Clunk in the rear end . . .

So I've been pounding on my 8" for some time. We had it at 3.25 gear initially and it's been at 3.80 for some time. I've done some tough launches on it but this last time I've heard a clunk in it. So we tore it down.





Got the car up on a hoist. Undid the driveshaft, let it hang in place.

Removed bolts holding the pumpkin in the rear end housing.

Removed the tires and unbolted the backing plate holding the axles in place.

Axles came out with a slide hammer.







Took down the whole pumpkin after a few hammer blows. Put it on the bench. Removed the spanner nuts, placed the carrier on the bench. Unbolted the ring gear and took cleaned everything up and inspected everything.





Here is the housing with the pinion still in place.





The Auburn with the bearings in place.




There is a little bit of flop in the Auburn gears but it's not what's causing the noise and it's a normal amount of flop.







Removed the pinion to inspect and clean




Removed the bearing and ring from the axle because on the driver side the bearings were riding rough.



We ran the patterns after putting it all back together to adjust the spanners.







It all looked good, put some sealant on the rear end housing and bolted it all back up. Axles went back in, retainer plate installed and pay attention now . . . the passenger side wheel went on and brought the car off the lift.





Apparently there is some fancy shmancy rule about BOTH wheels having to go on at the same time. I mean if they designed this car well it would have stayed up on the other 3 even IF one would have forgotten the other wheel.

Tadaaaaa:

 

Sooooo.....what did you find as the culprit for the CLUNK?

 

LOL. Happens to the best of us.

 

It's my cal trac setup. But at least I had a bad axle bearing that got changed.

 

Yeah, my caltracs clunk sometimes, when they are loading and unloading. more so when I come to a stop and they unload.

Scared the crap out of me the first couple times I heard it, until I figured out what it was.

 

Nice pics Mo, thanks.

Can't that be adjusted out with preload? Is that normal? I don't want noisy caltracs...

 

whew, tire spackle on the rear quarters lol

I spent an hour cleaning out the trunk dropoffs from stuck rubber after last dragstrip fun

 

Yes, it can be preloaded to take out the slack. But for daily driving, I don't want much preload. I have mine set at something like 1-1/2 turns. Haven't heard the clunk in quite a while.

 

I asked Bryant, he said that you can back off a few turns for street driving and set it up tighter on the track. But the clunk happens very rarely and isn't a loud annoying around so I'm leaving it alone.

 

Exactly. That's the way I feel, and how I set mine up.