Bad U-Joint??? I hope...

[fields_mj]

I've always noticed that I have a little bit of play on my drive shaft. When it's sitting in the drive turned off, I can rotate it just a little bit back and forth. Maybe 1/8". Well, this winter I had the gears swapped out, and put in a different 3rd member to match. The guy who did the work has always done good work on my wifes car, and he builds race trucks in his free time (that would be between the hours of 10:00 PM and midnight from what I can tell). I spoke with him, and it sounded like he had done the gears on quite a few of the trucks and hot rods in the area. Anyway, he called during the repair to get the okay to replace some additional bearings in the rear that he was concerned about. All good. Well, I get about 3/4 of a load of firewood in the back last week, and I noticed that after I back up, when I put her back in 1st gear there is a noticeable CLANK. It sounded like what I used to hear on my 2wd F150 when the U-Joints were totally shot. I got home and got the wood off, and then checked the drive shaft again. I could rotate the drive shaft noticeably more than what I used to be able to. But I don't see any play in the U-Joints. It looks more like there's play in the splines between the tranny, the drive shaft, and the diff. When I'm empty, I have to stand on it a little to hear the noise, but it's still there.

Any suggestions on what this could be? I'm getting a little worried that something important and expensive is going out on me.

Thanks,
Mark

 

[plywood]

Usually the driveshaft splines will have up and down play before they go clunk but if you can see rotary play in those splines by hand then they are definitely bad.

Bad news is I spent over $400.00 on a good rear driveline for mine, but it was built right.

 

[franklin2]

Usually if you have play and wear in the tranny output shaft/front yoke of the driveshaft, or play in the splines or input shaft of the rearend, you will feel it while driving. You will feel it when you are "inbetween" on the throttle. In other words if you load the drivetrain by opening the throttle, or letting up on the throttle, you won't feel it. When you are sort of coasting with the throttle, that's when you will feel a vibration caused by worn splines.

 

[icanfixall]

Time to take it back to this guy that last worked on it. Let him tell you whats right or wrong.... After all hes the last one under there and the last one to touch anything.....

 

[fields_mj]

Time to take it back to this guy that last worked on it. Let him tell you whats right or wrong.... After all hes the last one under there and the last one to touch anything.....

No offense to the others, but that's probably some of the best advise I've had in a long time.