Agreed. The side adjusters on the new Dana axles make them an excellent axle for us. Easy breezy to swap diffs, etc.

I went 10.5 to avoid this ('17).

 

Taking my truck to my local dealership to check on 3 developing issues:

1.Ring and pinion or bearing loud whine between 62 mph and up. It’s throttle/load sensitive. Noisy on both acceleration and decelerating.

2.Clicking sound as trans downshifts from 2nd to 1st when coming to a stop and occasionally clicks again under light throttle application from a standing start.

3. Clunk or slop in driveline when first applying throttle different from above click, happens about 50% of the time. Strangely, I couldn’t reproduce the clunk when I disabled the traction control? Wonder if some of the safety nanny protections are interfering with the throttle or brakes?

I find it unacceptable that my truck has only 4000 miles on it while it sounds like the driveline and rear diff has 200k miles on it!

On a side note, dealership service writer said they have a really sharp driveline and axle tech. Hoping that is true and not just blowing smoke. Will report their diagnosis and repairs, if any, as soon as I can.

 

Number 3 is normal. 1 & 2 sound like valid problems. Maybe another bad axle.

 

I wonder if my #3 problem is the splined rear portion of the split driveshaft that requires the special ford grease?

 

The clunk may be related to your axle issue. My axle never had any clunk from take off. I also have the same trans and transfer case.

 

Looks like they may have had a bad run of parts/procedures at the Dana plant....
2018 F350 DRW in the shop now with same problem...rear end whine between 70-74mph, only under power, not when decelerating. I suspected bearing preload when I brought it in. Just found out that ring gear and pinion parts are on backorder...no ETA.

 

What gears do you have? Mine are 4.10, OP had 4.30’s.

Mine started out whining between 65-70 brand new and soon it opened to between 62-80 mph, now at 4000 miles on the odometer. There’s definitely something wrong going on with the Dana plant. Maybe they cut corners on proper set-up procedures to meet delivery quotas?

 

Uh oh, not good. This may indicate Dana's reluctance to go with side bearing adjusters. Supposedly these new Advantek axles are the first salisbury style are Dana's first with adjusters. Hopefully it doesn't turn out to be an engineering defect and is just lousy setup.

 

Partial update, I left my truck with local dealer. Service manager took a short drive and said he wasn’t able to reproduce any of the issues. He did say that they want to keep the truck longer and drive it longer to diagnose further. Not sure where this is leading to? I’ve headed to work so I told them they can have the truck for the next two weeks while I’m out of town at work. Hoping they discover what I’ve already noticed. It’s possible I may have to find another dealer if I get a “that’s a normal sound” type final diagnosis?

 

I have the 3.55 gears.

 

Did your dealership diagnose a bad ring and pinion? I fear my dealer is starting to drag their feet a little in that they’ve driven the truck once and the SM said he didn’t hear anything wrong? Hoping for the best but I will try another dealership if I’m not satisfied.

 

My truck has the same rear end whine around 70MPH under load, quiet with no load. 4.10s dually. 12K miles now, has had the noise since new.

 

I noticed the whine during test drive, and insisted that the service manager go on a drive to confirm issue. I got a firm commitment from the dealership owner and the service manager that this was not a normal noise, that they would immediately take the differential down and check preload, and that there would not be a "pissing contest" over whether this was something I'd be expected to live with.....Before I signed the papers. We'll see how all that works out when the new parts come in.

 

Update, so far the truck is still quiet, no leaks of any kind, no clunks, pumpkin is warm to the touch, and it seems the tech did a good job.

So at least on my truck, it looks like the setup was bad at the Dana factory.

As to Fr8dog69, find another dealer, I really wouldn't want their tech working on it cause the service manager might be passive aggressive and reuse old parts to 'get it done'. I'd probably make a video so one can hear the noise. And yes, per your PM I did take the truck back to my selling dealer, Sunland Ford in Victorville.

jfcody, my truck whined from 15mph up, from brand new, didn't matter what the driveline load was. Either way, it should run silent at all times, like any other differential.

For both of you guys, if you have miles on your trucks, make sure you get a brand new gearset with bearings, if it does end up being bad pattern, you don't want gears/brgs that are broken in like that.

 

Well, I had my brother go pick up my truck from dealership and the SM failed to heed my request to give me an Oasis report. So that I know the problem has been entered into the ford system computer.

I’m pretty much done with this dealer, they’ve proven to be incompetent not only in the sales department, reason I didn’t buy a truck from them, to a service department that thinks they know better than the customer. It’s a full circle disappointment at this point but I’m really not surprised. The SM who handled my truck, has had horrendous google reviews by random people and it’s a miracle he still has a job. For some reason, local people praise this dealership but it has to be some weird kind of legacy worship from previous owner or it’s more a Stockholm Syndrome.

I’m going to try another Ford dealership down the road in St George Utah and this time I’m going to have video of the issue and I’m going to be the one test driving the truck so a SM can hear what I do.

We’ll see, but I may end up going all the way to the Victorville California Sunland Ford dealer as they sound like an honest place. Most dealerships in our area are extreme rip-off artists and that’s just the way it is.