Damn 14 bolt

[afroman006]

When I went to change the diff fluid in my crewcab's 14 bolt, I discovered this little present. All of the rollers from the third pinion bearing were on the bottom of the diff, along with various pieces of the bearing cage. The truck drives perfectly and its probably been like this since I've had it (~10k miles) but it pissed me off. Now it has to go to a gear shop to get fixed and cost me money. This is actually the second time I've seen this happen. I parted out a 14 bolt and it had the same exact problem, from the same bearing.

 

[85mudblazin]

dont take it to a shop if you have any kind of mechanic skills. you dont need to re setup the gears.
Pull the 8 bolts that bolt the pinion "housing" to the 14b housing and pull that out.take out the 4 bolts that hold the bearing caps on (be sure to mark how each one was oriented). use a screw driver or small punch and begin to spin the bearing "bolders" (forgot what they are called) but count how many turns you do. do this to both sides till the whole carrier can slide out.
then simpily knock out the rest of the old bearing and tap them new one in. Then just assemble in the opposite order.
Its really not that hard to do. I think a shop would rip you off.
If you decide to do it yourself and you are unsure about something feel free to ask me any questions.

 

[afroman006]

Yah I was thinking about doing it myself but I kinda want a shop to take a look at the gears to make sure they are ok. With my current financial situation I may be forced to do it myself though.

 

[blazinzuk]

The shop will only be able to visually inspect the gears. Not really much better than you doing it. It is really not that hard to do. Gears and auto trans were the two things I was scared of until I did them just takes patience and being careful

 

[RootBreaker]

The shop will only be able to visually inspect the gears. Not really much better than you doing it. It is really not that hard to do. Gears and auto trans were the two things I was scared of until I did them just takes patience and being careful

same here with gears... I put a detroit in my 14bolt ff... and a detroit/gear upgrade in my front d60... never did it before... and thus far holding up

 

[78 k5]

I'm with them, no shims go for it......seriously don't be intimidated its not as bad as you think

 

[surpip]

heck you could probally do it with out pulling the carrier, you might be able to get the bearing cage out of there with the carrier in there, than the bearing instals from the front so youll be fine, from what i can see on teh pattern on the gear they look fine, as long as there is no big chips, or chuncks out of the gear you should be fine.

 

[89GMCSuburban]

Just check to make sure there aren't any chips out of the gear teeth. If so, then you need new gears. Those bearing do fail, it just happens. Same thing happens on Semi's, but I've seen them blow up the entire housing the bearing rides in!