Rear bearings 98 GC 5.9

OK, *I* will say it then. What Bill said is most likely true. Differential bearings normally last the life of a vehicle, except if it is raced, taken off road, subjected to heavy duty use, etc. or has one of those cheap-ass aluminum differential housings like you have. If this vehicle is otherwise in good shape and worth keeping, you might want to investigate getting a "real" cast iron differential housing for it.

Earle

Those seem to have a problem with bearings. I see it posted often, usually at lower miles than yours has.

There is a TSB out on it, here is part of it:

Summary: SPECIFICATIONS AND SERVICE PROCEDURES USED IN THE CURRENT SERVICE MANUALS ARE BEING REVISED TO PROVIDE IMPROVED DIFFERENTIAL BEARING LIFE. *YC

NHSTA# 9821

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

BEK wrote:

Thanks to all for the info. Now I'm beginning to get the drift....Chrysler puts a cheap-ass aluminum differential housing on to save themselves a few bucks. Then, the first time the unsuspecting owner has his Jeep jacked up for new tires or whatever, the housing is bent. This causes premature wear on the bearings that are supposed to last, perhaps, the lifetime of the vehicle. Just priceless! And at least one thing is for sure.....I'll never buy another vehicle from them as long as I live.

BEK

drift....Chrysler

FWIW, I just had the "Jeep thing" transmission/Xfer case leaking problem fixed('97 ZJ 55K) at an independent transmission / axle shop that does a lot of work on Jeeps and I had an interesting discussion with the guy about ZJ rear axles. He said the iron ones are going bad too - just not quite as soon as the aluminum version. He also said the axle is virtually identical to some Danas GM uses and those don't have problems.

He did mention the service update which recommends changing fluid every

25K and said the >