clanking when put into gear

[TurboBeagle84]

when i put the car into drive it makes a loud clanking noise. i know my description is kind of vague but its the only way to describe it. any ideas on what it could be, u-joint? i remember having a similar problem whit my t-type years ago but im not sure what i did to fix it.

 

[MeanBuicks]

It's either a u-joint or excess backlash in the differential. You'll need to crawl under there for a closer look.

 

[DKREDT]

I had a pretty toasted tranny mount that caused some clunks in my drivetrain on shifting into gear and on 2-1 downshift coming to a stop. Swapped in a new one.. and the noise went away.

HTH

Joel

 

[TurboBeagle84]

thanks for the responces, im gonna try to check things out this week. how do you check for excessive backlash in your rear end?

 

[Scott231]

Basically you take the diff pan off with the frame up on jack stands. By rotating a tire, a dial indicator attached to the ring gear will show you how much play you have against the pinion gear. Actually, if you can knowingly eyeball 10 thousands or more, its bad. This is repaired by adding shims to the correct side of the assembly to move the ring gear closer to the pinion gear. You have to take the "guts" out to do this.

Easy to explain, very messy to do.