I'm in need of a transmission rebuild. Bad. And just a few days ago, I started hearing this squeaking sound from what it sounds to me like my rear gear housing (2WD). There is fluid on the housing, but my rear transmission seal is out so fluid has been thrown from there to the back. When I reverse, its like a "squeak, squeak, squeak" continuously. When I'm in drive, it only seems to do it from a few mph to about 20 mph. I checked the U-joint and it looks fine. No play at all. And the gear oil is full. And today, it actaully started to sound like a little bit of grinding? Any ideas?

 

My drive shaft u joints made a slow speed squeak when they were bad because they were seized up. Although there is no play, it would be better to drop the drive shaft and get a good feel for them in your hand. While you're at it you can replace the tailshaft housing seal (which is very easy).

 

I think your name jinxed you TheEndIsNear

 

squeaking is usually a u-joint. check them on level ground, wheels blocked, trans in neutral, with no tension on drive line. twist u-joints back and forth. any movement is bad.

when mine went out i checked them one day with trans in park and they felt ok. drove another day or 2 with them squeaking and all of a sudden they stopped squeaking. fixed itself right ? ok. had some vibration so i rechecked and ALL the needles were gone.

 

That's how mine were (missing needles). I broke a 9" c-clamp and a huge vise before getting them on an arbor press to pop them out, I had a couple cracked caps too.
Now I know that the best way to remove a stubborn u-joint is to just cut it off with an angle grinder, then the caps will pop out with ease.

 

WELL guys, thats what it was. A damn U-joint. I didn't think it was because it didn't budge when I shook it. So after fighting with it, I busted the rust bind and took the drive shaft off, used some sockets and a hammer, and busted the old U-joint out. That thing was BAD. I'm talking HORRIBLE. I should've taken pictures. But anyways, I put the new one back in, and "BAM!"...no more squeaking. Thanks alot y'all. Knew I could count on you guys!

 

Awesome. Did you get that tail shaft seal while you had the drive shaft off?

 

No, I'm gonna do that tomarrow. I just wanted to have it done and see if that was it. But tomarrow I have nothing to do so I'm gonna redo the front drive shaft U-joint and the seal on the rear. I don't understand though, why my rear tranny seal keeps going out? It's as if it keeps throwing fluid all underneath my truck, but I'm not low in fluid? I'll try and get pictures tomarrow. The tranny and driveshaft look lined up... it just keeps going out.

 

A bad u joint can make the yoke wobble in the tail shaft and make it leak.

 

Then I guess it would be a good idea to replace that other U-joint then lol