oldestisuzuist wrote:
Why not just remove the drain & fill plugs on the tranny? The drain plug is magnetic, you shouldn't have anything more than a silvery sludge on it. When the lube runs out the fill hole it has the correct amount, whether put in through the shifter or the fill hole. You don't know if it's low or not without the fill plug level as a guide, if you overfill it will start leaking at a seal.
The noise is not your pilot bearing, the pilot bearing only turns when the flywheel & tranny input shaft are spinning at different speeds. Any time the clutch pedal is up the flywheel & input shaft are locked together via the clutch.
I've never had a tranny exhibit symptoms like you describe, & I've been through more than my share of trannies. The most usual noise is an input shaft bearing that starts making noise when idling with the tranny in neutral & clutch pedal up. A loose pinion nut on the rear end makes a noise more like you describe, except the opposite- usually quieter on acceleration or steady pedal, then louder during coast- so make sure the noise is coming from the tranny & not the rear end.
By the way, is your truck lowered a bunch? I have been involved in diagnosing noise in a couple of drastically lowered trucks, turns out the lowering was enough to shorten the distance between the tranny tailshaft and the pinion flange so that the driveshaft was slightly too long. When the driveshaft was installed it pushed into the tailpiece so much than it sideloaded the bearing & caused a noise. Just slightly shortening the driveshaft so that the slip yoke didn't bottom on the tailshaft fixed the noise. You can check by unbolting the shaft flange at the pinon flange when the truck is at normal ride height & seeing if the driveshaft will push farther into the tranny tailpiece. If it won't your shaft needs shortening.
It just started happening as well. I don't have any carpet in the truck anymore, ripped it out several years ago, and the shifter boot is torn so I can hear that it's coming from somewhere down there. If I cover up the hole I can hardly hear it again, but it's only when the gas pedal is down in 4th gear. If I let off the gas, no more whine. I'm wondering if maybe it has something to do with my electrical? Someone rerouted my fuel pump so it would turn on with the key on and now all these issues are popping up.