I also need to pick your guys' brains over a grinding noise I am hearing from the rear after going 8.8/rear discs. The sing (low-medium pitched) sound appears around 15mph and doesn't sound like it changes frequency up to 30 mph. The sound is similar to if I were to leave the parking brake slightly engaged. The rear brakes themselves are great though and we ran the car with the rear up on stands - no noise at idle or revved to 2k.
Would anything in the rearend have a similar sound? I'm thinking it is either brake or ujoint related (will be checking the latter tomorrow). Any opinions?
Could be the dust shield for the rear discs. Maybe you bent them when putting the car back on the ground.
They clear - we rebent/straightened and coated them long ago. There is no contact there from looking under the car. That is what it sounds like though. I don't know of what else could sound like this than brakes.
Are the lers contacting the driveshaft? (Just stabbing in the dark)
Wheel bearings? Did you put enough fluid and friction modifier in the diff.?
The exhaust hasn't moved from before the swap. The driveshaft isn't hitting anything, including the parking brake cables. The cables do not rub the tires. The rear wheels spin freely without contacting the brakes.
I drove it up the street to get the differential topped off and ujoints greased - still there. It sounds like road noise but a little louder and coming from the rear end area. It's possible it IS road noise going through the Bilstein shocks but I doubt it as it sounds like it comes from lower than the trunk. It seems most prominent in the "10-20mph" range (stock speedo gear, now 3.55 gears) where it quiets up a little higher (more rapid?). I can hear slight rearend noise at 40mph (real) but much quieter than the 7.5" rear I took out that whined since the early 90's.
I need to get myself a new speedometer gear here really soon...it's way off as one would expect.
If you slightly step on the brakes at the speed you here it, does it still make noise?
I have bigger problems to worry about now - I'm getting a rapid thump thump (or whatever) sound that speeds up with speed increases and is gone with more throttle. I can hear this with the window down and sticking my head out also - it sounds like it's drivers side rear but could be anything. On the highway (had to get back home), it sounds like I'm driving over the lane separator strips/bumps. What could be causing this? We replaced the axle bearings/seals earlier today and the inside of the differential looked great. Nothing ishiznitting anything with the car up in the air and idling in drive, or on the ground and looking under the car. The u-joints seem as tight as the day they went in (less than 10,000 miles ago, it sat much of a 9 month stretch last year) and they were fine prior to the rear/disc swap.
The sound appears around 15mph and occurs all the time with little load and perhaps 20% of the time with no load. I have yet to test this on hills versus dips. It really sounds like something hitting driveshaft/wheel but nothing is close! I can "feel" it in the seat but I'm feeling everything with the new suspension now...
I took it to All Ford Performance - they cannot find anything wrong with the suspension/brakes and say the rearend itself would never make a noise like this. Their best guess is a brake pad moving around or the caliper somehow compressing from heat (rapidly though?). It does sound drivers side though. Is it possible that the internals of a shock make a repeated thumping/tapping noise? Besides swapping the shocks out for cheap part stores ones or replacing the calipers, I don't see what else to try. The brake pads are right in the calipers though and they don't drag - both sides work great and were in great shape when taken apart and rebuilt.
It sounds/feels like the rear going over a near flush railroad line. It has a "thump"/pop/whatever noise that speeds up with speed. 30mph seems to be as rapid as 50mph which is about as rapid as 70mph. Idling around at 5mph makes it thump about 2-3 times a second. It's a continuous popping noise at the above speeds. It can be felt through the floor pan. Occasionally it feels weird when the transmission shifts up/down (I have the pressure set higher than stock and it jolts the car a little when it shifts).
Help? No one can seem to help me. Everything was nice and tight when we put it up on the lift. Nothing was moving or rubbing. It also was fine jacked on the rear end and using a creeper.
Is anything contacting the drive shaft?
Nope, not the exhaust, not the parking brake cable, not the floor pan. It has clearance all around, as do the wheels. The sound comes from the drivers side as it sounds like both in the car and with someone standing outside and listening to me drive by at 5mph. This is what led to us lifting the car up from the rearend and on a lift but we still could not find anything contacting. This guy I did this with works on dozens of Mustang a month, ranging from all kinds of installs of everything. He was clueless as to where it was coming from.
