mountainbiker2

When I drive off from a stop, the axle nut area makes a clicking sound. What is it? Axle nut is tight.

thanks,

Steve

mgarfias

Check slide pins on the brake calipers.

Horseshow Manager

Once you are moving, and you slightly swerve from left to right does the noise change?
If so you probably have bad hubs

gunluvS14

he described it as "click" not a "hum".
Mine clicks too coming from a deadstop. It's been like that for the past 2 years. I stopped looking

bdanyluk

Take off your center caps and see if you broke off the plastic tabs. I thought something was wrong on my C6 after a track day, only had clicking under 10mph...it was because 1 plastic tab broke off the center cap on the wheel and was bouncing around.

carefulnow

If the sound you have feels/sounds like a sharp *CRACK* from the driver's position, and you hear it predominantly under hard acceleration from a stop, or hard braking, or transitioning from reverse to forward, try the following:

Jack the rear of the car up if you want
Remove the axle nuts
Obtain a grease gun, your choice of axle grease (anything synthetic will be fine, marine grade fine, etc), and the SMALLEST LONGEST needle attachment you can possibly find (will need to be at least 2.5-3 inches long)
Push the axle stub (the threaded part) in so that the splines partially separate and are exposed. You might need to persuade this with a soft hammer depending on how long its been since the splines were apart.
Put grease into the splines with your needle attachment in 3 or 4 spots around the circumference.
Pull and push the axle shaft in and out a few times (threading the nut on a couple of turns is helpful for this)
Tighten the nut up and torque to spec. Try to avoid getting grease on the underside of the nut or the threads. Clean it off if you do, using alcohol if necessary. This will dramatically change the forces applied when you torque the nut down if you fail to do this.
Drive the car a bit

Noise will probably be gone. Reason this happens is that when the splines are dry they allegedly make a "clapping/cracking" sound when they mesh.

froggy47

Also you can just take off the nut, spray a good PENETRATING oil (not wd40) around & re - torque.

GM has a great penetrating oil that turns to grease after it penetrates. Exact name escapes me but I got some on Amazon. I use it on everything lately.

carefulnow

WOW.. I wish I knew this before I spent LITERALLY 8 hours in 5 different stores looking for the right grease gun needle attachment...

(FWIW I had this exact issue, and the aforementioned steps solved it for me.)

UstaB-GS549

The clicking is due to dry splines. I had this happen a few years ago. First I found the nuts were loose. That did not cure it. Still clicked when starting or changing directions. Loose nuts might have been cause of fretting corrosion.

Solution was to remove nuts and spray aerosol motorcycle chain lube on splines while pushing axle in and out of bearing. The grease is runny at first so it penetrates and later it solidify. Chain Guard is brand name and is synthetic.

mountainbiker2

You guys have been great help. I'll let you know what happens.

thanks,

Steve

Bill Dearborn

Try lubrication first but that may not stop the noise. The noise usually indicates the axle shaft is loose in the hub. You get the click as you start moving due to the slack between the two which permits the axle to move a slight amount before it contacts the splines in the hub. Sometimes this is visible to the eye by taking off the hubcap and having somebody watch axle as you let the clutch out. They will see the axle move a bit before the hub starts turning. Another way to see this is to put a wrench on a lug nut and use the wrench to rotate the wheel back and forth while the car is on the ground. You will see the hub move a bit before the axle moves.

The only way to stop the movement is to replace both the axle and the hub. Replacing one will not work since they are both worn so the new part will soon start chucking around. Had this happen on the driver's side rear on my 86 and both rear axles/hubs on my 08Z(at the same time). It isn't an unlikely problem to run into.

Bill

gunluvS14

ah thanks guys. I've learned something today

LateBreak

Mine did this at our last race, I thought it was an axle because of the clicking and because the bearing had no play, but after a full day on track there was significant play in the bearing and plenty of typical bearing growl...

mountainbiker2

***Update***

I had new rear wheel bearings installed and the clicking noise went away.
I also did the rear brakes and greased the pins PRIOR to the bearing install with no luck.

thanks for all the comments.

Steve

FASTFATBOY

Mine was doing it after a wheel bearing change.

I used motorcycle chain wax on mine, you can spray it up in there. I used brake clean to spray up in there to wash out the rust out of the splines.

Mines been fine for a few months.