I think my 95 Eddie Bauer front end is trashed. I placed in 4WD Auto going down the freeway and a minute later I heard loud BAM!. I shifted back to 2WD and a minute later I could feel a pretty good vibration from the front end. As I slowed for a light the vibration quit and everything seemed OK.

After letting the vehicle sit in cold weather for several hours I proceeded to make my way home and the vibration was louder than ever in 2WD. This probably due to cold oil in transfer case spinning front drive shaft. I removed the front drive shaft so I could make my way home. I'm worried I busted a spider or ring/pinion.

Anybody been here before on a 95 or later. How much am I talking and what should I watch out for.

Bumbed,
FordFool

 

The Ford Dealer called this afternoon and said the pinion bearing failed. This also wasted the shaft, ring and pinion gears. Estimating $1200 to fix.

Could a failed pinion bearing do this much damage?? Does this price sound legitimate??


FordFool:-(

 

I must be all alone on this issue so I guess I'll keep talking to myself. The repair, including 2 new lower ball joints, came to $1400. The outer pinion bearing was wasted which severely grooved the pinion shaft. That instantly meant a new ring and pinion ($590) plus bearings and seals and a bunch of labor.

Dealer put a new pinion seal in the front 18 months ago and I'm thinking they overtorqued the yoke and overloaded the bearing. We are in discussions on this now. Hopefully I can recover some of the cost.

 

You might be the only person here that has experienced this type of failure. I'm sure other's are reading and at least I appreciate the follow-up. I'm sure other do as well, we just didn't have anything to offer. I believe you are right on as far as the dealer over torqueing the pinion nut. My dealer replaced my leaking pinion seal a few years ago under warranty. A couple of years ago I noticed it leaking again. A couple of months ago I decided to change it. The pinion nut was so tight that I couldn't budge it with my 36" breaker bar. I had my Explorer up on car ramps. The torque I was applying to the nut almost dragged my Explorer over the end of the ramps with my rear E-brake on. I also tried my impact wrench and it wouldn't budge it. I've put about 50K on it since they changed the seal so hopefully if it was going to cause a problem, it would have shown up by now.

Berge Ford

 

Just to put my 2 cents on your front diff.
as we all know there are special tools to do this repair .
One is the tool used to hold the yoke while removing the pinon nut.
and while reinstalling it.There is a crush sleeve under the nut and flange. tightening this nut down crushes the sleeve to set bearing preload, if not done corectly to proper specs, you will eventually have the problem you had.
good luck

Rich





Ford Trucks Built Tough!
not with rocks
Watch out Mr Mayor of Truckville:

 

In that case, it is probably a good thing that I wasn't able to break the pinion nut free. I can live with the very small leak I have right now.

 

Yep! Same thing happened to me. You're not going to be happy because it is a "recurring problem". Seems likes it happens about every two and half years. The first time it happened it caused my wife to wreck and hehehe - all four of the Firestone tires blew. She hit a concrete bridge wall like they use for separators on all the interstates. She was lucky she wasn't hurt. $$$$ on that one for the wreck it caused. Insurance paid most.

The second time it happened was a month after the above wreck got fixed. It seems they didn't change all the old parts. They only charged me $125.00 because of the above repair.

The third time it happened I was driving and slowing down for a stop light when I heard the <*CLUNK*> and then the grinding again. This time I went to the Ford Dealership. $1650.00 later it was fixed.

It seems that a related part the front differential/transmission/whateva you want to call it, comes in two versions. A cheap one and an improved one. I have the cheap one in mine. I'm not expert. Just had this problem 3 times.

It suxxx when that happens, but I still love my 93 Ford Explorer. Not really interested in hearing comments about shoddy mechanics because they were decent mechanics - it was shoddy design and parts in some machines.

 

keep in mind that gear manufacturers use highly specialized and proven heat treatment processes... to make the gears very hard, without making them brittle... believe me you'd know in a lot less time than two years if you had a badly manufactured ring, pinion, yoke, or bearings... chances are, your recurrant problem is due to a mechanic's error...

a lot of mechanics setup the ring and pinion assembly with 2-4 thousands of clearance -- trying to get everything really tight...

this can actually make the assembly work against itself, wearing out WAY before it's time... 12 to 15 thousands lets more lubricant in... and extends the life of the parts...

the trick is, you don't want it too lose or too tight... there's a compound that the mechanic can use, to lay down a patch right on the ring, so he can actually see what kind of pattern has been put together... the whole key is to get that pattern right in the center of the gears... the mechanic needs to follow the manf instructions TO THE LETTER... or you'll end up either destroying or shortening the lifespan of the ring and pinion... but for whatever reason, a lot of mechanics don't do this vital step... make sure they're doing the job right and you just might break the cycle...


>Yep! Same thing happened to me. You're not going to be happy
>because it is a "recurring problem". Seems likes it happens
>about every two and half years. The first time it happened
>it caused my wife to wreck and hehehe - all four of the
>Firestone tires blew. She hit a concrete bridge wall like
>they use for separators on all the interstates. She was
>lucky she wasn't hurt. $$$$ on that one for the wreck it
>caused. Insurance paid most.
>
>The second time it happened was a month after the above
>wreck got fixed. It seems they didn't change all the old
>parts. They only charged me $125.00 because of the above
>repair.
>
>The third time it happened I was driving and slowing down
>for a stop light when I heard the <*CLUNK*> and then the
>grinding again. This time I went to the Ford Dealership.
>$1650.00 later it was fixed.
>
>It seems that a related part the front
>differential/transmission/whateva you want to call it, comes
>in two versions. A cheap one and an improved one. I have the
>cheap one in mine. I'm not expert. Just had this problem 3
>times.
>
>It suxxx when that happens, but I still love my 93 Ford
>Explorer. Not really interested in hearing comments about
>shoddy mechanics because they were decent mechanics - it was
>shoddy design and parts in some machines.

 

"hankm" you are absolutely correct.!!!!
being that dealer wrenchers are pushed "time" to get the job done
they don't like to press the bearings off/on to put the correct shims
in to get the pattern correct.
I will say 1 thing about the design though! If that front diff had the older style adjustable carrier,where you could adjust the the carrier
to get the pattern easier,rather than having to disasemble an put shims in ,it would be better.I've worked on both an you cannot be rushed to do
it. what we used to do is set them in a jig an spin them to break them in
then take all spec's measurments again.
never had callback on any we built.that we know of!
since retired !
but still love ford trucks!!!
you should an probably have heard some of the horror stories from other
manufacturers

Rich


Ford Trucks Built Tough!
not with rocks
Watch out Mr Mayor of Truckville

 

Just opened the mail and found a $400 check from the dealer. They originally repaired the leaking front pinion seal but actually did it 30 months ago, not 18 months ago (previous reply). I don't know if this is dealer money or Ford money but I am much happier now. Explorer front end should last way past 60,000 miles.

:-)