engine valley since the truck was in the garage for all of that work.
