rearend noise
Thread Starter
Melting Slicks
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 2,135
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From: Sebastian Florida
St. Jude Donor '06
rearend noise
I replaced my u-joints about 6 mths ago and had my tranny rebuilt and they changed the convertor, so that now when it shifts from 1st - 2nd it really shifts hard. Now I am getting a thud when it shifts from 1st - 2nd and putting it into gear and now it is doing it from just starting out from a light, but it doesn't do it everytime. Could one of my new joints have gone bad or is my hub going bad?
Thread Starter
Melting Slicks
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 2,135
Likes: 0
From: Sebastian Florida
St. Jude Donor '06
Don't know how old the bearings are, I have only had the car for 2 years. How can you tell if a u-joint is bad? I replaced the last ones when one had just about disengraded.
Team Owner
Joined: Oct 2000
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From: Fort Knox, KY
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There should be absolutely no free rotation (backlash) at all in a u-joint. When they they look like the picture below and vibrate with a vengence at speed, they are life threatening.
That's because shortly thereafter the propshaft can fall off and dig itself into the street pavement while you're driving like a pole vaulter! And if you're lucky, maybe nobody gets killed.
When you find a loose U-joint you should replace it immediately. Once a u-joint is worn to the point of having noticeable (detectable) freeplay, all the grease in the world isn't going to help it much.
With sloppy internal parts the U-joint will proceed to self destruct with additional driving.
From the time it has only a miniscule amount of detectable freeplay to the time when you can feel a noticeable vibration at highway speed (slight latteral freeplay) might be a few thousand miles (which is why it should be detected during normal maintenance).
That's because shortly thereafter the propshaft can fall off and dig itself into the street pavement while you're driving like a pole vaulter! And if you're lucky, maybe nobody gets killed.
When you find a loose U-joint you should replace it immediately. Once a u-joint is worn to the point of having noticeable (detectable) freeplay, all the grease in the world isn't going to help it much.
With sloppy internal parts the U-joint will proceed to self destruct with additional driving.
From the time it has only a miniscule amount of detectable freeplay to the time when you can feel a noticeable vibration at highway speed (slight latteral freeplay) might be a few thousand miles (which is why it should be detected during normal maintenance).
Team Owner
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 96,443
Likes: 9
From: Fort Knox, KY
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