10-bolt Pinion bearings

[velojym]

*sigh*

Two problems have come up on the lovely '87 Blazer I bought...
one is a minor leak in the heater core (yeah, like that's ever minor when you're trying to see out a
coolant-clouded windshield), and the other is an apparently very loose pinion on the rear diff.

Yeah... I crawled under to see how bad the u-joints were... and they seemed pretty tight. I was worried
that the noise I was hearing was from the diff, but I'd held out hope for a simpler, less expensive problem.
Nope. When I wiggled the rear of the driveshaft, the pinion wagged like my dogs' tails.

Crap.

I'm an airplane mechanic, and not used to heavy drivetrain parts. How much trouble am I really in?
...and will it be easier to go ahead and find a 14 bolt?

[werewolfx13]

a 14 bolt rear end will have 8 lugs, whereas yours will have 6..You can swap it in no problem, but you'll need to use 8 lug wheels in back, and 6 lug wheels in the front..unless you swap your front differential for an 8 lug dana 44 or 60 as well..

Unless there are conversion axles for the front differential that would let you use a 10 bolt diff with 8 lug hubs? I don't know if such a beast exists..

[velojym]

Yeah, I kinda had that in mind, and I don't really plan on stressing the 10-bolts too much anyway.
So... I'm looking for the cheapest way I can reliably solve this problem.
I don't plan on going bigger than 33" tires, and will only slightly warm up the stock 350 mill. I don't
think the original axles will be much of a liability for me, but I'm worried about the process of replacing
the pinion bearings... or what it'd cost to have it done for me.

Heck. One of the reasons I picked this truck was so I could do the work myself.

[velojym]

I just talked to the 'premiere' drivetrain place in Little Rock, and they're talking a minimum of $950
to replace the bearings, as well as the diff gears, which were driven from Virginia to here by the
previous owner with the bad bearings (their head tech tells me I can plan on the ring'n'pinion being pretty much
history).
He also quoted a high of about $1800 for replacing everything. This price does include the installation of an Eaton
LS.
 
It just seems like I can do a whole lot better without returning to a stock 10-bolt.
I've looked at offroaddesign.com, and I like what I'm seeing in their aftermarket axles, and they cost
a bit less than 'my' local shop charges for the stock units.

Whaddaya think, folks? Is this normal for a quality shop? (I'm guessing so... especially if there's a lot of labor and special tools involved... I used to be an airplane mechanic so I kinda know how things can get pricey really quickly)

[Captkaos]

Did they quote that for removal and installation?  In the truck?.  Ask them how much to rebuilt it if you dropped off the rearend?  It shouldn't cost over about $250 Labor if you supply all the parts.

BTW, I can probably get Currie Axles for a pretty good deal.

[velojym]

Did they quote that for removal and installation?  In the truck?.  Ask them how much to rebuilt it if you dropped off the rearend?  It shouldn't cost over about $250 Labor if you supply all the parts.

BTW, I can probably get Currie Axles for a pretty good deal.

What kind'a good deal?

[Captkaos]

My brother has an account with them so basically the same deals I have here (10-12% markup over cost, sometimes less)  What are you looking for and I can check.

[velojym]

Well, what I have now is a 10 bolt rear, with 3.42 gears, and lunches pinion bearings. From what I understand, driving on bad p-bearings
will damage (and/or greatly accelerate wear on) the ring and pinion gears.
Well... I figure if I'm going in deep enough to replace the pinion bearings anyway, why not just freshen up the whole kit'n'kaboodle?

Gets kinda pricey if I have the local shop do it, so if I can find an upgrade bolt-in replacement for less than what they're asking for a basically stock rebuild, that'd be great. I was trying to avoid messing with the rest of the drivetrain or having to scrap my wheels and tires (15" 6 bolt, 32" BFG ATs) if at all possible... I'm starting to wonder whether I should go ahead and take on the challenge and try to rebuild it all myself... with better parts, of course. I noticed, for instance, the stocker axle shaft they quoted me cost about $40 more than what I'd pay for a forged chro-moly unit from offroaddesign.com.

I've never done this kind of stuff before, so any ideas are appreciated.

[Captkaos]

Personally if you don't plan to change you intention and don't plan to skinny pedal it offroad to death, you can pull the diff down and see what it looks like.  I seriously doubt you axles are ruined from this, but you never know.

[velojym]

I'll go out and uncap it when the weather settles down a little (or I clean out the garage....eGADS!).
I was wanting to swap out the axles anyway, for some stronger chro-moly ones... just didn't want to do it right away.

After he gave me the ballpark price range, I figured if I went that route, I'd go ahead and order the better axles 'n bring 'em
in when I dropped off the truck. I'm still looking around and trying to figure whether I'd be able to do the work myself. It isn't covered
at all in my Haynes manual, so I'm perusing some of the offroad websites, as well as the supplier websites, for ideas and instructions.

[VileZambonie]

Why not just replace the bearings if the ring and pinion still look good? You can have it all done in a day. The only real special tools you'll need is an inch pound dial type torque wrench (or a beam if you can't get one) an impact gun, some aparatus to hold the pinion flange, a breaker bar, and access to a press.

[Captkaos]

I think there is a post on here about changing rear gears.  If you have the tools to do it (being an airplane tech I would think you can handle it) it isn't THAT hard.
I would check out the guts first though.  I have know people that has a pinion come loose and they tightened it up and it was fine.  If it did destroy the bearing you can just replace it if everything else it ok...

[velojym]

Yeah, I was just talking to a friend tonight about the pinion nut. He's pretty sure that's probably all it is since the truck made it here from Virginia without lunching the diff. (previous owner... I just bought the truck, but it was already loose when I got it)

I'm going to look at that tomorrow, and maybe if I'm lucky I can just re torque the nut with a little loctite.

As for the ring and pinion, I'd just kinda figured that if the pinion was so wobbly for very long, that they'd have some raunchy wear by now.

Yeah, I did some pressin' and stuff on airplanes, but no real heavy drivetrain stuff. The drivetrain on my planes usually consisted of a few bolts and a flange on the end of the engine crankshaft. Some of the planes were geared, but none of the ones I worked on.

So... this is still pretty new to me, though I do have a little useful nollij.

[kawliga1978]

I ran into the same problem and swapped to a 14 bolt. The 10 bolt housing is a poor set up right from the factory. If you plan on never leaving the pavement repair it and forget it. If you plan on seeing any off road conditions I would at the very least look into an axle truss kit to stiffen up the housing, which is the root caust of the problem.