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My 87 ford f150 5.0L rear differential has a bit of play in it. when cleaning/adjusting the rear brakes last fall, I noticed when I had the wheels up in the air
that there was what I considered excessive play when rolling the wheel back/forth for the gears to engage. Is this play the pinion/ring play? or would it
be worn bearings in the carrier or pinion? I picked up a master rebuild kit for the rear diff but don't want to fire the parts cannon at it ***** nilly.
Anyone share some words of wisdom here as to when a teardown is warranted here? There is no noise coming from it when driving, just a clunk when
putting it it reverse usually as the gears engage. Drive doesn't seem to do that as much.
Usually it's a combination of wear everywhere.
You have to go through it part by part to see if any one thing's worn too
badly, or failed. The needles came out of a driveshaft on one of our
vehicles once, and I was shocked that the only real symptom was the
clang when I went to back up...
3.08? im so sorry. if I were you I would drop the rear cover and inspect and put new fluid in while at it. If you decide you want to go back in there, make a plan of it. Regardless of what you do, I recommend an elastomeric gasket like this :
when I picked it up in 2021 I had all fluids replaced with new gaskets. I'll wait a bit before diving into it as it's not yet too bad. Just ease it into gear.
Some slack in the rear is considered normal, there are a bunch of moving parts in the diff where a little play in each one adds up a fair bit at the axle ends. Does that truck have an AOD trans? if so the OD is practically useless with that axle ratio, the truck will perform much better and get better gas milage with 3.55 to 4.10 gears, so if you do decide to rebuild the diff consider changing the gear ratio at the same time.
If it's not making noise or leaking, leave it alone. You can check the bearing and pinion areas for excessive heat if you are worried about a bearing, but they will almost always be making noise if bad.
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