Rear end noise?

Video uploading. Still. Since I had the time I pulled the cover. Not much on the magnetic plug, but you could pan for gold in the fluid even though it's hard to photograph. 

The ring and pinion looked ok. The side gears and spider gears looked like someone thought one wheel burnouts are AWESOME. I didn't take pictures because I already know I'm going to have to go back in there at some point. Lash is the rocking back and forth measurement, right? This has all the lash. I put it back together with 85W-140. Still noisy. I think maybe less? 

a lower mileage rear end frm a junkyard could be as cheap or cheaper than  a R+P set and associated tom foolery.

I came to say I've rebuilt the 8.8 in my previous 02 explorer sport i bought with a "bad rear end" . Repair was simple and cheap to source and replace the carrier bearings which had the same noise you describe.  The diff carrier would move left to right in the axle housing a solid 3/4 inch, teetering on the edge of destroying the ring and pinion. New bearings using the stock shims slapped in solved it.  Didn't bother with measuring lash at all, as considering the amount of play it had with the wasted bearings, it couldn't really matter that much if it was ever so  slightly tight or loose.  When I had the old bearings out of the carrier, all the rollers simply fell out of the cage as they were impossibly worn.   I put 40k miles on it after the cheap and quick rebuild with no further noise before I  sold the truck.

Rebuild it, ford parts are cheap. Don't overthink it. 

* Somehow overlooked where you said the spider gears are chewed up....yeah, swap it if that's the case. 

Honestly it's a Ford 7.5. it is cheaper to buy a junkyard 8.8 than it is to rebuild.

In reply to MrChaos :

But then how will I learn? This is about the cheapest rear end that I could possibly screw up. I don't even own the car. 

That literally took all day. 

I was expecting a thread about flatulence 

Pinion bearing.  If you are smart enough to keep the main caps and shims separate side to side, have someone to remove the rear pinion bearing without destroying the shim, and have the ability to torque the pinion nut down and crush the crush sleeve, attack.  Just keep all the shims where they are supposed to be, and find someone who can remove and install the bearings for you.  Youtube will likely show you how to set the pinion preload.  Borrow an inch pound torque wrench and have fun.

I have an inch pound torque wrench and a harbor freight shop press, I can do this, right? I did some reading and the procedure for crushing the crush sleeve doesn't look bad at all. The rest is just organization, right? Advice on parts? Do everything in the axle just because I'm in there?

Go buy a brand name kit from Napa or wherever.  It will give you bearings, seal, crush sleeve and pinion nut.  You will need axle seals.  If the axles are not grooved where the bearing runs, the axle bearings will be fine.

Clean, clean, clean.  There is a secret stash location for metallic junk where the axle tubes are pressed into the center section.

Getting the rear pinion bearing and the side bearings off can be a challenge.  A good bearing splitter is needed, or a guy good with a cutting torch. 

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

So this sort of thing? Bearing Splitter

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

That is the general idea.  If you have a press, and you don't have some of those, this is an excellent excuse to buy a really useful tool.

8.8s at Pullapart are $104 out the door if you pull the brakes and such off.  3.55 gears with LSD all day long.  Every time I screw one up on my Bronco rock crawling I just go get another.  I'm guessing the Stang would need one from an explorer since they're narrower and disc

Why bother with an Explorer 8.8 ? 

Mustang 8.8 would be a bolt in and they're common.

I'll have to run it by Slammo. The logical thing is to just drop in an 8.8. I agree with that 100%. I kind of want to see if I can fix it though. 

mazdeuce - Seth said:

I'll have to run it by Slammo. The logical thing is to just drop in an 8.8. I agree with that 100%. I kind of want to see if I can fix it though. 

the 7.5 is likely fine if staying with the v6/5 speed and sub 250hp  the issue is there is 1 lsd available and not many gears and the 8.8 is stronger and bolt in for cheaper than a 7.5 rebuild kit.

This is probably going to end up a rambling mess, so I apologize in advance.

I've owned a few Mustangs and had friends that owned them as well. I grenaded two 8.8 IRS rears in my Cobra being dumb (donuts and hard launches). I had a friend destroy the 7.5 in his V6 by being dumb (donuts).

My current Mustang, a 1995 GT, has a rear axle out of an '88 T-bird Turbocoupe. The PO wanted 3.73 gears so instead of buying gears and paying a shop to install them, he swapped in a 230k mile 8.8 with 3.73s from a Turbocoupe. No refreshing was done. The car made horrible sounds and scary vibrations. I put it on a lift and had a couple of guys watch everything while I brought it up to road speed (approx 35mph). They said the axle was bouncing around.

I ended up replacing the ring/pinion/carrier, pinion bearing, carrier bearing, axle bearings (they were egg shaped) and the axle shafts to because they were horribly worn where they ride on the axle bearings.

I tried setting up the gears myself using marking compound but I did't get the crush sleeve crushed enough (it takes like 300lb. ft. and I was scared of going too far). I ended up driving to a shop and had them set the gears up correctly.

If you wanna keep the car then I'd really recommend just swapping in an 8.8 out of a similar year Mustang GT. Parts are easier to find and cheaper for an 8.8. Its seriously easy.

But if you don't want to keep the Stang, used 7.5 parts are dirt cheap. I helped put a carrier and spider gears in my friends blown up 7.5. We used parts out of a wrecked Aerostar. I bought a used 7.5 Trak-Loc on eBay for my ex-SWMBO's V6 Mustang.

Either way you go, the 8.8/7.5 are super common and cheap. Like trade for a gallon of milk and a dozen eggs cheap. If you berkeley it up, a replacement can be found in any wrecking yard in America.

I'm thinking gears and if that's the case then the whole rear end needs to be setup which will mean replacing pretty much everything else that might cause the noise allowing all of us to feel that our guess was correct.

Bwahahahah, love that!!

I just did some work on a similar-vintage mustang rear end. Owner thought it needed brakes. I looked at the back and the brake rotor was rubbing into the caliper bracket. I'm sure there are some people reading this who can guess what things looked like when i got inside. Had to replace the whole assembly with a junkyard unit.