Hello all Last night on my way home my rear end started making a noise (ooh eer !! )
The noise was like someone hiting once with a hammer every wheel revolution. Even with my foot just resting on the gas to keep a contstant speed. It was louder with more gas and barely noticeable with my foot on the clutch.
I pulled over and checked for loose stuff.
Wheels were ok.
Moving the axle tube - no movement front to back or up and down (looking from the back of the bus) but moving to and from wheel to gearbox (tranny) one side was quite tight as if held by rubber - small movement, the other side I could move in and out of the wheel/tranny easily a few inches and would bottom out on something with a clunk.
My guess is a CV joint. But thats just a guess. I have never looked at / stripped down a transaxel before.
Any of you with more expereince can shed more light would be appreciated before I get under with my tool box !
...........You can either replace the CV joints on your drive shaft with new ones like Speedy Jim is suggesting which is a fair amount of work and is very messy (packing them with grease)......or......you can opt for the easier and cheaper fix which is to exchange the entire shaft assembly including the 2 CV's for a rebuilt assembly from Autozone or some other retailer. However, the exchange shaft assemblies are a crap shoot. I had one that started clicking within about 2 or 3 months after I installed it! A couple of other times before that disappointment, they lasted a long time without any problems. It's been a while now but I think that the exchange assemblies are less than $100 after you bring back the old one for the core refund.
..............This can vary. I've had noisy ones last for a long time and I had one fail completely one subzero morning while I was out of town and then I had to use my AAA card to get it towed about 60 miles back to my house. When they shatter the outer CV housing, you're done and there's no driving it anywhere until it's been fixed.
They usually don't start right off sounding that loud. Hope you checked your lug nuts right away. If you have non-stock wheels, check them, too. I'm sure you looked for something actually stuck to the tire. Here's one that had me going for months: As soon as the brake shoe adjustment loosened up a bit, the handbrake linkage inside the brake drum would rub against the heads of the lug bolts whenever the bus turned one way. That was 5 clacks per revolution, but quite loud and upsetting. In times of low budget - I have gone to the bearing "store" and bought individual replacement balls to replace the ones that actually broke in my CV joints. I polished up the running surfaces as best I could, reassembled with lotsa grease and ran 'em like that for over a year before buying replacements. Last spring I took all the CV joints I had laying around and parted them all out, using the pieces to build two complete axle shafts. I don't normally like to take parts with one wear pattern and introduce them to parts with a different wear pattern, but I was able to find enough pieces with "apparently" light wear and have been running them (and running them quite hard with the Soobey powerplant!) since with no bad noises yet! (My hearing is really bad though!)
Not too bad to rebuild. Just really messy. I'd be tempted to buy rebuilt shafts complete. If you do rebuild, ignore the part in the instructions where it says to pack the boots full of grease. Pack as much grease as you can into the area where the balls and cage are, but try to keep it off the boots as much as possible. Back when I packed the boots, they only lasted a short time, both from the weight / inertia of the grease flopping around with every rotation and I really think the grease chemically reacted with the boot causing premature failure. Since I've been running dry boots (prolly better'n ten years now) I have had NO boot failures.
OK - spent a few hours stripping it down. Washed everything in solvent. put one back together well packed with grease. when I did the next, i put the cv together and it locked up solid ! very solid. managed to free it - put the axel in a vice and a socket over the iner part of the cv and hit it. had to do it a few times before it budged.
can you assemble a cv the wrong way ? did I do something wrong ? or is this the bad cv ?
got it apart and next time I assembled it packed it with grease it was fine.
put it back in the bus and went for a drive.
wow !!!! I was amazed. before it was banging away like someone with a hammer. now it was silent .
drove for a few miles and everything was good so I drove home.
I have a hair pin bend into my drive. when I went round it then noise came back.
Its quieter than before but still clicks sometimes.
how do I tell wich joint to replace. none of the balls were worn. the cv's showed wear but no scoring.
I would suspect the one that locked up when I assembled it. would you agree ?
I will buy a CV tommorow and swap one. If it doesnt cure it I will swap it again ! they seem tight enough. is there any hints to finding the noisey one ?
You assembled the cage backwards. I've found over the years to not even try to keep track of which way they go - just assemble it without grease - still wet with solvent helps! and if it locks up, you got it wrong. Dip it back in the solvent to wet everything again and pop it apart only as far as you need to - to turn the cage around 180 degrees. Now put the last two balls back in (the ones you had to remove in order to turn the cage around!) dip it in the solvent again to get it all good and wet again and try it. It stays free this time. Set that one aside to drip-dry and work on the next one... When good and dry, pack the special CV joint grease to 'em (Sorry I didn't mention the special CV joint grease earlier!) There is a relationship between the three layers - the inner, the outer and the cage. It is either the inner piece that is backwards when they lock like that or the cage. Just keep 'em good and wet with solvent and flip those pieces over until it all works smoothly at angles as well as straight. Make sense? I hope so.
That clunk when you turn the corner may be the brake part rubbing against the highest head of your lug bolts or something else loose in the brake area or even stub axle area.
If the balls are still round and shine up when clean and the ramps that they ride in on the inner piece and the outer piece are not checked or cracked, chances are they'll go another 50-60,000 miles with a good grease job.
Find the source of the clunking. I now strongly suspect it is NOT a CV joint. Generally CV joint clunking is not a single clunk per revolution either. It is more of a chatter sound - usually.
There is a notch in the drive flange - the surface that the lug bolts are seated in and which is covered by the brake drum - that notch is the only thing I can think of that will cause a once-per-revolution noise when something loose is rubbing against it or flopping over to contact it in a cornering situation. Try with a helper hanging out the window to determine which side the noise is on, then open up that brake drum and look for things that are loose enough to flop around.
I always have to keep my rear brakes adjusted with very little play in order to keep the handbrake parts from contacting the drive flange and lugbolt heads. If I pull the brake handle out more than a couple inches I know it's time to adjust rear brakes again. You might just try pulling your handbrake on about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way - to where some of the slack is out, but it is not yet dragging the shoes in the drum - and drive around some corners and see if the noise still occurs. If my theory is correct, it should be quiet. (Unless one of the springs broke and a shoe is flopping around!)
Find the source of the noise first - before you buy the CV. - BaH
The clucking came and went and came back again. When I was driving it was so loud everyone turned to look, I could feel the click like someone hiting the chassis with a hammer and the shock came up through the driver seat !! Too loud to tell which side it came from. I would jack it up each side and spin the wheels - nothing ! only when I drive.
So I took it into my garage and stood the back up on stands shut all the doors and windows so it was nice and quiet.
when I span the wheels the left cv by the hub made a tiny clicking - best I can describe would be like a roller skate bearing - real quiet.
As this was all the noise I got (I was inclined to guess it was that one anyway) I replaced the cv and put it all back together. Span the wheel and the tiny noise is still there.
Drove about 50 miles after and all seems ok with the loud cv noise (fingeres crossed)
Any ideas what the quiet noise was ? I span the wheel with the shaft off and there was no noise ? Sounded like it came from the CV - even the new one !
Not this time, but when I first posted, a couple of weeks ago, I stripped them and washed them and they didnt seem that bad. You could see wear but not pitting scratches or cracks.
When I replaced it this time I popped the old one and a plastic bag and kept it in the bus incase I had replaced the wrong one and I lost drive somewhere !
If the noise has gone for a few days I will strip it out and wash it. Maybe take some photo's so you all can give your opinion.
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