Been awhile since I posted anything.. Ok here goes :confused: My car makes a strange whinning noise while driving down the road, when I let up on the gas it jerks (think that may be the carb) and seems to grind almost (least it sounds that way), when I back up I can hear a popping almost clunking like noise I know one of my U-Joints is leaking I noticed that today when I was checking the differential fluid. Anyhow I jacked up the back of the car got under there and finally got that darn plug loose (it more or less fell off ) I wasn't sure if there was any fluid in there but there was dark and almost slugey (not good). But anyhow I'm wondering if the rear end could be bad keep in mind folks this is one aspect of the drivetrain I am unfamiliar with, never opened the diff cover or attempted to remove the rear end. Anyway did the usual spin the tires test didn't hear much grabbed the area where the driveshaft connects with the pinion shaft (with the tranny in neutral of course) turned it somewhat there seems to be quite a bit of play in the pinion shaft I dunno if thats normal or not as I said i'm unfamiliar with differentials. I'm wonderin if it could be the axle bearings and not the diff (might be cheaper to replace those), short of putting the car up on 4 jack stands, starting the engine and running it spinning the tires that way almost like a dyno machine I dunno what else to do. Any ideas??
There should be almost no back and forth play in the pinion. Its something like .008 new. Barely detectable. Chances are your ring and pinion are worn out. Time to rebuild or replace.
