Death of a rear end.

[woodrow256]

Pay attention to a whining rear end. I was driving down the road going about 25mph when this awful growl started with lot of vibrations. The cart will learch foward a little then stop. Its harder than normal to push. What could have broken in there if it was low on oil? Im gonna dig into it tomorrow. Id just like to know what to look for since ive never been in a rear end before. I know that sounds dirty. For those of u who have not seen my other threads.... The cart is a 1999 series txt with axe4855, plumquick bandit motor from a marathon, heavy duty f&r, 2 gauge welding cables. I just got everything swapped over from my old marathon and wired up properly yesterday. Ill post pictures along the way.

[Sir Nuke]

Woodrow......this could be the rearend....OR it could be the motor. the noise COULD HAVE been coming from the motor.

jack up the cart and put it firmly on the stands.....block the front wheels, turn the cart on and put in drive and see how it sounds and where the noise is coming from. if you can't tell, remove the motor and then see if the rearend feels free, or least better than before.

[woodrow256]

I thought about that. It would be alot less work. I do have the original txt motor still, so i would not have any downtime. I just assumed gears since there was no smoke and arcs. The motor was warm not hot. I may have to change the title to death of a bandit motor. Ill find out first thing in the morning.

[Sir Nuke]

like I mentioned.....first just jack it up...spin the rear end with the wheel. it should be fairly free....when/if you remove the motor....see how it feels before you do anything else. When was the last time changed the oil in rear end? seeing as how you have it jacked up and on stands....seems like a good time to drop the pan and see what's there and do an inspection.

[JohnnieB]

The good news is that it still moves, or at least the rear wheels turn rather than slide on the ground.
When my stock PDS motor failed (taking a DCX400 with it), I slid to a stop from 30+ MPH and had to have the cart carried home on a flatbed.

My guess is that a roller bearing failed. Problem is that there are nine of them.
One in the motor, one on each axle and six inside the pig.

[scottyb]

Now is good time to drop the pan on the rear end and put fresh motor oil in it... I add a little STP to help it stick to the top gears.

Everybody should be doing this to every new cart they get... it's cheap easy insurance. The original lube is only good for 5 years.

[woodrow256]

Quick update... death of a plumquick bandit. Some piece of epoxy broke loose and caused all sorts of mayhem with metal shaving and bend coils.

[JohnnieB]

Originally Posted by woodrow256

Quick update... death of a plumquick bandit. Some piece of epoxy broke loose and caused all sorts of mayhem with metal shaving and bend coils.

That looks vaguely familiar.

Hopefully the controller is still okay.

Looks like it's D&D Time.

[woodrow256]

Yea the controller seems to be fine. Im just glad my wheels didnt lock up like yours, cause my 2 yr old girl and my pregnant wife was on there with me. Anyway, i got the original txt motor in now and it seems to respond pretty well to 48v. I had one hell of a time breaking into the pumpkin. Somebody had siliconed the crap out of it. The oil was black, and there was slime on the bottom. I put in some synthetic 75w gear oil. I coundnt find any synthetic sae 30w. The whine seems a little better maybe. I hear you on the d&d motor. Ive got to find something better now that ive felt that good torque from my bandit. Im not gonna have another bandit motor. That one didnt last 2 years. It was good while it lasted.

[sunoco]

Originally Posted by scottyb

Everybody should be doing this to every new cart they get... it's cheap easy insurance.

It's amazing how quiet some fresh oil in the rear end makes it too!