my 04' has started it.... still under warranty...how has the dealers been takin care of this??? does it take awhile or what? iam going to try to take it in next week....

 

BTW, it does it when iam on the gas, when i let off it quits... thats rearend whine right? it behind me i can tell for sure......lol

 

You may have to go to more than 1 dealer to get it fixed. Some mechanics will say they hear it but the service writer will tell you that "it is common for these types of heavy duty trucks" wich is bull. I heard that and told him to take me for a ride in any new or used dodge diesels on their sales lot and show me that any other trucks whine like that, then he folded ad ordered ring and pinion. But just so you know a ring and pinion is very tricky to set up correctly and there are not many mechanics that know how to do it correctly. I have had 3 replaced now and this one has a slight howl in it again.

 

There was a nice demonstration of a ring and pinion installation on Trucks! yesterday. It really is as simple as was shown on tv. Most any mechanically-minded person can learn it.

 

Yeah, anyone can learn it, but it takes something else to install it correctly. Any fleet trained gorilla with an air wrench can do it, but it takes some finesse to set the backlash, etc. correctly so it doesn't whine. Been there, done that, I have the tee-shirt.

Ensure the service manager understands that you don't expect any whining with the installation of the new gears. Pardon the pun.

 

Does the whine mean the ring and pinon will wear out faster or cause any other damage? My truck does the same thing, but so does my Scout, and it has almost 200K miles. I don't mind the whine at all. I'm just wondering if that will cause any damage down the road.

CTDownerTN, do you tow a lot with your truck? How loud is the whine?

 

You will probably have to wait til it gets much worse and the problem is unmistakable before DC will do anything. Then you will still have get DC customer service involved, argue a lot, refuse to take your truck back home and threaten to get a lawyer. That's exactly what it took to get a shop to warranty my grinding reverse synchro. After it was done, the shop foreman said it was so bad they even had to replace the gear because the synchro spurs were worn down so badly ! They try to dodge (yes, pun) any difficult warranty work they can! My diff bearings are loose (almost no preload) but it's quiet. I hope they get bad enough before the 7/70 is out to get warranty but it might not be worth the hassle with DC again. I may replace them myself - I've done it before. Craig

 

That's a good one!

... and he's right: I know how to replace the internals of a differential, but it's more efficient to take it to someone who does it everyday.

 

When I say any mechanically-inclined person can learn it, I mean that any mechanically-inclined person can learn to do it correctly. It's not rocket science, but it is necessary to take the time necessary to set the pinion depth and backlash to the manufacturer's specifications. Many people have a mistaken idea that differential work is some kind of black art that only a religious icon on a large hill can perform. The reality is that there are some excellent instructional materials available to help people learn to do it right. The whining noise is usually either too tight backlash or too much shim behind the pinion causing the pinion to contact the ring too close to the inside edge. Would probably be more noticeable when everything's good and hot.

 

I have done hundreds of rear gear setups, yes hundreds. Mostly for Drag cars and street cars/trucks. Only a few Dana's, never a AAM yet. And I have re-done quite a few for people who read how to do their own in a magazine or a video. And there is a learning curve everyone has to go thru to get a "feel" for how they need to be, and what happens when things "wear in". The bearing preload is something that can be set too loose witch will cause a no-preload situation when the axle heats up and grows like all metal things do when they get hot. But this thread is not about how to do it. I just wanted to warn you on the things the service writer MAY try and BS you with. He even tried telling me it was "turbo whine" that I was hearing. Man, I think there must be a dumb a$$ school for service writers to learn how to avoid doing warranty work. And I think they get away with the BS a lot for people who think because they are Dodge they must know what they are talking about. Like I said before, if the first dealer won't do it go to another dealer with the same problem, just don't tell them you had it at another dealer and they wouldn't fix it.

 

I had a 2001 dodge ram 1500 4x4, and about 5-6 hours after getting the whine my diff froze up, causing the (pinion?) on the front of the pumpkin to shear off. My driveshaft flopped around enough to dent the bottom of the bed and the open part of the (pinion?) diff was puking up gear teeth. Froze it up so bad that the big flatbed towtruck had to drag the rear tires up far enough to tow it! To get it off they had to use a forklift to lift up the rear tires to back it down off the towtruck! No fun, that's when I decided to upgrade to the 2500!