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Drive shaft noise

Old Jun 11, 2014 | 08:41 PM
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Default Drive shaft noise

This past weekend I started hearing a clicking noise coming from my rear end. The sound is kind of like a baseball card in the spokes of a bike or a piece of paper hitting a fan a low speed. I jacked the rear end up of the truck up put it in drive and the noise is coming from my drive shaft. Looks like 200 to 300 for a new one! The auto parts store also said they can be fixed. Which way would you all go?


Also how long do I have until it breaks completely and I can't drive it?
 
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Old Jun 11, 2014 | 09:39 PM
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How did you determine it is coming from the driveshaft itself?

Bout the only thing could be wrong with that is if you bent it. And it would rattle your teeth out.
 
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Old Jun 11, 2014 | 09:46 PM
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me an buddy crawled under the truck as the shaft was moving and the rear tires were spinning, both of us are pretty sure the noise was coming from the shaft. Where else would it make that kind of noise??
 
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Old Jun 11, 2014 | 09:57 PM
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Well you have two u joints. Assuming you have a one piece shaft.

A pinion gear, trans output shaft. You have 4x4? That adds a t case. And theres all kinds of stuff in your diff.
 
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Old Jun 11, 2014 | 10:20 PM
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It sounds like you have a bad u-joint. we had the same thing happen to a truck we owned years ago, same noise as your hearing now. It turned out to be a bad u-joint. When the old u-joint was removed the needle bearings inside were shot.
 
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Old Jun 13, 2014 | 04:27 PM
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ya it's 4x4. one shaft. I climbed under it again as the truck was on the jacks, I put my head right next to the shaft as it was spinning I could hear the noise, its not coming from the pumpkin, its gotta be the u-joint connecting to it. I think its like yours was Ram Driver. no noise near the upper end of the shaft. one shop said it would cost 180 to 400 to fix it. I said ,well I can buy a new shaft with u-joints for 250 300!!
 
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Old Jun 13, 2014 | 05:08 PM
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Just replace the rear u-joint. 30-40 bucks for a really good one.
 
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Old Jun 19, 2014 | 04:39 PM
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Thanks guys! It was the rear u-joint! The needle bearings on half of it were dust! The stock u-joints don't have grease fittings and so went bad. My new ones have grease fittings and I will grease them every few months!
 
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Old Jun 19, 2014 | 05:16 PM
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Greasing them every oil change will be plenty good enough
 
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