Hello,
I just replaced the ujoints in my 78 suburban (front & rear, 1 piece shaft).
I now have a noise, sounds like grinding metal from the rear.
It is most pronounced from 10-25mph, above 25 the frequency becomes higher and
the rest of the truck makes so much noise that I don't notice it.
I checked the shop manual (after reinstalling the shaft) and noticed that it
calls for around 20ft-lbs on the rear strap bolts (4 bolts that hold the
joint to the rear axle). I had torqued the heck out of them. So I loosened
them up, lock-tited them and retourqued them to a guesstimated 20-25 ft-lbs
(much less than I had them before).
I also had one of the rear bearing caps fly off of the shaft and roller
bearings go all over while installing the joint, I cleaned them up real good
and got them all back in place.
Also the pinion seal has been leaking for some time now, I haven't even looked
at it yet.
The truck sat for 4-6 weeks, only driven once before I got around to replacing
the u-joints.
What is the best guess on what is making the noise?
Did I screw up the u-joint by over-torqueing?
Dirt in the bearings from when I replaced everything?
Something with the pinion bearing that became worse after replacing the
u-joints?
Bad u-joint from the factory? It was real tight when moving by hand, but it is
brand new so?
I have no problem replacing the u-joint again if that really is the problems,
but I'd hate to do it and then find out it was something else stupid.
Thanks,
Matt
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