my trx 300 fw is making a kreeking, bad bearing sound when rolling, coming from the rear diff, is that bad bearings ? or is the ring and pinion? anybody seen this before.

 

Check that it is not simply a loose hub first. Another possibility is that the axle has been loose and the splines where it goes through the "diff" are worn. However the rear bevel box is the one part of a 300 that is not "bullet proof". Now prices for 300s are rising, it may be worth getting it repaired, or buying a new one. Finding a good used bevel box for much less than the "new" price is difficult. Both the crown wheel bearings and pinion bearings fail. You can get rebuild kits for the bevel box but fitting one is a nightmare.

 

I can attest to that.

My 96 TRX300FW was mudded, so the rear end and brakes were all
trashed. A complete used rear can cost $400 or more. I opted for
a Chinese ring/pinion pair for $200, and the bearings from another
supplier. Thankfully, I was able to save the housing, tho I have to
cut out the pinion retaining nut with a plasma cutter. If you do not
know how to shim a R/P in a rear end, get help.

It has been working fine for several years, but it has an easy life: no
mudding and infreqent light duty use.

 

I was thinking more of the little needle roller race on the end of the pinion. The only way I have found to remove it is to get the snap ring out through the tiny hole and then get a slide hammer on the old race while warming the case to slacken it. I do have a home made tool to remove the pinion nut.

 

got a pic of the tool

 

It is very crude, not made by me. However I did make one for a 450 front diff and it is a "black iron" pipe reducer, one of those with the big male thread on the outside, a smaller female inside and a hexagon for tightening. I machined out the inside to clear the pinion splines, filed the hex flats to fit the pinion bearing "nut" and welded a piece of pipe on with a hole drilled through it to fit a tommy bar.

To get the nut on the end of the pinion off I had to weld a bar onto the outside of the splined coupling to hold it, but the coupling is male on the 300 rear, and the air wrench has always done the trick on the 300 for me.

 

Here is the one I made.

I bought a pipe-thread nut at the h/w store, one that had the same
outside hex dimensions as the ID of internal ring nut inside the final drive
housing.

I welded it to a pipe and twisted it with a 3-foot pipe wrench, after
bolting the housing to a large 2x12.

This nut was harder to remove than the pinion gear, and my tool still
could not spin it. I resorted to cutting it out.

On reassembly with new bearings, I did not use the nut; I used bearing
retainers that where small bolts threaded into the sides of the housing.