While driving my 73 today I heard a clicking from the rear of the car at low speeds. I have attached photos of the side yokes on my rear end. The passenger side looks OK but driver side is a bit concerning. What has to be done to fix this. The rear end was rebuilt by Bair's about 8 years ago but I've only put about 8K miles on it since the rebuild.

 

Sorry but your pics are a bit blurry to see anything, but I'm no mechanic. Is the drivers side hanging out a bit?

Does the noise happen all the time while driving at low speeds or only when changing gear or turning?

I have a 72 and my rear end had a noise, started of clicking but got worse, mainly when it was turning. Apparently it was the circlip that holds the half shaft, when it was rebuilt it had dropped off into the diff and the outer pinion was doing the mortar and pestle on it. Mechanic took it apart found the mangled circlip and installed a new one. This could be it but could be something else too. might need a little more info to go off

 

Yes the pics are not so good but you are spot on the drivers side is out about 3/8" to 1/2" passenger side is snug to the doff. I can only hear it at low speed & driving straight. I don't hear it when turning. Sounds like I will have to pull the diff & have it looked at.

 

Clips that hold in the stub axels have come off due to wear of the axel or failure of the clip.

A rear end housing pull is in your future. Not that big of a deal to fix.

 

before you pull the diff, it could be anything, although it doesn't sound good that its hanging out a little. I'd take it where there's a long straight road and drive slow and have someone eyeball the area (if you can still hear it when driving at walking pace that is) and see whats going on while your driving.

my wife drove behind me and she could see the drivers side half shaft spline going in and out of the diff, with the suspension movement , and that was going in a straight line.

It its a constant click click at the same tempo then it might be something rubbing. When you come of throttle and change gear do you still hear it or hear a thump, have excessive driveline shunt?

 

You have lost the retainer clip off the side yoke and there is nothing holding it in. The clip will now be loose inside the rear diff and it is due to wear of the yoke end. I wouldn't drive it like that.

 

I've parked it & plan on pulling the differential this weekend and open it up & see what I find.

 

Here ya' go:

 

Correct me if I'm wrong; the differential housing is solid mounted and if the trailing arm assembly is good how can the half shaft move out that far? You can't really expect that small clip to hold the stub shaft in if the T/A front bushing is trash out. What else could cause the rear axel to want to travel out that far? The shock, spring, and sway bar don't secure the trailing end of the T/A from moving laterally I don't even understand the purpose of those clips. To make a case. My 6t8 has a Drag vette 6-link setup. No clips in differential. Through the entire rear suspension travel my stub axels have only 1/16" travel in and out. At least 15 different track days with speeds up to 145MPH and a lot of road miles. 0 problems. T

 

I too wonder why those clips are there. They do serve a purpose or they wouldn't be there. I did read a comment long ago in a thread somewhere that the clips were put there so the yokes wouldn't fall out during assembly line production. Makes sense because the rear ends at final assembly need to move from there to where they are installed on the vehicle which may mean the rear end gets tipped from side to side along the way which would cause the yokes to slip out without those clips. Once assembled in the vehicle, I can't see how they could possibly fall out. I can see how the yokes move inboard during vehicle operation but the clip serves no purpose when the yoke moves inboard.

 

I've been driving mine for 11 years with a broken clip. I trusted mechanic who knows Corvettes told me not to worry about it until I was ready to do a full rebuild, that would be the time to take care of the missing clip.

 

the clips should be hardened.. but should not have fallen off.. the yoke axles should be hardened and should not be worn hardly at all after 8K miles.. your rebuilder could have used cheap soft chinese parts.. all should not have done that unless you are jumping railroad tracks or getting airborne somehow..

here's what it should look like..

 

If the car is on a lift or jack do not turn the rear tires, it will turn the snap rings off. Been there done that.

 

The same thing a mechanic told me

 

Here is what my worn ends look like. Still room before the C clip.



And here is a video of what a missing C-clip does when under load. Notice the drastic shift in alignment when the stub moves in and out.

 

Too late. This could be the root cause.

 

How far does the differential need to be tore down to install a new C-clip.

 

If it's just the clip and the stub is not worn away just need to remove the cover. Of course that's not simple on this cars but very doable.

If the stub is worn you will need new ones.

 

If it needs to be replaced does that mean a complete tear down of the diff?

 

No but the cover has to come off.