Grinding/growling noise coming from rear end

[tree98]

Nut sizes can vary. Depending on which hubs you have, some get torqued and some don't get torqued. You'll need to find out what you have and get the manual for it.

[Rawze]

The hub nut size varies by brand.

As far as proper torque goes,.. and 'doing it by feel' ... that guy is an idiot!. If he can;t take 5 extra minutes to look up the actual torque spec and do it right.. especially upon request.. than your better off doing it yourself instead of letting that idiot touch anything else on that truck!.

related info: http://rawze.com/forums/showthread.php?t...5#pid51935

[Redland1]

So the grinding noise and vibration are still there when loaded and taking off in low gear or 1st gear is when I hear and feel it the most. As far as ride height will a quarter inch higher than spec cause this issue ?

[tree98]

You may have to pull the rears apart and have a look, preferably before you break even more shi#t and get stranded somewhere.

[hhow55]

For starters i would make sure the rears and tranny are full of oil. And while your at it see if the oil is darker in one of the components.

[marek4792]

Too high or too low ride height will cause vibrations and grinding noises, also is the cheapest thing to check. If the noise/vibrations persist then pull the axle shafts out and put the truck into gear and check where the noise is truly coming from. Better and safer then jacking up the truck and having to navigate around spinning tires and rocks projectile launching.. Also a good time to check bearing endplay. Tighten and/or replace as needed to manufacturer spec..

[SquareOne]

Redland, just because the u-joints didn't appear to have slack, doesn't mean there isn't an issue. I've see where one cap is dried out, making the whole shaft shake. I've also changed a set just recently (about 450k miles) which felt fine, but when the caps were removed, you could see the needle bearings etching into the U-joint shaft itself, thus causing a slight vibration.

Check your slip-yokes too if you haven't done so (as in actually pull them apart and verify the coating is still present on the splines). Depending on mileage, maintenance frequency, and use, these can certainly have you chasing your tail at higher speeds.

I'd try to rule out the possible easier repairs before going too deep...

[hhow55]

I've also have seen carrier bearing to be bad, and looked like nothing was wrong with it.

[DVT873]

The arm on the valve should be level. Yours looks like it's tipped up. Unhook the rod and move the arm up and down. If the valve is working correctly, it should only take a tiny bit of movement at the end of the arm and you will hear air moving. These valves can go bad and not react when the arm moves.

This will change the driveline angle, and that in turn, can cause vibration/noise. This can be a "silent" transmission killer. Often, the vibration isn't felt or heard, but it is being absorbed, usually by the back box on the trans.

Nobody does it this way, but ride height should be checked unloaded AND loaded to confirm the height is correct and the valve is working.

Even if the ride height is correct, driveline angles can still be off. I once had a new Paystar show up with a growl/grind in the trans. I would have bet $50 (about a hundred today) the bearings were bad in the backbox. Before we could touch the trans Eaton support made us do a drive shaft angle analysis using a kit and program they sent us. Took most of a morning, partly because I had never done that in the detail they wanted. The frame angles, trans angles, fwd and rr housing and all driveshaft angles had to be entered. Driveshaft diameter, length and tube wall thickness were also needed.

Axle ratios and all the trans ratios, engine RPM. It was a time sucking PIA. Finally got everything in the progran and pushed the enter key. It spit back that the forward housing was down 1.5 degrees. Installed shims and went out a drive. The noise was gone. I was amazed.