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Knocking in driveline?


Chic N Stew

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 25, 2007
Messages
294
Age
35
City
Richmond, VA
Vehicle Year
1986
Transmission
Manual
Ok, so i was going into my neighborhood and i went around a turn and popped the clutch, about halfway into the turn, something started knocking in the driveline every rotation, could this be something in the rear? I maybe leaning towards a u-joint. Any one else have any suggestions on what this may be?
 
u joints dont just start knocking. they come on gradually and get worse until you notice it and fix it.

i would recommend taking a look at your carrier bearing. when mine went, it came on much more suddenly like you described.
 
They CAN just start knocking. Just not due to wear alone. A failure knocks something awful. I've seen a spring clip rust through and "suddenly" eject the bearing cap.

Climb under the truck and find the looseness. If it's every TIRE rotation, it's in the brakes or rear end, most likely the latter, OR something is contacting the tire or got embedded in the tread (seen it happen....). The driveshaft spins 3-4 times faster.

That's a reg cab; does it even HAVE a carrier bearing?
 
i don't know yet, i haven't had a chance to look at im at school right now, i was doing a burnout(because someone said that P.O.S. wouldn't do one and all the sudden, i start hearing an awful knock, and it is every tire rotation, my dads gonna take a look at it while im in school if he gets a chance, im gonna look everything then im gonna pull the rear cover off and look at it
 
I had this happen to my ranger about a month ago. Mine started as a light thud and by the time I got home it was terrible. After inspecting the driveshaft and deciding that it was easier to pull the rear cover than to drop the tranny and check that. As it turns out I had torn off 4 teeth on the ring gear. That was a 7.5" rear end with a 4.0l engine. Ended up doing an exploder 8.8 with disc swap
 
hey is the knock constant, and does it sound like it is or isnt coming from the tranny?
 
its every rotation, i think its coming from the rear of the truck, but i can feel it in the shifter, it shakes the whole truck when it knocks
 
They CAN just start knocking. Just not due to wear alone. A failure knocks something awful. I've seen a spring clip rust through and "suddenly" eject the bearing cap.

ok i didnt think of that.


That's a reg cab; does it even HAVE a carrier bearing?

i am not sure. i would think that the 2wd regular cabs would have a longer drive shaft because they have no transfercase and would have a two piece shaft. if it were 4x4 then i would think that it would have a 1 piece drive shaft. can anyone shed some light on this?
 
it wont have a carrier bearing. im definately leaning toward a broken tooth on your ring gear. i have done it twice, once cause i was a dumbass and once im still not sure how it happened. pull the cover and see.
 
Well, i pulled the cover and this is what i found, one of the teeth in the bottom spider gear is broken, it's wedged between the ring gear and the carrier, is it possible to just replace the carrier and the gears, and is welding the gears a good option?

reardiffcb4.jpg
 
i think you should be able to just replace the spiders without much trouble. pull that chunk out of there, i cant imagine it hurting anything other than maybe hitting the pinion gear but pull it out to be sure. i have never seen a spider gear fail like that, it should only be making any noise when you are cornering. it honestly doesnt seem like it should be that big of a deal....
 
is the ring gear suppose to turn all the time, because when i turn the tire with the cover off, the ring gear doesn't turn, could this be do to that tooth stuck between the carrier and the gear?

Im fairly new to the differential thing, do i just take the main caps off and the carrier slides out?
 
Last edited:
The ring will only turn if turned by the input shaft or the other wheel is not moving and the tranny is in "N".

Replacing just the spider gears should hopefully not be too hard.

Guess I need to be more gentle to my diff.
 
2.9 liter but i have oversized tires, don't know if that has any value to the situation
 

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