The driveshaft "harmonic balancer" thing did have one loose bolt but it wasn't the problem. I also don't have a center bumpstop on the car. My car does have two rubber ones on the sides where the axle housings would hit. Driving on smooth ground at 5mph it doesn't move though and it wasn't close to contacting when we had it up in the air.
This is a dumb question... I don't know what rims you run, but could there be something inside your center cap rolling around? I once had a grease cap fall off and roll around inside my 10-hole rim's center-cap-area. Made a wierd noise like that.
Snowflakes and this is the rear - the only thing back there are lugnuts and the center cap. We've been doing the rear end swap/suspension/rear disc brakes so we've had the entire thing apart a few times and know what's there.
It only starts after driving around for about 5 minutes. 10 minutes and it's there whenever I'm going 5mph also. I'm out of ideas.
I'm sure you checked this, but, are your lug nuts all tight? The wheel could be popping back and forth...
Yes they are. This has happened both before and after pulling the wheels off many times. Know of any shops that have something like an in-air dyno that this could be detected on?
So, where did you get this rearend?
Seattle 2 years ago. Came with the complete rearend that was never cracked open prior and all brake stuff for the front, parking brake cables, master cylinder, etc. The differential looked great inside, along with the bearings we took out to replace. The sound is not coming from the differential unless a rapid banging sound can go on inside of it and it can come from one side of the car and not the other.
I've got CHE control arms, new quad shocks, Bilstein shocks, urethane bushings, and calipers that I rebuilt (they were like new as it was, the entire rearend had like 60k (or perhaps it was the item I got that had 35k - who knows anymore). Ujoints have like 5k on them and were fine earlier. Transmission 16k miles now. Engine 2-3k miles. Front suspension/brakes/steering <1k miles. Front springs are new/slightly lower, rear were reused.
If you can figure out the problem within the next week, I'll give you $200 (excluding parts) :p
You know, I might just have to drive up and say Hi! Did you try running it on jackstands with the wheels off or on? To make sure it really is coming from the rear somewhere? Also, does the sound continue when cornering?
We ran it with wheels on. The sound happens during cornering. It's hard to tell if it stops with braking but I will likely have to say no as light to medium braking doesn't do anything. Heavy braking slows down too fast to hear if it continues.
It's fine when cold, after about 5 minutes (excluding stops) it starts to make the repetitive noise at higher speeds. At 10 minutes it begins to be audible below 20mph. When I drove it back from Seattle, it was making the noise continuously when I got into my neighborhood unless I was going <5mph.
Again, it only happens under light to no load. Anything more, the sound is gone. Something with either gets messed up with load or suspension stress/angles. This goes against it making noise on slow smooth roads though. If I had a decent microphone (or any for that matter), I'd try recording it as it's plenty audible.
If you ever drive it by Olympia let me know and we put it up on the hoist. But I don't know what we could find that Ford could not. Are you sure your tires are round and there are no bumps on them? Have you tried to switch the tires from the front to the rear?
I thought too that maybe the lug nuts were loose but I can see where it has been apart many times this can't be.
I also get some weird noises out of my rear brakes sometimes but it hard to hear over the Cadillac engine and I ignore it.
Anyway if you come by maybe two heads will be better than one.
TED
I don't think I ever said Ford themselves looked at it. Anyways, they didn't. I had it at All Ford Performance here in Vancouver and Jeff basically ran out of ideas. I was through Olympia on Friday, but at like 2:30 AM ;)
I seriously don't see how anyone is going to be able to pinpoint it without having a dyno in the air that the car can run on while checking around with a stethoscope. I've had 3 heads in it so far but there's still the chance that we're overlooking something. I talked with the owner at Paragon Auto down in Tualatin and he has access to such a dyno. I can only dream up how much this could potentially cost though.
All I can think of is a faulty caliper, a somewhat-faulty shock, or something loose but I haven't had any luck figure it out yet. I will try ruling out the caliper by applying 50% fluid to the rear and giving it gas while on the brake to see if it goes away.
