Hi all,

New here, great to find an active Jeep forum. Here's the scoop I'm looking for advice:

Bought a 95 GC Limited a couple years ago. 45k miles on it at the time. When I got it I noticed the front axle was pretty loud. It has what I would say is a ring and pinion whine, where under certain acceleration and under certain speeds at coast, it whines pretty good. The whine drops off considerably on decel. The guy I got it from said it's always been noisy, (I trust this guy, he's a friend), and he had it checked while under warranty. So I decided I'd live with it.

I've had no driveability issues to date, now with 86,000 miles on it. But I noticed that the noise was getting more obnoxious these last several months and there's a bit of grinding noise going. I had all the fluids in the diff, the transfer case and tranny done. Mechanic said they were fine. He thinks that I have some bad bearings in there as well, along with pinion/ring noise. He said he could rebuild it and quiet it down a bit.

My question - is this a common issue with this model? Do others have this problem? What was the right fix? I read somewhere that they were pretty noisy even when new. If I knew that a rebuild would make it nice and quiet, I'd glady spend the money. But he quoted $1000 to do a rebuild. I'd hate to spend it if it will still whine.

Second question, is a rebuild that expensive or are there other routes to try?

I know from other cars I've had that accel and coast whine is due to proper ring/pinion set up, I'm hoping that is the case here.

Thanks in advance for any feedback.
Eric

The Danna model 30 is known to have bearing failure at around 100,000 mi. I dont know what the Mech will replace usally pinion and side bearings and maybe the ring and pinion itself. If it is just the bearings it is kind of high, but there is a lot of work in rebuilding the Diff. Get a couple of different prices to compare.

I have the exact model, and unfortunately the exact problem.
I bought the jeep with 77k on it and the whine/bind/grind began at around 82k. Took it to a tech - he agreed, "yeah its loud...but they are all loud, thats just how they run."
So a few thousand miles went by and it became more quiet, but still noticeable.
Now i'm at 107k and the thing was screamin, like bad.
I thought either the front drive shaft toggled or the front diff was getting chewed up.
After the whole fluid drain and fill with the driveline, the thing runs smoother but still has the grind.
I think it's the bearings as well, like you were saying.
But everyone I have spoken to who has dealt with Jeep's say the same thing...deal with it, they are loud.
Also looked into repair and was told the same thing, Yeah I'll fix it, but the noise will still be there.
But hey if you have had some luck with something let me know.
Thanks!