Issues with my rear axle housing

[beamer]

Hello all,

I am new here, but have owned my 99 Tahoe 4X4 for some 4 years now. I was recently pulling a trailer for our sons high school band and the rear end went out on it. I do not know if I had a bearing go out and heated the oil to expand and blow out or if I never noticed a leak and ran it low.

Needless to say, I purchased a replacement from a junk yard some 170 miles away and a friends that has a shop replaced it for me. Stupid me, did not confirm the diff ratio and now I have 3.42 vice 3.73. The yard is going to swap out with me for the proper ratio.

Here is where my delima lies at... My shop told me that my old axle looked bent when they were taking it out. Hmmm... The newly replaced axle looks bent also. The rear tires are skewed and not perpendicular to the ground. They look to have the bottom of the tires out further than the top. I never noticed this before I had this problem. Is there something wrong? Or was I just not observant before? I have had others comment on it since and do not know what is going on.

Any and all help is greatly appeciated,
Mike

 

[T-Bagg]

My '98 the rear wheels stand straight. You may want to take another trip to the junk yard to get an axle that is straight. Or you can take a look around town at other GMT-400 trucks to see what they got going on.
But if you find an axle with the proper gear ratio you can save money by swapping the axles yourself. Even if you don't have the tools, it'd probably be cheaper to buy the tools than to pay someone else to do a relatively easy job for you. Unless your friend worked for cheap or free.

If your axle wasn't venting it may be able to build up enough pressure to push past seals. My buddy's 9 inch used to do it. Maybe the bend in the old axle put an odd load on the seals at the ends of the tubes and oil leaked out there. Which would show oil on the inside of your tires, kind of out of sight. But I'm no expert.

 

[SunlitComet]

it sound like it slipped you mind. Can the verify it is a tube and housing alignment or really bad outer bearings on both axles.

 

[beamer]

My buddy charged me $208 to swap the rear assemblies. Which I do not think is bad. I did not have the time to deal with it, due to my job. I may be doing the next swap myself... My sons VW Bug has a clutch issue and one of the 2 needs to be running. It may take a couple weeks to get this done, especially with the distance between me and the junk yard.

The vent was working, as it spewed burnt fluid all over the undercarriage of the body and stank badly.

I still do not understand how the wheels can be angled to the ground. I can't see the axle bearings being bad on this unit as it makes no noise. And both of them...

I guess I am grasping in the air here fellows.

Thanks again for any and all inputs,
Mike

 

[SunlitComet]

The vent was working, as it spewed burnt fluid all over the undercarriage of the body and stank badly.


Thanks again for any and all inputs,
Mike

sounds like a bad axle alright.

 

[beamer]

Can the tubes on these rear assemblies become bent from excessive wear?

I know that sounds way off to me, but I want to ask. As the newly replaced rear has this appearance. And my shop buddy said that the old one looked that way also.


Can I also ask about the reputation of the rear end units. I heard that these rears have a history of problems. Is this true? Is there a better fluid to use in them to help keep this from happening again? The trailer that I was pulling was a 16'X8' (1' extra height), V nosed utility trailer. Tandom axles, and weighed around 4600Lbs. I also pull a 25' center console boat with this truck that weighs around 5500 Lbs, maybe a little more.

Just hoping for some good info to hold onto my investment. The crazy thing is this truck has always been a barely used truck for pulling. I have other vehicles to use for main transportation. From the day I got the truck, I had a check engine light for the O2 sensors. I tried several Ebay universal sensors to fix it and never could. I finally broke down, purchased all new direct fit from Autozone (yes... all 4 - 2 at a time). The truck has never run smoother and as good of fuel milage - and this happens !


Thanks again,
Mike

 

[96ProCompTahoe]

if they have a 14 bolt 6 lug rear end at the junk yard in the correct gear ratio, pick it up and swap it in. stronger axle.

 

[longstand]

You guys kinda scare me with all this Axle problem.
reason, is because. i notice that 1 of my tire goes inside more than the other tires. but maybe its because the tire has different size

Rear Driver: 295/40R <<<<<< This one goes Inside more than the Passenger.
Rear Passenger: 305/35R

 

[SunlitComet]

You guys kinda scare me with all this Axle problem.
reason, is because. i notice that 1 of my tire goes inside more than the other tires. but maybe its because the tire has different size

Rear Driver: 295/40R <<<<<< This one goes Inside more than the Passenger.
Rear Passenger: 305/35R

Most likely tire size issue. Or perhaps one of us has voodooed your truck to never be 100%

 

[longstand]

LOL..

Well, we are going to see if one of you guys Really VOODO my SUV..

going to send this SUV back to the Body shop for another 3 weeks of body work and paint..

after its finish, going to replace that two tire with a USE tire, then Wheel alignment.

After that going to install the Steering stabilizers.

And Install the Wheel Spacer.

Lets see how the SUV looks and fell after all this mod is added.