Hey gang been a while .... so busy lately....

Started today .... I've had ABS light for a while .... finally got around to changing both wheel hubs out a few weeks back .... no difference. Rear sensor seems clean.

today speedo stopped ......

How to track down ;)

Pulled it and managed to walk 90% of it back on. The 10% of the ring is too bent (probably from initial contact with diff casing) to pry back on on. Plus it will still be quite warped.

Only other damage I noticed was the "tip" of one of main ring gears is chipped off.

No side to side play in bearings.

So only see 2 options.

1. Pull the carrier and reuse all parts plus a new tone ring. Replace as was.

Only problem is never done this before. In terms of measuring backlash and preload as well as removing the carrier ... this simple or not really ?

2. Full rebuild at shop with new pinion and ring gear. Think this was around 1400 ..... just hard to find shops i trust within easy drive.

Thoughts ?

Most mechanics aren't too keen to touch it without a rebuild it seems. 1 guy even said although teh gears are ok they would only warranty if all gears (ring and pinion mainly) are replaced.

So .... if I end up going that deep --- thinking about a Detroit TrueTrac locker ....

 

any downside ?

 

For practical purposes short of hard core drag racing or crawling, the truetrac is an excellent diff.  I put one in my half ton and it was great.  A detroit will chatter a bit and grab too often for daily street use.  

 

As long as you have some torque applied to each wheel, (IE: one spinning a little) it will bias toward the most planted tire, which is what you want. 

I'm glad to stick with my standard open differentials.

New Exciter Ring, Gear Compound, and Machinist Dial indicator AZ priming its way to me as we speak.

Been speak with W&F on the side ...... and going to give it a go.

 

PLAN 1 

Measure existing backlash, Pull the axles, pull the carrier, remove tone ring, press on the new one, reinstall, measure backlash close in spec/original measurement and put back togther.

 

PLAN2

Same as plan 1 but if bearings are bad or backlash is way out - pull the bearigs, shim everything out for preload, put on diff - remeasure backlash - repeat 10 times , swear, call Bill (W&F) ..... repeat 5 times .... cry .... call Bill (W&F) ....... steady hands and finish job as above.

 

 

 

Will update - probably sunday - doing it saturday.

 

thx guys - might get a speedo back after this.

I find using a GPS unit with a speed indicator built in is a lot less work.   Just Velcro it to the dash where the speedo is.

Seriously I would have done  that ^^ except that the speedo is used by the transmission and impacts the shifting before the signal is received. So unless there is someone who makes that that integrates with the CDN (couldnt find one) .........  ha !

Now I can see the gear almost falling off and going to do more damage though ....... on we go

He has a point... The PCM does use the speed signal for shift points.

Well that was much easier than expected.

Backlash out of spec .... but within range expected .... gear patter was very central and good

Pulled the axles ....

Pulled the bearing caps ..... everything looked to be in good condition ...

Carrier came out super easy.

Tapped it off.

Heated new unit in oven per bill ... good tip. Slid on with a gentle tap.

Tack welded it

Put it back in.

Truck is charging will drive and update tomorrow

Well that was much easier than expected.

Backlash out of spec .... but within range expected .... gear patter was very central and good

Pulled the axles ....

Pulled the bearing caps ..... everything looked to be in good condition ...

Carrier came out super easy.

Tapped it off.

Heated new unit in oven per bill ... good tip. Slid on with a gentle tap.

Tack welded it

Put it back in.

Truck is charging will drive and update tomorrow

 

 

????????  

The tone ring.

Tack welded it to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Bearings looked quite good.

It might have already had a rebuild on it.

I know what you meant but that was not necessary not to mention a good way to warp that thing to not run true and continue with issues. There should be no reason for it to come loose unless someone previously screwed it up installing it, There are better options like Loctite retaining compound that will hold it good as well if one was worried about it coming loose.

Gotchya. Didn't think of loctite that would have been better .... doh

Feel like a dodo on the welding thing ..... absolutely should have done the loctite .... my thinking at time was if carrier ever comes out again .... a LS locker will go in.

Onto good news. Looks like I have full speedo again..... no drops .... i want to drive it a bit more ...... but this may be the end of a long issue ..... so thanks to all who gave input

Now I can get on fixing and tuning the other 10 things on this truck which I've not felt like doing with this outstanding problem.

So basically the tone ring came loose?

At this point yes.

Explains why the signal was intermittent.

What I'm not 100% sure of is if I had a ABS module problem as well. The one I currently have on is the 'junker' and it's working fine.

I need to put my original rebuilt one back on and see ..... but it never got partial signal like the junker.

I'll update on that in next day or two ....