I put new offset bearings in my 92 E150 about 10 years ago. In the 92 E150 the axle is the inner race. Mine was dunked in at the boat ramp by the former owner. The offset bearings have about 80k on them. If I remember right, the guy on the parts counter offered them.

 

If the offset bearings don't work out. I was told that the only alternative is replacement axles and normal bearings.
How expensive are replacement axles? I'd expect I should be able to get a boneyard rear end for what a set of new axles would cost.

 

Was this one of FORD's Better Ideas? Must've been short lived? Glad to have missed it.

FORD's '93 parts book shows the "normal" cartridge type axle bearings I'm familiar with & Haynes/Chilton show.

Does 901 in fact have a '92?

 

I have an 88'.
Any idea what replacement axles cost with the standard bearings.

 

Dude, I owned the shop and trained my technicians that rebuilt these units myself. I have rebuilt these units myself, held the parts in my hands and inventoried the "offset bearings". You read it on the internet.

Not all of these axles are the same, some have separate inner races, some don't.

 

Wrong again, our assumptions get us in trouble. I haven't read squat about this "on the internet" except this thread.

Sorry, I'd made the mistake to assume 901 was working on a '92 & up E150. Actually forgot & thought this section was actually for '92 & up Econoline. My bad.

Now that we found out 901 has an '88 my reply to Fordcr: "Was this one of FORD's Better Ideas? Must've been short lived? Glad to have missed it." has new meaning. All my comments were based on the premise of a '92 & up E150.

My comment on Googling "offset bearings" referred to the fact that when I tried just that, none of the hits on the 1st couple of pages had anything vaguely to do with axle bearings. All I invested in determining how "common" these "offset bearings" are was to strike out w/McMaster-Carr in print & Google-where I found nothing to be "read". Forgive me for assuming they were not all that "common" under those circumstances.

Do you agree "FORD's '93 parts book (in print) shows the "normal" cartridge type axle bearings I'm familiar with & Haynes/Chilton (in print) show." is accurate? Or is this another case where multiple printed sources are FOS?

Again, I regret my comments were not based on an '88 E150 & apologize for any misunderstandings.

 

I think the vibration problem may have more than one contributor.

I changed all the plugs and wires as suggested earlier and the result seems to be a quicker response when the van is cruising and starts uphill. Instead of going slower and and feeling more vibration, the trans. downshifts and the vibration is gone until it upshifts and starts slowing down again.
I've also noticed the same vibration in the lower gears when driving in city traffic and trying to accelerate slightly prior to downshifting.
From the drivers seat, the vibration feels and sounds like it is coming from the riders side rear. The vibration feels like a tire out of balance but it doesn't seem to matter which tire is in the rider's rear position. Also, the vibration doesn't seem to vary with speed like I'd expect for a tire balance problem.

How would I diagnose a worn u-joint or rear wheel bearing problem?

 

sounds like a tq problem to me .....

 

Well, since we eliminated the plugs/wires (the easiest to eliminate) yes, its likely a torque converter clutch shudder.

 

sounds like the torque converter shudder issue that my e350 has had. As a temporary "patch" we added Dr. Tranny's shudder stopper fluid (O'Reilly's has it) and it really helped. Local Ford dealer told me that 90% of the time a fluid change that includes changing the fluid in the torque converter will fix it. It didn't fix mine, so I am looking at about $800 for a new torque converter.