[justdifferentials]

Grand noisy diffs

Being in the differential industry I have seen HUNDREDS of grand cherokees in for differential bearings. It seems as though there were many QC issues at dana and many have over preloaded bearings leading to premature failure. Because this is SOOO common I would NOT reccomend the bone yard as a source for a replacement. I think its actually much easier to re-bearing your existing diff than to swap out for a complete. And it is quite a bit less money. Most the time you can just replace all the bearings. If its been run a long time it might need more.

Have a major grinding noise coming out of front end. Removed the front diff fill plug and the fluid is all metalic. I will pull the cover in the AM to see what happened. My question is which is cheaper and/or eaiser, replace whole alxe assembly with used one, or rebuild diff. I always do my own repairs, but have never set up a diff. before. I have always just put in a "new" junk yard axle. 98 Grand 5.2L 249

Thanks!