2nd Gen Non-Engine/Transmission Mysterious clunk

[Makensmoke]

Its been over a year since i've searched for the clunk and only about 10k miles have been driven... but, I have decided it is the rear ujoints. They feel tight, but they must get dried out quickly and hang up and bind. I greased the joints a few times before I drove the truck last summer and the clunk hasen't came back. Also a vibration comes around while driving, thats how I determine they are getting ready for grease again. I'll put them back on the list of things to do now that the weather is warming up some.

On the control arms, I also had one bent, and some bushings that were bad... I blamed the couple years I drove it with the front end leveler in without properly centering the axle, it was always twisting on those control arms.



just read thru this threads posts... AKAMAC I think has a pretty good suggestion, the splines are loose no doubt after 200k, and your theory about it binding makes sense. Do you put grease on those splines even though the ATF is allover it?

 

[AKAMAC]

Wow! on the old thread resurrection.

My old 48 Ford with a 351 and FMX tyranny would squat and pop on acceleration. I found the slip shaft wasn't slipping because of dried up grease. I drilled and tapped the yoke to add a grease fitting and problem was solved.

That was years ago but your problem sounded similar.

If you are going to r&r the u-joints it sure won't hurt anything to do this mod. | BOMBs are good in my book!

The ATF fluid may not be getting down far enough to loosen it up.

 

[CoreyPerez]

as a side note. I noticed a vibration upon installing a B&D Goose neck hitch on my truck. I figured I must have dropped part on the driveshaft or torqued the chassis. I hauled a 19k trailer from utah to alabama a few weeks ago (military move) and the vibration got worse and worse. It was fine before 50 and after 60. When I got to AL and dropped the trailer the vibration got so bad I was afraid to drive the truck. I needed to keep driving due to finances and my motorcycle being out for repair at the time. I re-replaced the tires with a set I had taken to Al with me, no help. Actually i think it got worse! I searched the tube up and down (rear) and found no indication of a dent, ding or anything. Ujoints looked solid. So, in searching for my clunk noise up front I grabbed the front ds to move my creeper along and the front shaft moved noticably. I check the front ujoint (on axle) that was completely blown out, to the point it was through the bearings and chewed the cap to nearly just the very end, and upon removing the shaft, I noticed both joints in the CV are bad as well. So, that was the cause of my vibration. i don't know if that caused my other problem or not.



I'm going to search, but when i remove these u-joints and put in fresh ones in the front (going to do the rear as well) I thought I remember hearing that Ujoints needed to be "indexed" to each other. Does this ring a bell with anybody? I don't want to get the Ujoints put in and have a new sourse of vibration due to the joints being out of "phase" with each other. Also, seems like when I was into large 4x4s that people said there was a certain way the greese zurk was supposed to face in the direction of rotation to make it stronger??? These people may have just thought they knew what they were talking about, but I figure I may as well ask!



Going to call dodge today about a new upper. Guess a little lift kit would replace that part as well.....



Wife would kill me.



Thanks all!



Corey

 

[Makensmoke]

Funny... I am searching old posts tonight because my rear pinion bearing is wobbely and dumped all the oil on the garage floor, and I came across this old issue again. To follow up, I have determined this issue to be a ujoint issue. (lots of expensive "techs" couldn't diagnose that?) I could keep the clunk quiet by greasing the ujoints on the rear shaft oozing grease every so often. Which explaines why it hushed after going thru the xfer case... I greased the ujoints after re-installing the rear shaft! Now that the pinion bearing crapped, i'm going to finally replace the ujoints when I have the shaft out to freshin up the 70. 203k miles on truck, I see in my last post my signature said I was nearing 200k miles. Don't drive her much anymore, which is how I could get by greasing the ujoints and not rushing into replacing them.



Good luck to all future clunk searchers!