Hi every. I have a 98 dodge ram 1500 2 wd. I have a really bad grinding noise coming from the differential, the rear end has oil and has no leaks looks fine. It started doing it only when i turned and accelerated and now it does it when im slowing down, but i dosent sound like its grinding anymore, more like a meduim pitch rrrrrrr (lol) sound. Wanted to know if anyone now what it could be and how to fix it. Now i was thinking about swaping out the whole differential from a parts truck but they want $500. Does anyone know it an older dodge like 80s model differental will work. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

it souns to me like the input bearing has lost its bearing cage. It is a rather large bearing in the diff at the input from the drive shaft. It is replacible but can be an involved job. May be easier to swap rear ends.

My truck does the same thing, I have a '99 Ram 1500 4x4 that wass taken out in the mud alot when it was new and now only desert. I think I plugged up the vents and damaged the bearing. I know when I bought it I had the bearing replaced because it was doing the same thing. Any tips on the most cost affective way to remedy this would be appreciated.