By the way, how often do you go junkyard scavenging, jrad? I could sure use a couple of those mounts from a rear disc sn95 mustang that hold the parking brake cable away from the wheel (mounted to a swaybar bolt). My zip ties won't last too long. That's the only floppy part but at 5mph, I doubt it would do anything, especially that loud and where it can be felt through the floorpan.
LOL.. Zipties, I love it! Oh well, guess I shouldn't laugh too hard, that's what is directing my fuel line around the motor currently.
So wait, both times you had the rearend up, with the wheels turning and it made no sound? Either it's imbalance/bubble in the tires, or it's in the front.
I drive by Paragon all the time, but I've never stopped there, they look too expensive for me!
Ah, I see what you mean about the "Dyno in the air", basically a dyno built into a lift. I wouldn't think it would be much more than a regular dyno, but then again, I've never put my car on a dyno.
I probably won't be out in a yard for another couple weeks, but maybe this weekend if I get bored. Didn't you need a control cable for the heater mod as well?
This probably doesn't have anything to do with your problems, just very odd;
On the bird, when I get on the brakes, at say, less than 40MPH, I get the oddest grind...grind...grind, sounds like once per tire rev, sound from the rearend like the drums are warped or something, but it has been in storage for a year and a half! You'd think that after 2000 miles it would have fixed itself if it was rust or something.
Also, on my truck, I put a pair of used tires(Almost brand new, I swear) on the front, and around 60MPH, it makes a noise/vibration as if it had a flat spot three times in succession, then waits, and does it again. You would expect it to be constant if it was flat spotted...
On the front we only touched the brake lines and mounted an aluminum overflow tank. With the windows up, it's obvious that the sound is coming from the rear. Until I get down there once more, everything is only going to become speculation. I won't have a chance until Thursday though as I work late tomorrow and have my evening booked on Wednesday. Perhaps I'll come up with something decent to check by then.
I will swap the tires around and run it up without wheels when I get the chance. With the sound though, I 99% doubt either will turn anything up. More of a pain, I have to do this after driving for awhile to get it to the point it acts up again.
Yeah, I hear you about swapping the tires around, I should do it to the truck, but there are six lugs per tire!
Well, hopefully a new piece of information will show up and give us a better idea of what is going on. Let me know when/if you decide to swing down through here, maybe I can meet up with you at the shop.
You know, it may very well NOT be the rearend. I drove it to the store and initially it sounded like it was coming from up front. After I got back, it was loudly coming from the "rear", or so it sounded.
My transmission puked more fluid out the dipstick hole onto my exhaust and that oring was replaced like 2k miles ago. Not a good sign. This first happened when the front brakes were grabbing when the car was test driven once the rearend was in. I hope my transmission isn't messed up somehow - it's got 15-16k miles on it and ran great prior to last week!
The fluid level is still fine and translucent red. No leaks anywhere else. Fluid temperature is 155 degrees. Perhaps I just need to replace the oring after the first incident though.
I once had someone at the store tell me my car was smoking, I look down and see white smoke pouring out from under the car, and it was the trans cooler lines leaking fluid onto the Cat and igniting.
But, I had an exhaust rattle that you would have sworn was coming from the cat, turns out it was the upper end of the air pipe to the Cat was a valve that, since I took out the pump, was just rattling loose in the engine bay.
I also have an odd whistle at around 1200 RPM, It's either the carb, air pipe, or the transmission. I'm gunning for the first two options. :D
I just LOVE project cars...
Was it the same sound?
Yeah so I took it to a drivetrain shop and they don't feel it's any fault of the transmission, rearend, or anything in the rear really. The occasional sloppy shifts when something's clanking around is still making me think of ujoints - specifically the front. Perhaps I should just replace them again - they're cheap enough.
I had to give the usual shpeal about how awesome the car is (I think this guy was the one I last talked to last time also when the trans was leaking out of every orifice and I had them fix it). Apparently shops always think so, being so old but being so new with electronic this and that and brakes that are day and night from standard fox brakes. I did get a "Why did you put a 4r70w in it instead of another aod?! It's basically the same thing!" question last week from a Mustang shop in Federal Way when picking up a speedo gear. I'd agree with the car being great if I had a paint job on it that I was happy with, new seat upholstery, and had my quad TL/TSX projector setup finished for up front. Oh, and if the drivers side seat back wasn't busted on the right side :p
I'm still not sure why my dipstick hole keeps wanting to spit fluid out. I can only assume I need a new oring...again.
