Itinerant Air-Cooled

asiab3 wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 26, 2018 2:12 am

What would the differential diagnosis be to narrow down spider vs. ring and pinion noise? (Puns might freely abound as our OP is out of country for the week...)

Aar, aar, aar . . . . OK, ring and pinion under load, acceleration or deceleration. Spider gears only work on corners or if one wheel is jacked. They don't make discernable noise under way, but they do get in the way of correctly diagnosing noises.
Colin

So I think the plan could be for Tom to safely raise the entire rear end and repeat the test, though I do not suspect the spider bearings because the noise we heard on the left side only is also present during straight-line driving. Afternoon traffic prevented us from winding around too many curves to load up the bearings, but slight chicanes didn’t lessen or worsen the sounds.

Tom, when you get back to the Western Hemisphere, have fun doing both wheels in the air before you make the call to replace bearings.

Robbie

asiab3 wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 27, 2018 6:25 pm

I do not suspect the spider bearings because the noise we heard on the left side only is also present during straight-line driving.

Careful here . . . nobody is indicting the spider gears. I am only stating that the spider gears can raise a private wholly irrelevant ruckus if the differential is working overtime with one wheel spinning. So, the noise that was heard in straight line driving can still be one of the two options entertained here:
tires
axle bearings

Normally I can hear bad bearings load up on a swerve and quiet down on the reverse swerve. Usually, I suggest rotating or changing out the tires to see if the noise is less. Or we could stick in new high quality bearings, why not?
Colin

Gotcha. I didn’t think you were indicting the differential bearings, but I wanted to make sure we weren’tt chasing any tails.

RobbieInIdyllwild
(Currently performing a Los Alamos Chloe JB Weld Repair on Elwood’s window regulator.)

asiab3 wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 28, 2018 11:27 am

Gotcha. I didn’t think you were indicting the differential bearings, but I wanted to make sure we weren’tt chasing any tails.

RobbieInIdyllwild
(Currently performing a Los Alamos Chloe JB Weld Repair on Elwood’s window regulator.)

Robbie, if you are still there, give Barb a crushing hug from me and a hello to Elwood.
Colin
( p.s. make sure that the JB Weld circles, envelops the horizontal surfaces, think "shear forces"! )