Rear noise and slop/play in half shafts????

#1

Ok, so I put 75d bushings in this past weekend… subs, rta, dif and weld-in camber/toe kit (PITA floor/bms). Also put new rotors with hawk HPS’s for street. Test drove it last night and over 25mph a kinda lite grinding/metal ringing sound is comming from the back of the car. Tonight I jacked it up, started it, put it into 3rd gear (scary?) and can only hear the pads rubbing lightly, not as lound when on the road. Do pads need more bedding in? Ruling out bearings… noise is when going straight and in turns.
Then I noticed some play in the half shafts, both in & out and back & forth (turning). They also “clank” a little. Not very tight at all. When you rotate the wheel/s there is slop too. The slop appears to be both at the hub and input shafts, not the dif. The slop in the shafts… ??? Shouldn’t they be tight?

Thank you in advance for any input or advice you may have. w~

#2

HELP!
It’s like a sheering sound… speed sensitive, doesn’t increase in pitch after 25mph or change under load or cornering.

I’m going to check the input flange dust cover tonight… wonder if it got bent in during install???

#3

Check the drive shaft bolts at each flange. My Dad had a very similar problem and found that tightening the loose drive shaft bolts made the noise and slop go away.

#4

hummm I didn’t remove or loosen any of the output flange bolts when i dropped the whole rear suspension. wonder if i messed up something by not doing that…

#5

Even more of a reason to check them. Maybe they were already loose. Look at your center driveshaft bearing while your under there. If the rubber is torn, you may need to replace it as well.

#6

I think I have a similar situation…sounds almost like when you sharpen a knife, but rotational?..I have a new driveshaft/guibo/CSB, new brakes, replaced diff, new bushings and erar wheel bearings with no change. Stays the same in and out of gear, no change with speed, engine rpm or under braking. It may be axle/halfshaft related, but can’t help but think it’s possibly related to braking components like dust shield rubbing on a rotor, e-brake parts malfunctioning or something like that. Bad axleshafts usally make more of a growling,grinding noise if I recall.

I’ll let you know if I discover something, in the meantime keep us posted!

Thanks,
Steve

#7

yup! a sharpening sound… like the rotor dust sheilds rubbing.

I’m going to take the rotors off tonight and see whats visable, also going to check the diff dust cover at the input shaft. It may have gotten dented in when installing back into the subframe. I remember that happened on my M.

#8

If the sound doesn’t happen when the suspension is drooped I would suspect something rubbing on one of the halfshafts. I left my parking brake cables sitting on my halfshafts and drove around like that for a month. Didn’t make much noise or do any damage except for melting the plastic off of the cables.

#9

well, didn’t get a chance to take the rotors off… yet. I’ll do that tonight in the pits. I did check the diff input dust cover, not the prob.
keep ya updated…

#10

I just did a lot of rear end work (camber/toe bolts, AKG aluminum bushings, etc) and have the exact same sound. I just drove back from Putnam Park 8 hours and am nearly deaf now. Let us know if you figure it out!

#11

maybe the diff… grrr!

#12

“sharpening” noise is gone…

this past weekend I replaced the rear bearings and put in a new/used 3.73 dif.
the bearings were loose/sloppy and the dif pinion bearing seems to be going. not totally sure if it was the bearings or dif, but it’s gone wahoo!

still getting a lil clunk in the driveline rearward when gas on-off, load on-off. the axles (half shafts) have just a lil bit of play in them, hummm?

the csb and guibo are showing their age with light cracking so i got new ones, hopefully puting in this weekend.