God awful squeeeeeeeek

[DeanMoriarty]

I have a random squeak coming, I believe, from the rear. It sounds like a rusty hamster cage.
I think it may be something in the brake drum, but now I'm also concerned about rear bearings. Do the rear bearings require regular maintenance like the front ones? I can find no mention of them in the Haynes manual...

 

[Earl43P]

Not unless the rear differential oil gets low, then the bearings will fry, like any dry bearing.

I'd pull the drums and give it a good look in there, clean and lubricate the adjuster and adjust the rear shoes.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

The first thing I would do is check the u-joints on the rear driveshaft.

 

[stock95ranger]

sounds like a spring or something came loose inside the brake drum.

 

[DeanMoriarty]

Yeah, that's pretty much what I thought... There's no set situation that it does it in... pretty much off and on at any speed, more so though above 30mph.
I'll pull the drum and have a look, I'll check the u-joint if that doesn't do it.
Thanks.

 

[MAKG]

I wonder if it might be a worn-through leaf spring separator, or even a shock absorber. Does the sound change with the surface you're driving on?

If it's strictly periodic, it's gotta be inside the drums.

With one unlikely exception. If one of the brakes is full of gear oil, you probably need an axle bearing and axleshaft.


Most of us only have hamsters under the hood.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

It could even be a shock...

best thing to do is to start testing things. I had a sort of banging noise coming from under my Ranger just recently. It did it even sitting at a stop so I knew it wasn't suspension related. I suspected a trans mount, engine mount, or exhaust from where it sounded like it was coming from an what it sounded like. Until I took some time and started yanking on things, I didn't know what exactly it was. Turns out it's my exhaust clanging against my tranny x-member because my flex fitting is no longer flexing like it should. To think I just replaced that....

 

[DeanMoriarty]

I thought about shocks too... but the sound doesn't really correlate with me going over bumps or anything. I bounced it a few times and the shocks do seem a little worn, but it didn't make any noise.
I only drive on pavement regularly, and the noise sounds about the same regardless of speed. Sometimes does it during acceleration, sometimes after, sometimes just coasting. Sometimes it won't do it at all, or it takes 15-20 minutes to start doing it.
It'll be a few days before I can mess with it, but I imagine I'll be back bugging the shit out of you all again if I can't figure it out.

 

[GBranger04]

i just had a really bad squeak in the rear of my 04 that sounds similar to what your describing (inconsistant). i thought it was a brake and took them apart and cleaned them but it didn't help. finally i gave up searching and brought it into ford (under warranty) it turned out to be the U joint and they fixed it right up for me. the U joint has already been suggested though but anyway that's my story. good luck with yours

 

[DeanMoriarty]

How do I check the U-joint?

 

[MAKG]

If the sound doesn't change with speed or RPM, it's not anywhere in the drivetrain.

If you can tell which side it's on, you can try interchanging the rear shocks to see if it moves.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

FWIW, I had a squeak that typically only happened under load starting out. Couldn't for the life of me track it down, cuz sometimes it would happen even when I didn't have a load on. I thought it might have been my clutch for awhile. Then I kicked a glob of mud off the end of my tailpipe one day and heard the squeak. Traced it along the exhaust up to the flexible joint between the cat and muffler.