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The jeep is running better than ever, I think by replacing all the bearings, tie rod ends, leaf springs and shocks, wheel rims and tires, adding shims and axle grease, and so on, it was so many new parts that needed to wear in and get used to each other, it was slowing the vehicle down. It is looser on the roads, rolls on an incline, and all together feels like the parts have gotten to know each other. But, what I have always noticed, is gear whine. The throw out bearing was noisy, and I replaced it. All that suspension and rebuilt parts have eliminated the endless rattling and squeaks I had before. But I'm noticing that the gear whine is loud. It increases as I accelerate (dropping with each shift). That seemed to always be there, but now when I decelerate, I hear the gears winding down, the sound growing slower as I come to a stop. There are no performance issues, and I have plenty of gear oil in the tranny, transfercase, and axles, but I'm wondering if this is normal?

Yes, both of my jeeps whine. The gear sound is muffled by the sound of the wind, exhaust, tires and engine so its not the dominant note in the music the jeeps make.

That whine if not abnormally high is common and comes from the transfer case gear sets. It becomes annoying when you put a top on the jeep. Since the 70's I have dealt with it by turning the radio up.

Ahhhh the sound of straight cut gears.
Take a listen to a modern day standard tranny in reverse.

I really notice it with the top on and the doors closed..
I prefer cheese and crackers with my whine

It seems louder than normal. Then again,,it is 20 degrees out, so the gear oil I'm sure is thick, and I do have the top on too. I have the emergency brake cable removed at the moment too, so there is an open hole right over the transfer case.

Keep driving until either A. Something breaks or B. You become used to the noise.

Until A or B happens make sure the transfer case AND transmission have adequate oil - they have different fill plugs (although oil can migrate between cases). If the trans shifts smoothly, the jeep has plenty of go power in 2 and 4 wheel drive and you don't hear any grinding or rasping noises, you're good to go for shakedown cruises. If you have NDT-type military tires, they can make a lot of noise on pavement, much more than standard tread tires. Keep listening to the sound, if you detect a change, if things get much worse, then investigate. But I'm betting B is what happens.

I really noticed it after I pulled the rear driveshaft, removed the parking brake pads, and then bolted back up the driveshaft. I don't know how could have positioned the driveshaft wrong when I bolted it back up, but I'm wondering if something is binding.

I doubt it - get the rear wheels off the ground, trans in neutral and spin the driveshaft by hand. Feel for any resistance and listen for dragging noise. Check to make sure you didn't loose any of the little needle bearings in the drive shaft bearings when you had it unbolted. Make sure the shaft bearings are seated properly in the drive shaft yokes. If the shaft itself was not in position correctly, you would also get a LOT of vibration. You said that you had removed the parking brake handle and there was a hole - noise could be coming through that, plug it and see if that makes a difference.

I've found that foam earplugs do wonders when it comes to quieting down the various noises associated with a "speeding" Jeep. It's an old trick I picked up from flying behind noisy aircraft engines.

Tim

I don't mind the gear whine. I just don't want there to be a problem that I don't notice until I'm miles away from home. I topped off the transfer case fluid and tranny fluid. The u-joints were never apart, or even removed from their metal hoops on the driveshaft, so I don't see how they could have lost ball bearings. That nut on the rear of the transfercase is not reverse threaded by any chance, is it?

He's talking about the bearing caps on the ujoints themselves. When you pull a driveshaft, the caps on the two free ends of the ujoint, on both ends of the shaft, can sometimes come off or slip just enough that the needle bearings can get out of place. You would most likely noticed though. The one's caged by the driveshaft yoke wont give you that problem. Is your driveshaft clocked the right way? If not, that can cause vibration.
No on the nut, it's a right hand thread.

how can I tell if it's clocked the right way? And when I pulled the driveshaft, I only took off the side bolted to the parking brake, and at that only the square metal piece with the four bolts. I loosened, and then decided against it and re-tightened the rear of the drive shaft without ever pulling it off the axle. The transfer case side I did pull completely off, and when I reattached it, I had to spin the parking brake a bit to get the bolts to mach up to the bolt holes on the driveshaft. I did just lift the rear axle, put the transmission in neutral, and spin the driveshaft. I felt no binding.

Dan,
Relax and enjoy the ride. You took a few things apart and now you pay more attention to them then you did last week and the whine sounds louder. Everything mentioned above would not only make noise but it would SHAKE and VIBRATE as well. It's winter, the tops on and now you went and left the panel off the brake handle hole so wow there's more noise. Stop worrying so much.

The clocked business is about phasing the two halves of the drive shaft so both "U" joint yokes are correctly angled relative to each other. Since you only dropped the front flange of the rear driveshaft away from the brake drum and you did not loosen or otherwise disturb the "U" bolts on each of the "U" joint bearing caps then there's nothing to worry about.





Note this is a problem with any Willys jeep that does not have an indexed spline connection. Those that have an indexed spline only go together one way.

I learned all of this the hard way back in 1964 when I installed new "U" joints at both ends and in the middle of my two part 58 Chevy driveshaft.

Quick highjack here, the shafts I pulled are keyed, they look more like photo two than photo one. is that normal?