eTorque Bearing Replacement, Fixed Grinding Noise

[Nstoolman1]

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Thought I would throw that in there.

 

[Nonducor]

How did you get the pulley off. I've tried pulling it with what seemed like a lot of pressure. I am afraid of breaking it.

I had a 5 ton, 2 arm puller (3 ton with 3 arms couldn't handle it and broke). Rigged a clamp to keep the 2 arms secure and slowly ratched a quarter turn or less at a time. Once there was enough of a gap between the pulley and the housing, I used 2 small wood wedges and tapped (alternating) until it came off. Be careful as everything flew apart.

 

[Nonducor]

Noted this on YouTube. Only video I've found so far that shows how to replace both bearings.

 

[1791]

a friend at work had grinding noise at 91k mi. the dealer told him it would be months on a new MGU. he actually found a place in charlotte nc that rebuilt/replaced the bearings for 300ish i think.
he had to remove it and take it to them but it's repaired.

 

[pensfan]

one of the mopar websites said stallantis has secured a new supplier for the unit, but nothing else. I have a beautiful driveway ornament until then.

What site was the info on the new supplier on? I tried many searches and could find nothing.

 

[Scuba diver 71]

Now that the cases are split we see the issue. The rear bearing is shot.
3. Behind that rear bearing is a resolver of some kind (my guess is it reports shaft position/rpm to the controller). It needs to be removed to get the bearing off. It is a single nut that is easily removed with a small impact driver. The reluctor wheel is keyed and just slides off the shaft. Mark it for which side goes on the shaft first. If you forget, look at the witness marks on the shaft and reluctor.
4. Pull the bearing off the shaft (if yours is on the shaft) with a small bearing puller. Two open end wrenches used 180 degrees off from each other would work also. My bearing was not too tight on the shaft. If your bearing stayed in the housing you will need to remove the resolver from the rear of the case and press the bearing out that way using a drift or deep socket. Looks like 3 small allen bolts to remove the sensor. I would mark it for orientation before removal.

One thing I would note is that if you look close at these pictures the resolver sensor and reluctor wheel are damaged. I imagine this damage was from the bad bearing allowing the shaft to orbit excessively causing contact. In this case, the system still functions fine. Your damage may be beyond this point. You won't know until inspection. I doubt this is an easily purchased part. Also, my truck will throw a code when I wash it. My guess is water gets in the windings of this sensor due to the damage. Code clears on it's own when everything dries.

Thank you for your great post with a ton of info. You motivated me to fix mine without spending $1000+ at the dealership. I experienced the same dreaded grinding noise on my 2019 Ram 1500 Limited 5.7L + e-torque at 150k miles. For all the people attempting to do it themselves, I want to share my experience. Overall it is a relatively easy job if you have experience working on cars and all the basic wrenches and tools etc commonly used in auto mechanic work. Please do yourself a favor and buy a small hydraulic shop press (under $100 on Amazon). It will make this repair so much easier starting from splitting GMU apart to removing old bearings and pushing new ones back on. Otherwise, you will be swinging hammers and that is never recommended while working on delicate electric components or setting new bearings without damaging them. One thing that stopped me from completing my repair was a wrong rear bearing size specified by many people on the internet. Even though my GMU had only the rear bearing shot, I decided to replace both front and rear. So I ordered 6305-2RS for the front and 6003-2RS for the rear. Front one was the exact same size and it went right in but the rear one on my GMU actually was 6203-2RS not 6003 which I found out after my GMU was out and split open. My truck is one of the first 5th gens so maybe the early GMUs were different but if I were you, I'd order both sizes just in case. Let me know if you want any photos and more detailed instructions on how to perform the whole repair but "UpNorthEngineer" had it all explained exhaustively. Good luck

 

[RHO]

Like many others with the 5.7 eTorque mine started making a grinding noise. At first it sounded like an old power steering pump without fluid. Then, it progressed into a horrible bad bearing sound. All the while the dealer told me the part was backordered and that I should keep driving it (my truck is under warranty with about 25000 miles on it). Eventually the noise got so bad I told the dealer I couldn't drive it any longer as I was worried about causing other damage or short circuiting and starting a fire. Again, they nor Ram offered any solution so I took matters into my own hands. In the next few posts I will try to spell out how to remove and rebuild the eTorque unit (provided yours failed the same as mine). My truck is a '21. I have no idea if they are all the same. I also have no idea if my repair procedure will cause other damage of any other kind. The risk to attempt repair is yours. This probably voids warranty. My repair was successful and my truck runs fine with no abnormal noises. I apologize ahead of time as the following posts will likely be long. I will try to get them typed up and posted tonight or tomorrow. I joined the forum to hopefully help others that are stuck in the same crappy situation.

Some one on EBAY was selling a new unit the whole MGU unit in the box for 2,500 did not look like a dealer just kind of intresting to see , A guy on tick tock rebuilt his also like really documented also.

 

[Mr.Grid]

. Please do yourself a favor and buy a small hydraulic shop press (under $100 on Amazon). It will make this repair so much easier starting from splitting GMU apart to removing old bearings and pushing new ones back on. Otherwise, you will be swinging hammers and that is never recommended while working on delicate electric components or setting new bearings without damaging them.

Did you use or do you think a 12t press would do the job? Or would the 6t be able to handle?

 

[Scuba diver 71]

Did you use or do you think a 12t press would do the job? Or would the 6t be able to handle?

I bought this 6 ton press on Amazon for $99 and had no issues. Great addition to my garage workshop.

 

[Scuba diver 71]

Some one on EBAY was selling a new unit the whole MGU unit in the box for 2,500 did not look like a dealer just kind of intresting to see , A guy on tick tock rebuilt his also like really documented also.

My RAM dealer told me last week that he has had several MGUs on back order since August. That’s insane. They must be failing like crazy to deplete national stock to zero. Also, Mopar does not offer any bearing repair kits for the MGUs so you have to get the bearings on your own.

 

[pensfan]

The Hemi's were not manufactured for a year. Stellantis should have told the supplier to build all of the back order units and then build an inventory for replacements of this POS eTorque generator. Instead there is poor customer service and people have to park their trucks for months.
A good engine ruined by this poor design. Why they didn't use a regular stop/start system like everyone else blows my mind.

 

[Scuba diver 71]

I bought this 6 ton press on Amazon for $99 and had no issues. Great addition to my garage workshop.View attachment 210496

Here is a quick sequence of how I replaced both bearings on my MGU:
1. Disconnect 12V battery.
2. Disconnect power and controller harness from MGU.
3. Remove serpentine belt.
4. Remove MGU (4 bolts in the front and 2 on the side).
5. Remove rear plastic cover and entire controller from MGU (be careful with 3 copper connectors that are fragile).
6. Unscrew pulley nut and remove drive pulley using bearing puller.
7. Remove 4 long bolts holding MGU together and mark housing halves so after they go back together they are in the same position.
8. Remove retaining snap ring from front of rotor shaft.
9. Press the rotor shaft out of front bearing. It will split the unit.
10. Remove retaining snap ring holding front bearing.
11. Press out old front bearing from front housing half.
12. Press the rotor shaft out from back half of MGU housing.
13. Remove retaining snap ring holding rear bearing on rotor shaft.
14. Pull old rear bearing off with bearing puller.
15. Press new rear bearing back on the shaft and follow all steps above in reverse order.

I did not mess around with the tiny generator unit sitting in the back of MGU. No need to remove it’s metal retainer or disassemble anything back there. Be careful putting everything back together and good luck!