Posted by Caleb (Kansas) [138.210.207.8] on Tuesday, March 03, 2015 at 22:36:35 :
Have a front pinion bearing going out on my 01 cummins. It literally smoked on Saturday. With all of the snow and ice in the KC area I was using the 4 wheel drive and doing 40-45 up 169 highway when the truck made astrange squeal, bogged down and felt like it was losing power. I felt some feedback in the steering so I kicked out the 4x4 and everything went back to normal. Stopped and looked underneath to find steam/smoke rolling off the outer pinion bearing area on the front diff. Took my chances and drove 140 miles home on Sunday without a hitch. Only acts up when power is being applied.
Normally I would just pay the money and have it rebuilt, or buy the parts and do it myself but I just dropped a substantial amount of money in getting our old house ready to sell and I'm a bit nervous about setting up the gears myself on a vehicle that I depend heavily on. Done it before but it's always been on an old beater or off road toy.
I'd really like to find a matched set of axles. 3.73 ratio dana 60 Front/70 rear with around 150,000 on them. There were a half dozen sets or more on Craigslist less than 3 months ago for $700 or less and they have all vanished. I'm prepared to drive a little ways to get them but I really need to keep my total cost below $1200 till we get the house sold. Any help would be much appreciated. If anyone is near Manhattan and willing to come help me set up new gears, I'd gladly cover your fuel cost.
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