Grease exiting green bearings

End of the season last year the rear end (8 3/4 3.91 cone suregrip) started making some noise, a constant growl. the noise does not change turning right or left which makes me think it's in the center section but when I pulled the wheels & drums this is what i saw on the left axle.

what do you guys think? time to change the wheel bearing? since they are sealed I would think this is not a good thing, or is it just the bearing in the center section? any Ideas on further diagnosis?
Oh yea 489 case.
now that it's finally warming up I need to get the car ready for some action.

thanks,
Gary

You need to diag the rear anyway,they don't last forever.

Needs to be replaced.. how long has it been in
there

Checked my notes and the axles with the greens have been in since nov. of '13 so thats 4 seasons, and the gear and sure grip longer, probobly another 3 years. lotss long than I thought,seemed like just yesterday LOL.

Are you running inner axle seals? If no, that could be your problem. I have been told (take it with a grain of salt) but is has some validity. That the bearings aren't totally sealed. The oil will eventually seep in and wash the grease out. It is possible that this is happening. If you have the seals. Out goes my theory... lol

I am runnning inner seals..but thanks for the thought.

I find it hard to believe it cooked so much to expel that much grease.I would think there is bearing damage/heet.Pull the axle and check/spin the bearing

I’m guessing the leaking bearing is bad and overheating blowing the Grease out

Pull that axle and feel the bearing is what I would do.

pulled both axles today and they both feel nice and smooth, no grease coming out the right hand axle bearing. I have my old axles with the tapered bearing, maybe I'll throw those in and take it for a ride just to see if the noise is still there.
I'm thinking it's the center section but the bearing leaking still will need to be replaced.

Found the noise now I just need to figure out why the grease was leaking

How easy was it to pull the leaking axle?Maybe the housing is bent on that side.or if you had new ends put on the housing it could be crooked by .010

I did the same thing to my 8.75. It got noisey and when i pulled the center I found the same thing as you, a few broken teeth. It had been together for a long long time as the car had progressively gotten faster. We were both lucky we caught it before it let all the way go!

Is the pinion yoke loose?
The teeth marks on the posi are from the pinion gear backing up into it
One of the hazards of using the crush sleeves on a hard leaving car
If you still have the crush sleeve in your rear end now is the time to swap it out for a pinion spacer and switch to pinion shims to set the bearing preload up properly

Good eye Cab, I knew someone would spot that. Pinion is good, those marks are from a previous install.

Clanton, the housing and the ends are the ones the car was born with and the axles seemed to go together and come apart ok, no extra binding.

Ok thanks,If it was bent the side load would cause more heat in the bearing.

only had one chipped tooth so yea good thing I caught it be fore any more damage happened. Last time at the track I felt what I thought was tire slip half way out, must of been the gear, just glad it didn't let go altogether.

Good eye Gary, definitely better to catch that because of a noise instead of compete failure! I let dad burrow The center and axles out of the truck last year for Nostalgia Drags and it has now developed a noise, hopefully it’s something simple. Good luck getting yours fixed hope to see you at Milan next month.

Those bearings werent designed for street driving
but great for straight line stuff.. all the cornering
might have taken their toll on them

I don't street drive it that much, a few local cruises and up to woodward once or twice that week, thought they would hold up to that.

Joe, hope yours is something minor.

My green bearings lasted through 12 or 15 years of street driving and drag racing before I had one start to make a little noise. I wouldn't sweat driving them on the street.

I always ran inner axle seals on my 8.75 but on the Dana I just built the moser housing ends don't set the seal deep enough to fit, i guess I will find out how much impact the seal has on bearing life.

Is your axle tube vent clogged? A clogged vent plus heat is the only thing I could think of that could create pressure buildup inside the housing to push the axle bearing grease out like that.

Good thought, I'll check it out.
I installed another center section i had(4.30 w/ clutch sure-grip), cleaned everything up,put the axles back in and took it for a ride. Everything sounded good, noise gone. I will drive it a bit and check the axles again, but rite now they seem fine.