Differential question - Pinion Bearings Replace or Not??

[Big Al]

I'd phone around to a few local machine shops and see if they have a LH tap for you to borrow or get them to chase them threads while you wait.
A rear end shop may also have one and give you a reccomendation on the one with stripped threads.
Thinking they may insert a heli coil.
Your right, it's going to be a crap shoot trying to find one.
Was going to send this post last night, guess, I never hit the send button..

 

[Big Al]

Also if you reuse the ring gear, you don't need to re shim the pinion. There should be a positive or negative number on the pinion gear face, That's probably the clearance the factory got when they used a gauge block to get the proper clearance for the tooth mesh on your gear set. Glad your moving forward on this issue and your not opening another can of worms. Some things are best if they are left to the pro's. I would not try to put a new bevel/pinion set in a used housing in my driveway. Setting the proper mesh on new gears with a pack of different shims would drive me to drink. Lol

 

[Shankster]

Thanks again Al. I ordered a tap yesterday. Got all the bolts out but one in about 15 minutes and the last one about killed me - ended up drilling out the entire thing and it looks ugly but I was able to stay out of the ring gear steel - hoping the tap will do it's magic on that hole but only time will tell. Fortunately the ring gear steel is significantly harder than the bolt steel so hopefully once started I can go slow and back out every 1/4 turn, clean, go another 1/4 turn. I think the other 9 will be fine just being chased. I've had bad experiences with local machine shops. My go-to guy is 100 mile round trip away and usually way too busy to do walk ins, which makes any machine shop work a 200 mile round trip. I'm cautiously optimistic this will work out but also prepared for the worst (a new ring and pinion).

There is a shim in the pinion assy. I plan to just reuse. That's the only one I need to worry about. Since my LSD is a complete, assembled carrier unit I just need to press on the new carrier bearings and install, then adjust the threaded adjusters for backlash.

Fortunately I have a bunch of other working vehicles and lots to do on the Jeep, so while frustrating, the delay isn't really a big deal which it would be if it was my only vehicle and a dd.

 

[Shankster]

Just to wrap this up. I finally got the LH tap, chased the threads in the ring gear and got everything together. Adjusted to a backlash of 7 thousandths and checked the contact pattern which indicated I needed to reduce backlash so went back and got it to 5.5 thousandths - made me a bit uncomfortable but the contact pattern came out much better. I drove it around town today - quiet as a church mouse so I'm very happy for now. I'll be doing some mild 4 wheeling this summer so will likely report back on how this Powertrax GRIP PRO helical gear LSD works since there don't seem to be any reviews out there from Liberty owners.

One minor thing to note - the redneck adjuster tool discussed earlier worked fantastic - after a little dressing with a file the bushing fit perfect in the threaded adjuster but it was too long and hit the ends of the carrier before the hex would engage so I had to hack off most of the male threads.

I guess the original question I asked was whether I should change the pinion bearing - the race and bearing were in perfect shape but I swapped them out anyway (I bet I could have got away with leaving as is but I'll probably sleep better now). Both carrier bearings showed 0 wear as well. Not sure if the noise was because the backlash was too high or because the center pin retaining bolt was busted - I suspect the latter.

 

[tommudd]

Powercrap, good luck, can't stand them or the noise , clicking etc
TruTracs are worth every penny, run them front and rear in the 03
ran them in two of my XJs as well
Always ran them or the ARB
Well worth in the long run IMO and many others

 

[Shankster]

Powercrap, good luck, can't stand them or the noise , clicking etc
TruTracs are worth every penny, run them front and rear in the 03
ran them in two of my XJs as well
Always ran them or the ARB
Well worth in the long run IMO and many others

Clicking? from a Torsen style LSD? Can't imagine how. This one is silent so far, even full lock 180 degree turns. All the reviews I saw with these in other makes and models were positive. That said, if there are any issues I'll report back. I have no loyalty to this manufacturer or any other and if I made a mistake I don't want others to follow.

 

[JeepJeepster]

Glad you got it all figured out!

Tom must be thinking about a powertrax lunchbox locker. You will not get any clicking with the torsen gearing LSD, its the same design as the truetrac.

 

[tommudd]

Glad you got it all figured out!

Tom must be thinking about a powertrax lunchbox locker. You will not get any clicking with the torsen gearing LSD, its the same design as the truetrac.

LOL there we go again, people thinking what I must be thinking but way off base
No have had 3 friends with what he installed
2 removed theirs within 3 months of installing and went to a TruTac and third one just sold his XJ
and yes the power trax lunch box is total junk, well any lunch box locker is