Hey all, 95 f150 4x4 351w 5.8

after a few months of backburnering due to the economy flux i decided to try and fix a few more problems before mother nature turns towards the -60c mark(-76f for those south of the 46th...),

1; i have been screwing around with my Vss lately because it was starting to irritate me not knowing how fast i was going when i had johhny law on my ***, or in a const. zone ect... my speedo stilll worked to around 40 or 50k\h then it would dance + or - 40k so i could be doing 80 or 160. in turn i pulled ou my vss and noticed a bunch of metal shavings on the end of the magnet.... this casued me some worry so i cracked open the seal on the diff and drained out the nasty burnt gear oil (previous owner seemed to be completely devoid of all PM tactics) and had a look at the spiders and such on the inside of the read diff...
Now...
im not one to know alot about being a mechanic, which is why i bought a beater and am trying to learn... from my research and whatnot i believe i was looking at the spider bushings, cause it makes sense that the bearings would not be beside the spiders, but there were some gouges on it. i am guessing this is where the debris and shavings came from...

there didnt seem to be any missing teeth off anything, but it did look as though that large gear wheel had hit the vss once or twice from the scratching on the vss...

my end question is Although i have changed the vss and gained significant improvement ( dosnt start dancing untill around 130k/h) my speedo still floats 3 or 4 k/h while driving... its very soft but it is still there... is it because of wear of the teeth of that gear? or do i need an adjustment? or is there another option?

thanks alot for any input and listening...

 

I take it you have an 8.8 rear end.
Sounds like you need new carrier bearings.
While you have the carrier out take out and replace the wheel bearings and seals.
While the wheel bearings are out run rags with degreaser on them down the tubes and clean it up.
If it were me I would also replace the Pinion bearing.

 

good answer... i have been wondering about the carrier bearings because of another issue... i will definately take your advice and clean it all up

thanks again

 

I had the same problem with my 92 F-150. If you had any spider gears or limited slip plates/clutches wear enough to have shavings in your oil, it most likely caused issues with the tone ring. The tone ring is the narrow toothed ring between the ring gear and the carrier housing. If the teeth on this are at all "messed up" you will get exactly what you are describing. Also, as Subford said, the shavings ruined your carrier bearings and pinion bearing. You are talking big bucks to rebuild your rear end, unless, you do the work yourself. I would not recommend trying that unless you know what you are doing. I would change your oil and clean the tubes like Subford stated and wait till you have bigger issues that warrant a total rebuild.