Pinion nut off

From : nick c topolos

Q: hi guys i have a 95 ram 1500 that started a whininggrinding noise when i backed off from the accelerator. my neighbor and i crawled underneath today and he found the pinion nut off. the truck has about 65000 miles and i only use it a couple thousand miles a year since i retired. he wants to just tighten the nut after pulling the drive shaft. i have read that you should replace the pinion nut. i have always been ultra conservative and feel i should take it to a shop and have the gear oil changed and also have the pinion seal replaced. there is oil on the bottom of the gas tank. thanks nick long-time lurker .

Replies:

From : beekeep

on sun 14 sep 2008 174707 -0400 tom lawrence tlawrence5@earthlink.not wrote there is a clear need for a nut retainer here. yep. short of drilling it for safety wire red loctite is the next best thing. well i guess you could always apply some miller never-loose .035 er70s-6 but thats a bit overkill i agree a six pack of miller should do it. beekeep .

From : carolina watercraft works

from personal experience the thread locks from wurth are much better at retention than the typical thread locks you can get at your local parts stores. -- ------------------------------------------ laszlo almasi ----cool toys formerly carolina watercraft works ----mack daddy trailers ----ice angels there is a clear need for a nut retainer here. yep. short of drilling it for safety wire red loctite is the next best thing. well i guess you could always apply some miller never-loose .035 er70s-6 but thats a bit overkill .

From : ed medlin ed edmedlin com

there is a clear need for a nut retainer here. yep. short of drilling it for safety wire red loctite is the next best thing. well i guess you could always apply some miller never-loose .035 er70s-6 but thats a bit overkill hell.........may as well weld it........lol.. ed .

From : tom lawrence

there is a clear need for a nut retainer here. yep. short of drilling it for safety wire red loctite is the next best thing. well i guess you could always apply some miller never-loose .035 er70s-6 but thats a bit overkill .

From : bob m

peterd wrote ill say this however. rearend noise can be annoying but it is often possible to drive many thousands of miles with a noisy rear end without any problems *as long as there is oil in the rearend*. ive done 20-30k miles on rearends that were incredibly noisy. they reached a point where the noise simply didnt get worse and nothing bad happened. you may not be that lucky but push comes to shove keep it in mind. smelly too. just try and be around the wabbit after he wolfs down a few wcs. bob .

From : ed medlin ed edmedlin com

hi guys i have a 95 ram 1500 that started a whininggrinding noise when i backed off from the accelerator. my neighbor and i crawled underneath today and he found the pinion nut off. the truck has about 65000 miles and i only use it a couple thousand miles a year since i retired. he wants to just tighten the nut after pulling the drive shaft. i have read that you should replace the pinion nut. i have always been ultra conservative and feel i should take it to a shop and have the gear oil changed and also have the pinion seal replaced. there is oil on the bottom of the gas tank. thanks nick long-time lurker i had the pinion nut on my 95 1500 4x4 back off a little but i didnt have any noise yet. it was found by my local guy that was lubing the truck. he recommended me take it to another local shop that does a lot of 4x4 drivetrain work and have him check it out. he drained and replaced the grease checked for any metal shavings tightened it to spec and locktited it. i have been going fine now for almost a year without any issues at all. mine happened at about 175000 miles. the rear u-joint had wore out a month or so before so their might have been a bit of vibration that could have caused it.......i dont know. he didnt replace the crush seal because there wasnt any leakage yet. i would assume that you may need to replace that with all the leakage. i would take it to a mechanic who knows drivetrains well and have them do it and do it so you can trust it. like steve said it can be a very dangerous situation if not fixed correctly. ed .

From : tom lawrence

why did i think that it was a one time nut the nut isnt. technically the crush sleeve is a one-time thing. but.... ive put a few of them back on without using a new crush sleeve. since it sounds like he uses the truck pretty infrequently and short trips id try the zero-dollar fix first before dumping in money for a new diff. .