I think the sound has gotten worse. I was turning the steering wheel side to side a little bit this morning and a similar, if not identical, sound it coming from just moving the steering wheel back and worth like an inch. It may not be the same but it sounds pretty close. What would cause a "pop" when moving it each direction just a bit? Car running with assist, not pushing it past its small "slop" zone where it begins to be harder to turn the wheel.
Worn tie rod ends will make a pop when you jiggle the wheel back and fourth.
When you did all the rear control arms, you said you had poly bushings, but did you replace the ones in the axle housing with the sphericial bearings?
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/CEE-3168/
I know that I put in all new poly bushings and those bearings and it has made crazy noises ever since, I think mainly from the slop in the bearing and the spacer that it goes in. I imagine that if you didnt put those in, it would be binding pretty bad by what my buddy said after he put all poly bushings in. He said it sounded like his upper control arm boxes were getting ripped out, lol. Mines been getting even louder on deceleration and I think its the tailshaft bushing and slip yoke
I call..., didn't you replace your steering column and rack? If not, tie rod ends and/or rag joint in the steering shaft. Of course you would get a vibration in the steering wheel...
We used new rubber bushings for where the uppers mount to the rearend (heard much harsher ride quality with polyurethane). All the front/rear suspension (except rear springs), brakes, steering, etc are new. We did not touch the steering beyond the rack and pump. Rundown below.
Steering:
Rebuilt Napa 15:1 steering rack
New ACDelco power steering pump
Turbo Coupe steering wheel
Turbo Coupe 16" rims on 225/60R16 tires
Suspension:
Front
New Moog tie rod ends
New Moog stabilizer bar end links
New polyurethane swaybar bushings
New Monroe strut mounts with polyurethane bushings
New Bilstein HD struts for sn95
Reused 10k mile control arms/ball joints
New Moog 8600 springs
New polyurethane spring isolators
Rear
New CHE Tubular control arms with polyurethane bushings
New Bilstein HD shocks for sn95 using Chuck's Mustang shock adapters
New Gabriel "quad shocks"/"steering dampeners"
Stock springs
New polyurethane spring isolators
Brakes:
1995 Mustang GT Master Cylinder
Stock brake booster
SSBC adjustable proportioning valve
Front
Rebuilt 1991 Lincoln Mark VII 73mm Piston calipers with steel bushings
New Napa "premium" ceramic brake pads
Reused 1988 Turbo Coupe spindles
New 11" vented rotors
New inner/outer wheel bearings
New Stainless steel brake lines
Rear
Rebuilt 1988 Ford Thunderbird Turbo Coupe 45mm "Varga" calipers
New Napa organic brake pads
Surfaced 10" vented rotors
New soft brake lines
New 1991 Lincoln Mark VII rear parking brake cables with modification to lengthen
Rearend:
Stock driveshaft with <10k mile ujoints
8.8" TL 3.55 ratio rearend from a 1988 Turbo Coupe with new axle bearings (routine maintenance)
There is no odd behavior in the steering other than it was much more difficult to turn after changing the stuff on the front end. The old rack/pinion's inner tie rods flopped around with no effort. It almost feels like I went from a 20:1 to 15:1 but unless someone replaced it with a standard ratio at some point, that shouldn't be the case. Seems to turn the same.
Car doesn't pull or shake (besides the stiff suspension). It occasionally feels like a downshift when coming to a stop is sloppy compared to before. This goes away right afterward though. Drivetrain shop doesn't think anything is the fault of any of it. This one point is what has me worried though.
I know that the previous owner of my car replaced the rack at least twice, he also purchased it from NAPA, I am not sure what exactly was wrong though.
Were you moving or sitting still in the driveway?
That is indeed the rag joints. My other sound IS separate though. It's again sounding like its coming from the rear. The splines on the steering rack wasn't as pretty as the one we took off the car but it has worked well and stayed tight so far.
