Bearings out of Rear-Diff [pics]

[lsbit]

Well, I yanked out the rear diff, finally to have a look. I think it doesn't look that great, but could be worse. I don't think there is any damage to the gears or anything, but these bearings look strange. I have seen bearings blue and scratched, but these look pitted. Maybe one of you can tell me how this happens? Hopefully this is the cause of my rear-diff hum. The funny thing is, the right carrier race looks worse than the pinion bearings do. The front pinion bearing doesn't look too bad. I thought that one would be the problem child. The Ford dealer I bought my parts from said they have NEVER ordered a rear pinion bearing for the LS. It could be that they never bothered to fix one. It isn't a Lincoln dealer either.

I guess I should just replace all the seals and bearings, ha?

Rear Pinion Bearing:

Right Carrier Bearing:

Right Carrier Race:

Rear Diff Pic:

 

[PHATCAT67]

dude!!!! how much are you about to spend? check out this link.... i find it is a much cheaper way to go and also you get backup parts!!!!!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/e...87486&ssPageName=MERC_VI_RSCC_Pr4_PcN__Stores

this guy has em complete... you need the t-bird because of the parking brake, or get the ls, and just swap out the center section, either way, you got backup control arms, frame mount, and much much more!!!!! :eek2:

 

[kleetus]

Wow. that's not something you see everyday in a daily driver... Were you the original owner? That almost looks like rust pitting or spalling of the hardened metal due to metal fatigue. The gears look normal, I guess the lube was clean? If you're not the original owner, I'd wonder if it was ever in a flood, or sat for a really long time. That doesn't really explain why it only happened to a couple of the bearings.

Somebody said that there were problems with the early model's rearend, as far as noise and bearing failure. I wonder if they got a bad batch of bearings from Timken or whoever it is that they use now, maybe Eaton? Just for the satisfaction of knowing what the heck caused it, you might be able to forward this information on to the bearing manufacture and see what they site as a possible cause. Heck, they may even give you a set.

All I know is I've seen things that look like that before, only they were off the front axles of old trucks in junkyards that have been sitting forever. This isn't something that should be showing up in a 4-5 year old car with gear lube. Strange indeed.

 

[lsbit]

All I know is I've seen things that look like that before, only they were off the front axles of old trucks in junkyards that have been sitting forever. This isn't something that should be showing up in a 4-5 year old car with gear lube. Strange indeed.

That's what I was thinking. Very strange. The car has 86,000 miles on it and I have only owned it for 10 of those miles. According to the way Carfax listed everything, it was driven pretty evenly over the years it has been around. No sitting. The oil looked OK.

 

[kleetus]

I assume you're taking it back to the dealer or whoever you bought it from, right? Otherwise, I'd be pretty pissed about some really lousy bearings...

 

[eL eS]

this had to be a manufacuring flaw. Did you find any foriegn debris other than what was left by the bearings and race?

 

[lsbit]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/e...87486&ssPageName=MERC_VI_RSCC_Pr4_PcN__Stores

Thanks for the link. I am going to have about $150.00 in the repair, so not too bad. I am doing all the labor myself. I am replacing all the seals, bearings, clips, nuts, etc... I don't want to have to go back in there!

I didn't see any other foreign particles in there. The case itself looks pretty rough. It looks like a crappy casting job. I only found fine particles on the drain plug. My camera has a great way of making things really stand out. It doesn't look that bad with the naked eye (other than that one race). I always take pictures of parts I am unsure of and then get on the computer to blow it up and look at it.

I bought the car off of Ebay and it was an out-of-state buy. You just never know what you are going to get (I learned), and thought I would take a chance. In all fairness, he told me it had some noise coming from the rear and thought it was a wheel bearing. I knew I was going to have to fix something, I just didn't think it was going to be this extreme. I was fortunate enough to find some good sites on the internet that gave me some confidence to tackle this on myself, along with a local guy who is great with rear-diffs (he did my Mustang a few years back) that told me to dig into it and he would help where needed. He tells me it is just a Mustang rear-diff for the most part. I wonder if this means I could throw some 3.55s ot 3.73s in there?? Maybe a posi unit too. Those shift points would be wacky without the SCT setup.

