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Hi everyone, wondering if I can get some help with this problem. I have a 74 with 76k miles on it, couple months back I took it on a long drive and it started to make a grinding/dragging sound. It's prevalent when going from a stop and when stopping, I can also feel it while the gears are changing. As though something is dragging in the wheels then stops until I stop again. I jacked the car up and manually turned the wheels, sounded like the rear diff was making the noise. The u-joints are solid no play but the side yokes have over .250 play. Has anyone had this problem if so how do I fix it? Also when I rmvd the half shafts, they have a good amount of wear especially the right one.
Did you remove the differential plug and check the fluid level?
The wear marks on the halfshaft yoke, did you cause them when removing it or it has been rubbing against something?
Is that the inner or outer yoke of the halfshaft?
As long as you have the halfshafts out you should replace the u-joints and when you pop them out you will see whether one or more of them have been running dry and have become rusty.
Anything over .050 side play, it's time to open the differential.
The damage was there, I guess something is causing the rubbing. The right side on the diff and the half shafts are worst. Also when I turn the diff, I can hear a clicking sound it's also there when I'm driving. The clicking sound is coming from the differential for sure. Before I took the half shafts out I drained the differential (took out a 1.5 qts) and replaced the fluid with the Acdelco and the additive. That is the outer portion of the half shaft.
Send a private message to a member named Gary. His profile is GTR1999. He rebuilds differentials and steering boxes and is more than willing to give free advice.
Looks to me like your output yokes are so worn the ends of the half shafts are rubbing against the differential case. Solution is (at least) to replace the output yokes. A search on this forum will reveal lots of information.
Looks to me like your output yokes are so worn the ends of the half shafts are rubbing against the differential case. Solution is (at least) to replace the output yokes. A search on this forum will reveal lots of information.
I'm going to remove them nextweek and I'll let ya'll know the result.
thanks
Back in the mid 90's, long before I was on this forum, and long before anyone ever told me that you have to drop the diff to change the yokes. I put in new hardened yokes . And new seals with the diff in place. No one ever told me I couldn't. And mine being a 77 were the soft poor quality ones. My wheels were tipping in at the top and my yokes had excessive end play.
I removed the spring, removed the cover, undid the clips and pulled them out.
In recent years I've read many times you must pull the entire diff from the car. Guess I just didn't know any better. By the way. 25 years later. Diff is still working fine. And has NEVER been out of the car.
Just sayin.
The damage was there, I guess something is causing the rubbing. The right side on the diff and the half shafts are worst. Also when I turn the diff, I can hear a clicking sound it's also there when I'm driving. The clicking sound is coming from the differential for sure. Before I took the half shafts out I drained the differential (took out a 1.5 qts) and replaced the fluid with the Acdelco and the additive. That is the outer portion of the half shaft.
If the wear on the halfshaft is the outer end, I would think the only thing that would cause that is the U-joint looseness. What else out there to cause the wear?
Back in the mid 90's, long before I was on this forum, and long before anyone ever told me that you have to drop the diff to change the yokes. I put in new hardened yokes . And new seals with the diff in place. No one ever told me I couldn't. And mine being a 77 were the soft poor quality ones. My wheels were tipping in at the top and my yokes had excessive end play.
I removed the spring, removed the cover, undid the clips and pulled them out.
In recent years I've read many times you must pull the entire diff from the car. Guess I just didn't know any better. By the way. 25 years later. Diff is still working fine. And has NEVER been out of the car.
Just sayin.
How did you remove the cover? The cover is held onto the cross member with 4 bolts that are only accessible from above?
Did you mean you left the cover attached to the cross member and dropped the assembly behind it?
Back in the mid 90's, long before I was on this forum, and long before anyone ever told me that you have to drop the diff to change the yokes. I put in new hardened yokes . And new seals with the diff in place. No one ever told me I couldn't. And mine being a 77 were the soft poor quality ones. My wheels were tipping in at the top and my yokes had excessive end play.
I removed the spring, removed the cover, undid the clips and pulled them out.
In recent years I've read many times you must pull the entire diff from the car. Guess I just didn't know any better. By the way. 25 years later. Diff is still working fine. And has NEVER been out of the car.
Just sayin.
Reminds me of all the dumb things I did back in the 70's-80's. You can split the diff in the car, the old manuals tell you to but you could have also booked a round trip on the Titanic once it got to NY.
The potential of getting a nasty oil bath or having 75 lbs of iron coming down fast is more then taking the diff out with the cross member and addressing it on the bench or stand.
This 74 diff has soft axles that apparently were let go and milled into the housing. .250 play means there is no snap ring groove left, you have a lot of iron in the oil, and the diff needs to be rebuild to properly have it last. However, any can be repaired at the basic level and used.
Well, I finally got the differential out and opened. I think the noise was coming from the u-joint that connects the drive shaft as it was fused on to the differential. The bearing came out with the differential. That still doesn't explain the play in my axles because the inside is in perfect condition and they're the heavy duty ones. Now that I have the thing out I can see that thy were changed, weird though only 76k miles. What I'm wondering about is the in and out play and the space that appears like something is missing on the axles. Not sure if it's the seals but if so why no leaks. Please see picture. Thanks in advance for the help from all of ya'll.
Grinding noise from axles