SO it appears that I have/had multiple problems. First, one of the quad shocks in the rear did NOT have a nut on the chassis bolt. Interesting. Second, the steering shaft began making a noise when sitting still and moving the steering wheel back and forth. Lastly, yesterday the rear end started to make racket that is continuous in straight lines but appears to quiet down or go away while cornering. It is hard to describe as it's not a whine or grinding but somewhere in between the two. This is much worse than the sound that started this thread but also seems to now tie into the "popping" noise as they now seem to affect one another. Why would this start out of nowhere? Perhaps I should go ahead and replace the pinion bearings?
Why must so many things be going wrong at once?!
What, you don't know? It's because your car has been working well for awhile, and it's now all rested up and ready to wreak havoc once again....
Also, what are your plans this weekend? Maybe we can meet up.
Not much at all and girlfriend works all weekend. I may try to hit a junkyard to find some parking brake cable mounts. I know of no decent ones though - I normally try one up the street but they don't ever have much and NEVER have fox tbirds/cougars (it used to be some other company, then u pull it, then foster auto parts, and now something else).
I did not originally put friction modifier in the rearend as I forgot to buy it and we were finishing up the car at 9PM while I had to get home later that night. From what I'm hearing though, this would only cause noise during a turn, not when going straight. The rearend things are my fault but the steering shaft going out at the same time is just strange, along with my transmission leaking, yet one shop thinks its the cooling lines while another thinks its the pan gasket. The first shop replaced the pan gasket some months ago, along with every other seal besides the dipstick/cooling line orings. Supposedly there is no fresh oil though. Also my battery cable wires are falling out of their terminal mounts now. A few weeks ago the passenger side door started rattling inside and now the door lock doesn't want to pop up all the way. Perhaps the car just wants all the junk out of the trunk and back seat (floor jack, gt40 tubular intake, replacement car amplifier, other miscellaneous heavy parts and tools) and the kick panels/lower dash panels put back on.
The second shop basically did some diagnosis and found the steering shaft (it wasn't doing that prior until the day I brought it in...) making noise and eventually the shock nut being absent. Waste of money (time spend on diagnosis, along with the rearend that just started to make noise) but at least the car got washed also - it's been washed like 3 times the last 3 years. I prefer to leave the dust as it hides some of the current paint's flaws ;)
What're you doing on your car recently/currently? I'd rather spend some time working on something BESIDES this car. It has been a c for the last 2 years. Need any grease? I finally bought my own grease gun :p
Lol, I hear you on that one, sometimes you just gotta take a break :)
Don't you need TC specific mounts for the cables? I would say we could go to the yard in Tigard, but I'm pretty sure there are no TC's. Also, you'd have to drive the Bird!
Interesting info about the modifier, hadn't heard that.
First my transmission was leaking from the cooling lines, then some internal seal let go, then the pan gasket, and now it's the band adjustment nuts.
Yeah, my Pass.Side door lock is temperamental, D.S. is toast. I did just get replacement actuators for it though.
I sure hope all that stuff isn't rattling around in the back....and making noises....
You should be lucky that your paint has flaws that dirt can hide. I can't even post pics of my car it's so bad. :(
I do have those actuators to put in, and the truck needs head work.... :) :(
Heh, actually, I bought my own years ago.. :D
http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/mustangtuning/differential-gears-install-02.jpg
http://www.performancepartsinc.com/images/ebracket.jpg
There are parts for rear-disc mustangs that bolt on to the swaybar bolt and do what they need to do - pull the cables away from the tires. That's what I need to find and tear off (not THAT hard, just have to get to a yard).
So yeah, the sound is there driving straight but goes away completely when turning either left or right. It doesn't go away if I just swerve back and forth on a road. I'm still new to this and not having any luck researching it as all I find are people with problems when turning but not going straight.
Are you sure you can't get those from NAPA for a dollar and change?
http://www.supplierlist.com/photo_images/145357/Fixing_Clamp_with_Rubber.jpg
Couldn't you just use one like this? With or without the rubber, and some have different length mounting tabs.
Gosh that sure sounds like some sort of bearing...
