Attention: TDR Forum Junkies 
Just wanted to post this to all of you who gave support when I first thought my transmission was going down, which turned out to be actually the rear end. I purchased a complete rear axle assembly from a bone yard in Sulphur
Springs, Tx. It took a bit of doing (due to conditions at home in Mississippi). I have no shop and did it in the gravel driveway, but got it installed. The yard sold it to me for $785. 00 which included shipping. It was an exact duplicate for the limitted slip axle in my truck (3. 54 ratio). I loaded the "bad" axle assembly in the back of the truck and went straight to Colorado, as my brother Jack (JDancoe on here) who was supposed to meet me at the 1st Gen meet in Iowa, found metal in his rear differential during service for the Iowa trip. We are both sorry we missed the meet, Mike. I hope all that made it had a great time.
The rear axle is now apart and we found severe wear on the carrier bearings, but the culprit was the inner pinion bearing. The inner race and rollers were extremely pitted and chunked. It wouldn't have lasted much longer.
Both the rear axle from my truck and his have 258,000 to 278,000 miles. As we haven't opened up his yet, I can't say what is failing in it, but the mileage similarity would indicate that any of you 1st Gener's out there may want to pay special attention to your rear axles (noise or metal in gear oil) when approaching that mileage range. When we get his apart, I will post as to what we find as another update. We are curious as to what we will find, as his was not making any noise, but he has a larger than normal ammount of metal in his gear oil. Mine showed no abnormal metal, but was screaming very loudly when I finally shut her down. Thanks again to all who offered help and suggestions.
Jim
Springs, Tx. It took a bit of doing (due to conditions at home in Mississippi). I have no shop and did it in the gravel driveway, but got it installed. The yard sold it to me for $785. 00 which included shipping. It was an exact duplicate for the limitted slip axle in my truck (3. 54 ratio). I loaded the "bad" axle assembly in the back of the truck and went straight to Colorado, as my brother Jack (JDancoe on here) who was supposed to meet me at the 1st Gen meet in Iowa, found metal in his rear differential during service for the Iowa trip. We are both sorry we missed the meet, Mike. I hope all that made it had a great time.
The rear axle is now apart and we found severe wear on the carrier bearings, but the culprit was the inner pinion bearing. The inner race and rollers were extremely pitted and chunked. It wouldn't have lasted much longer.
Both the rear axle from my truck and his have 258,000 to 278,000 miles. As we haven't opened up his yet, I can't say what is failing in it, but the mileage similarity would indicate that any of you 1st Gener's out there may want to pay special attention to your rear axles (noise or metal in gear oil) when approaching that mileage range. When we get his apart, I will post as to what we find as another update. We are curious as to what we will find, as his was not making any noise, but he has a larger than normal ammount of metal in his gear oil. Mine showed no abnormal metal, but was screaming very loudly when I finally shut her down. Thanks again to all who offered help and suggestions.
Jim
