[HO455]

The fold down seats have taken a back seat for now. It became apparent that the carrier bearing was no longer happy. It looked as if it could have been the original. I was able move the drive shaft up and down about 3/8" and that seemed like a bad thing. (Photo 1) So I pulled it out and had it converted to a urethane billet style with a slider on the back half. Having heard lots of people complain about the billet style having a short life span I asked the shop about this problem. Their explanation is that the factory style was designed to move forward and aft as the axle moved up and down. The billet style isn't designed to move forward and aft. By putting a splined slider between it and the axle the carrier bearing no longer has to move forward and aft. So the carrier doesn't fail from being side loaded. Sounds logical to me. Now the new drive line is installed it is much smoother accelerating from a start and the odd vibration at 55 mph hasn't returned. But there is more noise from the rear end and when coasting down hills at 40 or more mph there is a definite new vibration in the truck. I hope that some of that will fade as things break in.