Pinion bearing I'm guessing - I've no clue how to even replace that. We had hard enough of a time getting the axle bearings out as they seemed like they'd be easy (since we were already in there). As far as I know, it isn't something that someone without the right tools at home can do. I don't have a garage to store stuff in so I try not to collect more than I need.
Those rubber mounts won't work as the cable isn't that long. It only makes it halfway to the control arm.
I added some friction modifier just for the hell of it, along with more gear oil. I figure if it's low, it'll fix it. If it's not, it has to be opened up anyways so more fluid shouldn't harm anything.
Well, the sound's still there. I can hear it with the rear up and tires off. The sound's vibrating out of the drivers side axle housing (hard to pinpoint at the axle bearing or the differential itself). I can hardly hear it on the passenger side. While the sound was continuous growl earlier, now it's making a repetitive sound as if the axle/axle bearings have an issue. The sound is not coming from around the calipers or ujoints.
I do have another issue that has come up on top of all else. My rear brakes were no longer able to lockup the rear wheels so I was having to use the parking brake to get the transmission back into park. There are no leaks at any of the 3 rear soft lines, the junction, or up front at the master cylinder/proportioning valve. I bled the brakes again and all's well once more. Where could the fluid be escaping to if I do indeed have a leak? I pulled vacuum and the drivers side goes down without the bleeder screw even cracked while the passenger side holds vacuum. There is no sign of a single drip/leak there. This is beginning to get extremely irritating.
I did get the trunk/back seat cleaned out and the rear sits better now.
Could the brake lines be spongy? I have heard that old rubber lines will flex.
The front are new braided SS and the rear are new rubber/metallic, both with new banyo bolts and copper washers. No leaks at any fitting. The brakes are working good again after bleeding them but I don't put faith in it happening again. The fronts work perfectly fine still.
So the sound got much worse, so much that I don't want to drive it. This morning I painstakingly drove it up to a shop again and it was growling/howling (rough deep whine/howl) for the couple mile drive. I didn't go over 40mph as it felt weird at anything higher.
Around noon they took it for a drive. They couldn't reproduce the sound. I went ot the place and drove it and sure enough, it's GONE. The rearend is quieter than the 7.5 it replaced. Perhaps it just takes a couple hours to get oil up to the pinion bearings if it were "low" but I doubt it. It was making terrible sounds when I pulled into their parking lot this morning.
Should I just drive it and be happy or find ways to bring it back? The car never decelerated like a rear caliper was stuck or anything and it locks/unlocks properly up on jack stands with the brake pedal. Why must I have the weirdest problems that no one has experienced before?! I have some nasty popping up front when braking and/or turning now but it's got to be those rag joints as the front suspension is tighter than new.
Pinion bearing worn out would make that noise also. I woud jack up rear end and put it in gear to find out where it is coming from. I would guess pinion area. good luck!!!:birdsmily::birdsmily:
Except it stopped making noise so I can't pinpoint anything now. My thought this entire time is pinion bearing but it's hard to check things out when they have quieted down within hours of sitting. I may just install some 3.27's with a new bearing instead of keeping the 3.55's. With my tire width, I have terrible traction as it is and the wide ratio transmission doesn't help anything in that aspect.
It's back, in its original state. Goes away with any load, makes noise when coasting. It's not as loud, or acting the same, as it was last week but it's still worrisome.
The car was fine until I got on the gas for some datalogging. Lost traction on 1/2 shift at 40mph but it's dry and straight. Everything was still fine until I got on the highway for a single exit. Upon coasting behind a car going slow on the on-ramp, the noise returned. I couldn't reproduce it as hard as I tried 3 days ago but I also had a conservative tune on the transmission since it was going in the shop (3k max shift points). I have no clue what would cause such odd behavior!
i cant help man, ive never even taken axles out before. its a whole technology i have no knowledge of other than mechanical theory.
to beat all, i need bearings back there myself. gotta pop a c-clip off in the diff the yank the axle i guess thats how its done.
what are the odds you have a bearing race coming loose and its cantering slighly and its bearings making the noise? its the only thing i can think of that could move around if there were some wear. spindals wear and the inner race will spool around causing vibration up front. seems resonable that bearing play might allow race movement even if it were seated properly. maybe the race seat is worn and its getting pen 15eyed or something. you wont know till you check.
