Community Forums

Dtwallace · 07-02-2014, 04:54 PM

Has anyone experienced an annoying high pitch whine from the their differential that is too loud to sleep with while traveling down the road? I have this issue with my 2012 Providence 42p. I am the second owner, I'm sure the first owner never noticed this issue since there was only the husband driving the coach and the DW I assume never in the back bed room during traveling. This coach has only 4K for the mileage, it's my first DP. Is this normal to hear so much gear noise back there? I've experienced high gear noise in trucks, over the road. But the sleeper is never directly over the drive axle, so it's not much of an issue there. Thanks in advance for your reply.

BFlinn181 · 07-02-2014, 05:44 PM

Have you checked to level of the gear oil in the pumpkin? Or it could be tire noise. Of course I could also point out there's no seatbelt on the bed and it's not an 'approved passenger space' but you probably knew that.

If the whine only happened during deceleration, it could be bad pinion bearings or loose pinion bearing preload.

If it happens an acceleration, is usually is caused by worn ring and pinion gears or improper gear set up.

charlie 62 · 07-02-2014, 08:13 PM

Check air ride height.If to low I know it will whine?

Dtwallace · 07-02-2014, 08:28 PM

Thanks for the replies,
I haven't check the fluid level, ride height is perfectly level all around, but my experience tells me ride height if too low would only possibly show up as U-joint vibration, and that's not high pitch like what i'm hearing. I'm sure it would be the ring and pinion set up. I just wanted to hear from anyone out there that may have had the same issue at one time or another. Funny you should mention the belts. DW won't go for that idea, she has to drive. Thanks.....

charlie 62 · 07-04-2014, 08:08 PM

I should have said check drive line for misalignment.Too much height will cause rear to whine. Not enough height and whine occur. We had 6 Peterbuilt tractors that the dealer installed dump valves on with out a warning light. Ryder had the front differential pulled when someone said did you check the dump valve? A few red faces at Ryder!!!

dadej · 07-10-2014, 01:30 PM

I just purchased a 2000 Monaco Dynasty 40 foot. I get the noise worst when I decelerate but it whines all the time while going down the road. Their is no vibration like u joints just the constant whine of the ring and pinion. My last DP was soo quiet.

04chevy2500 · 07-10-2014, 02:14 PM

I also have a 2000 dynast 40ft,, mine does the same and the rear gears were replaced and it still makes the whinning noise

dubdub07 · 07-10-2014, 02:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BFlinn181

Have you checked to level of the gear oil in the pumpkin? Or it could be tire noise. Of course I could also point out there's no seatbelt on the bed and it's not an 'approved passenger space' but you probably knew that.

If the whine only happened during deceleration, it could be bad pinion bearings or loose pinion bearing preload.

If it happens an acceleration, is usually is caused by worn ring and pinion gears or improper gear set up.

I knew someone was not going to let this go....just didn't think it was going to be the first post!

trabuco · 07-10-2014, 03:29 PM

My coach started to whine last year while on the east coast 3,000 miles from home. It was diagnosed as too much play in the planetary gears. New rear end installed and the problem got worse. A second rear end was installed same problem.

I went ahead and told them to replace the u-joints.... No help! They sent me to the rebuilder "Transaxle corp." who installed yet another rear end no help. They preceded to give me the song and dance about it being the transmission. I would have none of that. I ended going to four of their service centers over a period of six weeks..

Each of these rear end changes took 2 to 3 days. The 4th shop had an independent contractor working for them and he new exactly what the problem was.

He pulled the axles and rear end and re-shimmed the ring gear and did all in 6 hours by himself. Problem was gone.

What's ironic about this is Transaxle specializes in the repair of rear ends and the second shop they sent me to rebuilt the rear end again and still got it wrong.

Needless to say Transaxle is not high on my list.

trabuco · 07-10-2014, 03:34 PM

Kind of went off on a tangent there! My original rear did need work and I'm sure it was the planetary gears creating the whine. That's was at 25k and now at 35k everything is still working good.

Dtwallace · 07-11-2014, 01:10 AM

Thank you all for the replies,
I'm now sure it is the ring and pinion set up. I'm having the wife setup an appointment with Cummins Atlantic in Kenly, NC.

Ken I'm glad to hear you got your issue taken care of, but there has to be a mistake in communication some where when you got the planetary gears mixed in the repair. Sorry but we have no planetary gears in our DP differentials, only in the transmissions.There are axles out there that use that system to keep the gear ratio low and not have a massive differential unit to do it. But that's not what we use.

Since this is my first DP, I needed to hear from you experienced guys to be sure I was right in thinking this is not normal. I hope this will be a one stop shop fix and not end up fighting with it like I've read above from some of you. Again, thanks so much for sharing your experiences on this issue.

I'll try to keep you guys informed, good shops are sometimes hard to find.

BFlinn181 · 07-11-2014, 09:34 AM

I used to drive a YMCA bus that developed a bad differential. With a long drive shaft, the whine was amplified to the point that passing a pig farm the noise caused a stampede! It took two trips to the shop to get it repaired. First trip was to replace the rear end, second trip was to get the pre load and everything shimmed properly. It is often not a one visit service to get everything right. I hope you have good luck with it.

Dtwallace · 07-11-2014, 07:01 PM

Thanks Bob,

I used to work for Ford, I had one rear end job that took me a week to get right. This was in a work van that had no insulation on the walls. Can you imagine going down the road and all of a sudden this high pitch squeal would come from every where. What made it so hard to fix was the fact the customer drove the van at a much higher speed than we were allowed to. We finally put it on the dyno and then we could pinpoint exactly where it was coming from, like you mentioned, the preload was just a little off. Thanks for your reply

brobox · 07-11-2014, 07:11 PM

I have a brand new MH and waiting for a new rear end to be shipped now. Spartan had it at a truck center, ran ever test that has been mentioned here....the rear end is bad and needs to be replaced. It happens even on brand new MH's. We discoved the whine driving it home from the factory.