 

[crazyman]

I've seen exactly this same damage a few times in semis, and it was usually caused by wheel seals leaking and the diffs end up not having enough fluid. My guess would be that it was leaking and it ran low. The leak was fixed but the damage was already done. You bought it and inherited someone else's sloppy repair job. It doesn't take long for a dry bearing to start eating races. Once it starts on the race, the metal fragments get the bearing too.

 

[PHATCAT67]

Thanks for the link. I am going to have about $150.00 in the repair, so not too bad. I am doing all the labor myself. I am replacing all the seals, bearings, clips, nuts, etc... I don't want to have to go back in there!

I didn't see any other foreign particles in there. The case itself looks pretty rough. It looks like a crappy casting job. I only found fine particles on the drain plug. My camera has a great way of making things really stand out. It doesn't look that bad with the naked eye (other than that one race). I always take pictures of parts I am unsure of and then get on the computer to blow it up and look at it.

I bought the car off of Ebay and it was an out-of-state buy. You just never know what you are going to get (I learned), and thought I would take a chance. In all fairness, he told me it had some noise coming from the rear and thought it was a wheel bearing. I knew I was going to have to fix something, I just didn't think it was going to be this extreme. I was fortunate enough to find some good sites on the internet that gave me some confidence to tackle this on myself, along with a local guy who is great with rear-diffs (he did my Mustang a few years back) that told me to dig into it and he would help where needed. He tells me it is just a Mustang rear-diff for the most part. I wonder if this means I could throw some 3.55s ot 3.73s in there?? Maybe a posi unit too. Those shift points would be wacky without the SCT setup.

whoa!! whoa!!! be careful!!!!! the LS rear is NOT a 8.8 like the mustang or any other rear you have seen!!!!!! it is a special 8.2" ring gear that only crosses over with the JAGUAR S-TYPE... so if you are thinking of swapping gears, keep that in mind, your choices are 3.31, or 3.58 now i am not sure if this is true, but i believe the s-type "r" model also offered a 3.77 rear end, but that bad boy is pricy!!!!!!!!!

 

[lsbit]

Well I got help pressing the new bearings on tonight. The guy who helped me out thought it was strange for all the bearings to be bad like that but said the ring gear looked great and not to worry. He said that the pinion was different then the 8.8, so it would be hard to make the mistake of swapping the gears, at least. The LS pinion has that pilot thing for the driveshaft.

Maybe the halfshafts were replaced early on and the original seals were damaged. That would fit in with Crazyman's explaination, and the manual actually states that you WILL damage the seals without their special install tool. I found that the last owner of the car left his info in the glovebox. I am tempted to call him and ask him some questions about the car.

 

[whatsupadrian]

Well I got help pressing the new bearings on tonight. The guy who helped me out thought it was strange for all the bearings to be bad like that but said the ring gear looked great and not to worry. He said that the pinion was different then the 8.8, so it would be hard to make the mistake of swapping the gears, at least. The LS pinion has that pilot thing for the driveshaft.

Maybe the halfshafts were replaced early on and the original seals were damaged. That would fit in with Crazyman's explaination, and the manual actually states that you WILL damage the seals without their special install tool. I found that the last owner of the car left his info in the glovebox. I am tempted to call him and ask him some questions about the car.

You can get his info from ebay too. all you have to do is supply the auction number and they will email you their phone numbers and other info. But your info will be emailed to them aswell. http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQtZvbQQsofindtypeZ9

 

[lsbit]

You can get his info from ebay too. all you have to do is supply the auction number and they will email you their phone numbers and other info. But your info will be emailed to them aswell. http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQtZvbQQsofindtypeZ9

I bought it from a dealer and have all of their info, but the paperwork in the car was the last guy who owned it and drove it about 20,000 miles or so. I figured I could get a little "real" history. The dealer I bought it from got it from another dealer, etc...

Thank you though.