So I have a vibration occurring at about 55 mph. So I replaced both u-joints in the rear shaft, had an alignment done, and balanced all the new BFGs by a very reputable shop that does on-car balancing. The do most of work to a lot of dedicated track cars around town.
Still continued to have some vibration. So next stop was to a strictly driveline shop. Very well respected shop. When there is a driveline issue, all the good shops send their customers here. The had the Chief for about a week. The basically went through the whole driveline and get it back up to basically brand new. The extended the front DS 1-1/4", checked all the u-joints, and confirmed all were fine. Rebalanced both the front and rear D/S. Checked all angles and said everything was fine there.
Still had a vibration both at 55 and when slowing to a stop. Shop was determined to find the culprit. Said they could hear a little noise almost like a wheel bearing coming from the rear. So they put it up on the lift and spun it up to speed. Noise seemed to come from the diff. So off came the diff cover.
Found a little play in the cross pin, enough believed to cause the vibration at issue. Wheel bearings seemed to be fine. Said it is not dangerous to drive like it is, but probably need to consider either rebuilding the open diff or swap out to a limited slip etc.
Now this is to my knowledge the original carrier and gears. Open diff 3.54 in the Dana 44. So I wanted to reach out to you guys to get opinions on what I should do regarding what I should swap in. The plans for the Chief are to be a fairly reliable 2-3 hour highway driver to get me to the mountains to explore some light wheeling, get to the camping spots for me to hunt down native trout
.
Tech at the driveline shop said I should swap in a limited slip at minimum if I am going to change things out. Question is, which one? Fairly new to this but have done a decent amount of reading. Can I keep the ring gear and pinion that is in there and just swap carriers? Should I stick with the 3.54s? Should I keep the axle shafts and just do a bearing and seal replacement while we have the carrier out? Currently running 33x12.50x15s on a 4" lift and feels ok running around 60mph on the highway. Of course a little sluggish on startup, but not bad. The vibration is just annoying and doing a 2-3 hr trip with that does not sound like much fun.
Thanks in advance for the input!