What's amazing is those little 1/4" c-clips are all that hold the rear axles from flying out (besides the calipers sitting over the rotors).
Works just fine.
This saga continues, now it is starting to sound like a ring and pinion and the bearings. I will last a long time doing this if you can put up with the noise.
TED
Perhaps but there's always a "worse case scenario" that makes me want to get it fixed asap. I don't need the bearing falling apart and jamming itself in places it shouldn't be.
I assume you have a limited slip.
Perhaps its the clutch pack or spider gear pins.
If you drive the car around in a tight circle does the sound come and go?
Maybe there is some junk caught between the clutches and steels?
The sound goes away when turning the wheel more than like 30 degrees. It doesn't come back in a tight circle (I do this often to turn around and park). I should add that the sound slowly went away over Saturday (drive it 15 miles to a job). I'm going to jump on it again this afternoon and see if it comes back - it should if my theory is correct.
The saga continues. I now have a faint howling coming from somewhere and I assume it's from the rear. This sound I cannot pinpoint. It is much more high pitched than anything I've heard from it before. I did this to it though - I was getting on the gas whenever I could while heading up to a shop but they didn't have time to do another test drive. When back in the neighborhood, I was getting a repeated tapping noise from somewhere again, only heard when below 30mph. It doesn't happen when turning left (neighborhood route is full of lefts). I'll drive it hard tomorrow morning and drop it back off so they have a chance to hear the racket that's going on. Else I'm thinking I should just change the gears (3.27's or perhaps a 3.08 would be a better fit for my driving style) and get the new bearings in there.
Okay, so the problem is apparently carrier bearings. After looking into it further, this does indeed sound like what my symptoms were showing
Easy job to do. I had a problem where my diff would bang on decell to a stop. One of the carrier bearings was half missing the rollers. Still drove fine.
:rollin: I've been driving mine that way for three months!
Hmm, guess I should fix that...
86Caprirs, Was it a repetitive banging, or a clunking noise?
It was a clunking noise. Felt like a wheel was loose when almost stopped.
I had a grinding noise in my rear brakes and it turns out I installed the rear pads incorrect. For some reason (I hate to admit this) I brought the sping clips up through the holes in the top of the calipers, I guess I thouhgt that what kept them in. Turns out they are there to push pressure down on the pads and the spring clips need to stay under the calipers. I got new pads and installed them correctly and all is quite and good. Also there are some thin pieces on the sides that slide in. I was not able to fit one on each side and only used one of them. There was no way there was enough room for both.
Just passing on my mistakes.
TED
It's always good for the less experienced among us to read things like that, because it can be hard to find basic stuff like that online, since everyone assumes everybody knows it already.
So Seek, did you ever take it apart and fix it?
I just swapped in my new rear last week, and when i was taking the old one out I tried turning the axles with no wheels or brakes and it sure felt like the pass side axle bearing was toast.(Not suggesting that's what is wrong with yours)
I guess I should take it apart for the hell of it, not like it's worth anything to anyone with 190k on it. :D
I bet you take the wheels off and the calipers if you have them, you got some play side to side on that. you may say you checked it. but you better look at it again.
I don't suppose you'd mind explaining yourself a little more clearly?
I wish I found this sooner!! Mine does THE SAME THING. If your on the gas the sound is low, you let out it gets loud. take a turn slow its not bad, take it FAST and it gets worse. If the tires spin then drivers side tire trys not to and it makes a HUGE banging noise. T lok is coming apart in mine im almost 100% possitive, either that or I have a HUGELY defective tire.
As stated earlier, it was the carrier bearings. The traction-lok was fine but it was rebuilt when I had the rearend apart. I still hear some noise back there but it's very faint (I have to listen for it) and likely normal. Coming from the 7.5" that had a whine over 45mph for over 10 years, I can't complain.
The sound I've got now is similar to the sound I hear from the front wheels when I don't have the kickpanels/insulation on that I can't hear from outside the vehicle or inside with the insulation in place.