at a 1500 price tag I'd just find a used axle and swap the whole thing out. you can probably find a used axle within a small radius of your house for a couple hundred bucks

 

Yeah I haven't pulled the trigger yet.
I've worked with this shop for a while & do trust them. They've taken care of me in the past, even done things at no charge before.

The price they gave me was for the whole rear end with axles and rotors (used). So they'd disconnect the Ujoint and take the whole thing off the rear springs/shocks and swap it all. The $1500 price was for the used assembly.

 

I'm pretty sure this is the part they told me they thought would be like $1500!
Not sure on my gear ratio though. I'd need to check that.

 

Man....I'm glad I came here.
You guys are helping me rebuild my confidence!!!

I've had to change axle bearings and axle before on my other F150 (2000), so I've already had to pull the axles.

As far as swapping out the pinion and ring gear, it would also mean replacing the inner and outer pinion bearing right? I checked on that price at the auto parts store when I was getting the new seal and I recall that bearing alone was like $100.

Would I be better off ordering parts from an online place like the one listed above rather than buying from an over the counter place like Autozone or Advance?

 

Yes. Randy's is reputable.

 

youll need a dial indicator to correctly setup the backlash and depth of the new ring gear. And a master install shim kit.

I'd find an entire axle from a junk yard or from craigslist and just swap the whole axle assembly out in one shot. Again you can probably find one for less than just parts needed to repair yours

 

Rebuilding the rear yourself is a huge job for a novice. Many opportunities to screw it up. If you are the meticulous type and read a lot and study and buy the correct tools beforehand you can do it. Watch all the youtube videos you can find about how to do it. Summit used to sell a Richmond Gear video that shows you in great detail how to do it. Getting the pinion depth correct is a task that may involve pressing the pinion bearing on and off several times. Crushing the pinion crush sleeve requires about 400 ft lbs to start the compression. You will need a dial indicator to measure backlash. You will need a torque wrench that reads in in lbs to get the correct compression on the crush sleeve. I recommend you take it to another shop. I was concerned about my rear diff and I took it to a local 4x4 shop. they told me that if it needed a complete rebuild it would be in the neighborhood of $600.

 

Well I'm pretty meticulous. I'd definitely research a bunch before hand.


To clarify things here:

The price I got from the shop where the truck is now was to swap out the whole rear axle assembly with a used one. They said the labor price would be about $600 and they have 2 options for the used rear axles: 1 has a 1 year parts & labor warranty (coverage of labor is $50/hr) and has about 96K miles on it which costs about $1500. The other one has about 125K miles on it and comes with a 30 day parts only warranty, and will run about $1000.

So, option 1 will run me just over $2K, option 2 will run me about $1600.
Both options are for swapping out the whole rear axle with a used one.

From what you all are saying, this is pretty high?

 

I just talked to the shop.

My truck has the 9.75 rear end with 3.73 gear ratio.
They said it needs a whole new carrier, not just the ring and pinion gears.
He's going to make some calls and get me a price for a full rebuild with axle bearings and seals too.

Looking into this, I'm not sure this is something I want to get into.
Also, I'm not clear what you all mean by how this crush sleeve. Is that part of the actual pinion seal? Part of the pinion bearing?

 

There are two pinion bearings, one is a tapered bearing next to the gear that rides on a race on the inside of the rear. After inserting the pinion gear from the rear a spacer is placed on the pinion shaft and then the bearing on the outside. This spacer is too long and is meant to be crushed to the proper length so that it maintains a certain preload on the bearings. Crushing this sleeve takes a lot of torque. And you have to stop the crushing at a certain point that is measured by turning the pinion gear with a torque wrench that measures in lbs. I believe the correct measurement is about 25 in lbs. So you have to be very careful to crush the sleeve by exactly the correct amount to give that 25 in lb of torque to turn the pinion without the ring gear installed. The videos I've seen on how to do this had the entire rear out of the vehicle and they had a special tool to hold the pinion while the sleeve was crushed.

 

Thanks.

I just watched a couple of videos on this. I saw the crush sleeve and now understand what you're saying.

The way they explained it in the video is that with the carrier out, if it's crushed just right, a certain amount of torque should turn the pinion but not enough won't. Like you said, there's a range.

Waiting on the shop to tell me costs of options before I decide which way I'm going to go.

I do have a torque wrench, but it's a cheaper one that doesn't "click", so it just has the needle and the scale. I'm pretty sure the one I have doesn't go high enough to do what I need for the crush setting.

Looks like I'd need to buy a new torque wrench and plenty of parts too if I do this myself. The video I did watch seemed like pulling out and replacing the whole carrier assembly is a real pain. UGH.



I can't believe I screwed this thing up so easily. What a noob.

 

You don't need a torque wrench to crush the sleeve. But, you have to stop often and check the resistance of the pinion to turning with the in. lb. torque wrench. The time I crushed a sleeve, it was in the car. I installed the ring gear and blocked it with a wrench so the pinion wouldn't turn. Then with a pull handle on the pinion nut hanging straight down, I pushed it with my leg. I was lying flat on the floor holding on to the side of the car and pushing with every bit of leg strength I had to start crushing the sleeve. After it starts being crushed, it's a little easier. I guessed at the torque required to turn the pinion. I had to remove the ring gear to check it. It was royal pita but I think I got it right. On that one, I was just replacing a pinion bearing and I had taken everything apart to clean it before reinstalling. So, I used the same pinion shim and the pinion depth was good. With a new gear set you may need to change pinion shims to get the pinion depth correct. I was using prussian blue on the teeth to check the gear pattern.

 

I used a 24" breaker bar..............with about a 4ft pipe cheater added to it on my son's Bronco. Did it in the vehicle too, and made a "wrench" that bolted onto the yoke and braced to the ground. It does take some serious pull to crush that little bugger.

You tighten it down and check it, then go in 1/8 turns and re-check it until you get it right.

 

Well, I pulled the trigger.

I just don't have the time, not to mention some of the tools and most of the knowledge to be able to rebuild the rear end myself. Even if I did, I'd have to do it in my driveway.

After searching for days on my own to find a used rear axle assembly with a matching gear size and ratio at a better price and that didn't have a crapload of miles on it, I gave up.
Mine is a 9.75" rear end with 3.73 gear ratio, which apparently isn't as easy to find than the 3.55 (and more expensive too).

I even had the shop run down prices and give me an estimate to completely rebuild everything, to include everything but the actual axles. Too much.

SO....I gave them the green light to get me the rear axle/rear end which has a 1 year parts and labor warranty and swap it all out. It only has 94K miles on it, so it's half the age mine is anyway.

I hate to keep dumping money into the truck, but since I've had it since it literally came off the delivery truck at the dealership in late 2004 and I've taken about as good of care of it as possible since then, it's MY truck and I know the history. It will remain mine for at least a while.


Thanks for all the help here!

 

Vehicles cost money to keep them on the road, old or new. Just think how big the payment would be and for how long you would have to pay if you traded it for a new one. Good decision I think.