From : steve lusardi

this is a very dangerous problem!!!!!!!!!!!! this happened to me on my 96 except the nut fell off and the pinion jumped back into the ring while i was travelling about 25 mph. it was very very exciting to say the least. i ended up sideways to oncoming traffic. if i had been going any faster the truck would have rolled. follow toms advice and youll be ok. this has happened to several other people and there has never been a recall which amazes me. there is a clear need for a nut retainer here. steve hi guys i have a 95 ram 1500 that started a whininggrinding noise when i backed off from the accelerator. my neighbor and i crawled underneath today and he found the pinion nut off. the truck has about 65000 miles and i only use it a couple thousand miles a year since i retired. he wants to just tighten the nut after pulling the drive shaft. i have read that you should replace the pinion nut. i have always been ultra conservative and feel i should take it to a shop and have the gear oil changed and also have the pinion seal replaced. there is oil on the bottom of the gas tank. thanks nick long-time lurker .

From : roy

i have a 95 ram 1500 that started a whininggrinding noise when i backed off from the accelerator. my neighbor and i crawled underneath today and he found the pinion nut off. same thing happened to a friends 98 1500. although the nut didnt completely back off it loosened up enough to cause the whining. if you caught it early enough you may be ok. since you dont drive it all that much the first thing id do is pretty much as your neighbor suggests. id spray it down with brake cleaner to clean up the gear oil make sure the pinion threads and the nut are nice-n-clean so the loctite will stick. then using red loctite id re-secure the pinion nut to about 200-210ft.lbs. replace the lost gear oil and drive it a bit to see if the noise has gone away. if so youre probably ok. if theres still a whining then the bearings are probably toasted and youll essentially need a read-end rebuild. youve got nothing to lose by trying the simple fix first. my friends 98 ran fine for two years after his incident until he sold the truck. the rear was still going strong when it got sold. why did i think that it was a one time nut .

From : tom lawrence

i have a 95 ram 1500 that started a whininggrinding noise when i backed off from the accelerator. my neighbor and i crawled underneath today and he found the pinion nut off. same thing happened to a friends 98 1500. although the nut didnt completely back off it loosened up enough to cause the whining. if you caught it early enough you may be ok. since you dont drive it all that much the first thing id do is pretty much as your neighbor suggests. id spray it down with brake cleaner to clean up the gear oil make sure the pinion threads and the nut are nice-n-clean so the loctite will stick. then using red loctite id re-secure the pinion nut to about 200-210ft.lbs. replace the lost gear oil and drive it a bit to see if the noise has gone away. if so youre probably ok. if theres still a whining then the bearings are probably toasted and youll essentially need a read-end rebuild. youve got nothing to lose by trying the simple fix first. my friends 98 ran fine for two years after his incident until he sold the truck. the rear was still going strong when it got sold. .

From : peterd

on sat 13 sep 2008 123247 -0700 nick c topolos ntopolos@comcast.net wrote hi guys i have a 95 ram 1500 that started a whininggrinding noise when i backed off from the accelerator. my neighbor and i crawled underneath today and he found the pinion nut off. the truck has about 65000 miles and i only use it a couple thousand miles a year since i retired. he wants to just tighten the nut after pulling the drive shaft. i have read that you should replace the pinion nut. i have always been ultra conservative and feel i should take it to a shop and have the gear oil changed and also have the pinion seal replaced. there is oil on the bottom of the gas tank. thanks nick long-time lurker if there is oil spread around underneath you can be relatively sure that most if not all the oil has leaked from the diff... not only that but the noise is a good indicator that either the gears or the bearings are gone and just putting a new nut on and filling with oil wont be a pernament fix. you need to 1. pull the cover and inspect everything carefully. 2. if the gears and bearings are still ok clean it out well. 3. replace the seal and crush sleeve as appropriate. 4. fill with oil. pray there is no long term damage. ill say this however. rearend noise can be annoying but it is often possible to drive many thousands of miles with a noisy rear end without any problems *as long as there is oil in the rearend*. ive done 20-30k miles on rearends that were incredibly noisy. they reached a point where the noise simply didnt get worse and nothing bad happened. you may not be that lucky but push comes to shove keep it in mind. .