Pinion bearing failed

mike diesel

mike diesel

I'm alright.
Sep 6, 2012
4,005
0
36
SLC, Utah
Went to Vegas this weekend to hit their drag strip. Truck was trailered down, but I ended up driving it home 420 miles. 5 miles from the house I heard a very faint whine when I'd let off the pedal. Noise didn't get louder or anything....a mile from the house I hit a red light. I proceed again to the sound of a massive grinding, so I pull over and take a look. Oil everywhere from the pinion seal.

I limp it home the last mile or so at about 10 mph. Pull the drain plug and luckily it still had 3.5+ quarts of fluid in it. No major metal chunks either. Pull the diff cover, ring and pinion are fine. So I believe I got luck and only had the pinion bearing and seal fail.

What bearings are people replacing them with? Napa bearings any good? Or do I need to order Timken online? I want the best bearing I can find. Do I need a new crush sleeve or can I re use the original?

Also, the g80 exploded at some point, no idea when. Am I safe leaving it as is or will more pieces of the toothed gear fall out?
 
IOWA LLY

IOWA LLY

Yes, its really me
Feb 23, 2007
2,275
4
0
Replace the G80 with something better. The broken chunks of it are what trashed the bearings.

You absolutely cannot reuse the crush sleeve!

Timken or oem bearings will work just fine.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk
 
B

Blackmax123

Member
Aug 2, 2014
683
1
18
central Pennsylvania
Pinion bearings

Sounds like you got real lucky. I'm not sure about the napa bearings, I know the Napa sales representative that comes into my work told me deka makes their batteries. So my guess is it might be a good chance their bearings are Timken rebranded. I'll try and find out monday.

As far as your G80. You can get the parts to rebuild them pretty cheap. I'd rebuild it while you have it apart or upgrade to a grizzly locker. Last spring when I broke both rear axles, I found my g80 broke, so I upgraded to dhd 38 sine axles and a grizzly locker..
 
juddski88

juddski88

Freedom Diesel
Jul 1, 2008
4,659
130
63
Chesterfield, Mass.
When you clean out the housing, before you install the new pinion bearings and probably the gear set, make sure you remove anything lodged in the oil passages that are cast around the bearings, they catch chunks very easily and hide them
 
c20elephant

c20elephant

C20ELEPHANT
Apr 25, 2013
2,065
0
0
Phoenix, Arizona
mike diesel said:
Anyone have experience with this? Will it hold up?

http://www.drivetrainamerica.com/40...-helical-limited-slip-differential-30-spline/
Click to expand...
Google Torsen for the original design, if mine ever goes south my first choice would be the one below and IIRC you do not use synthetic gear lube call and ask about the different bias available in it.. ...

Like this one..
http://www.drivetrainamerica.com/91...ip-gm-chevy-dodge-11-5-aam-rear-differential/


Makes perfect sense to me...:spit:
Features:

Before differentiation occurs, gear radial and thrust forces generated by the torque on the gears cause frictional forces in the differential between the gear to gear interfaces and gear to case interfaces Once the frictional forces are overcome, differentiation will occur The torque will be continually biased, by the frictional forces, to the high traction wheel Torque bias ratio is tunable by modifying helical gear geometry Torque to turn (pre-load) is tunable by adjusting the amount of spring pre-load Increases traction effort on high mu wheel through the multiplication factor of the TBR. Higher TBR of limited slips increases the amount of torque that can be transferred Compatible with ABS, traction and stability control systems Applicable to front or rear axles, and transaxle / transmissions
Click to expand...
 
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malibu795

malibu795

misspeelleerr
Apr 28, 2007
9,212
1,456
113
44
in the buckeye state
You will need something to hold the Pinion yoke to tighten the Pinion nut.
I took some 5" x5/8" plate I had laying around drilled a hole for the socket and 4 holes to bolt to the yoke to hold it still so I could TQ to get running inlbs right since my 1/2" IR 2135ti couldn't get it right enough
They also have setup bearings so you aren't pressing the new one on/off during setup. Like $75.00
 
zf>allison

zf>allison

you never had your car.
Apr 30, 2013
3,394
0
36
elsberry mo
mike diesel said:
Do you think it is a quality part? I can't find many reviews on it.
Click to expand...

I swapped my g80 for that from drive train America and so did my brother. No where near your power level but it had alot of abuse I loved it. Expect open diff like quality in the rain and hard cornering though. Straight lines it never failed to spin both.
 
mike diesel

mike diesel

I'm alright.
Sep 6, 2012
4,005
0
36
SLC, Utah
zf>allison said:
I swapped my g80 for that from drive train America and so did my brother. No where near your power level but it had alot of abuse I loved it. Expect open diff like quality in the rain and hard cornering though. Straight lines it never failed to spin both.
Click to expand...

Someone mentioned to me that the carrier isn't hardened so over time, it will fail. Not sure if i believe it.
 
custom8726

custom8726

Active member
Feb 25, 2008
2,784
0
36
Upstate N.Y
My 2 cents, I have used the dodge torsen, Grizzly, ARB, and obviously the G80 in various Duramax's… As far as daily driving I like the G80 the Best but it will only take so many burnouts and hard launches before its toast. The ARB is nice but you pretty much have to be stopped to engage it and you need a compressor on board. The grizzly locks up great but often doesn't unlock and eats rear tires, It also will engage at times and you would swear the rear diff just exploded it bangs so hard with its racheting style locking mechanism. The Torsen does good launching and is a bit stronger then the G80 IMO but it doesn't lock well when the truck is off camber in my experience. For a (semi) dedicated Race truck that see's little street use I would go with the Grizzly, for a DD I would throw another G80 in it and plan on replacing it every few years if your going to run the piss out of it.
 
zf>allison

zf>allison

you never had your car.
Apr 30, 2013
3,394
0
36
elsberry mo
I had tons of 4k dumps on my aam in 4th, and 5th on accident once lol in 2wd, my g80 held one day of about 6 burnouts and started popping, but had over 200k on it. static dump is probably pretty hard on the rear end. A boosted launch I would think would almost be easier on it. Tons of 4x4 dumps at 4k on the aam with no trouble and no worries either. A grizzly would probably be good for you but there to sloppy for a zf truck imo.
 
zf>allison

zf>allison

you never had your car.
Apr 30, 2013
3,394
0
36
elsberry mo
Honestly I like the welded rear of the single cab I got now best, but it's not for everyone. The aam is super nice on the street. Even of the aam does wear out i bet it lasts a hell of alot longer than a g80, but I was over 500 hp, u have double that so it might not last as long for u.
 
chevyburnout1

chevyburnout1

Fixing it till it breaks
Aug 25, 2008
2,368
1
38
Berthoud, CO
Damn :( Doesn't look the best. Did you still have to hammer out the pinion when you removed it? What do the old bearing races look like?
 
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