[Video] Driveshaft Slop, Is This Normal?

[Dylan0123]

Please check out this video and tell me if this is normal. Front tires are in the air, rear tires are on the ground, parking brake engaged, transmission in neutral:

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[BoostedBeaver]

You need to have the rear wheels off the ground, front wheels on the ground, car in neutral, and parking brake applied.

When rotating the driveshaft like that you are measuring the backlash between the ring and pinion. Try the method above and see if you get the same results. If you do, then you need to look for further issues in the rear diff.

Service spec on a 1g is 3 - 5mm so if you get that same amount of play, it is not normal.

Robert

 

[talondave]

The rear ring and pinion could use a chimming, but not a whole lot to worry about at this time. I have as much if not more in my rear diff then that. Im running 9s and havent had a problem yet.

 

[Dylan0123]

Cool thanks a lot for the info. I'll try it with the front on the ground and rear in the air tomorrow and see how it looks. The rear end seems to be making a little bit of a howling sound. Also getting a vibration at 3500-4k rpms, which I realize can be a ton of different things, just trying to narrow it down.

 

[BoostedBeaver]

Like Talondave said, it could be fine. I had a 3 bolt with a 1/2 inch or so of backlash when measured using this method and it checked out to spec on the bench. Going by the book it should not have that much but I ran that 3 bolt at 30lbs on a HX35 for the longest time

Robert

 

[And_44]

I have almost the exact same amount of movement in my driveshaft. It's a 1992 AWD. It's like that with front on ground rear in air. Front in air rear on ground. All 4 on ground. And all 4 off the ground. I suffer nothing noticable in driveability. Just when at a very snails pace from rolling back to forward or forward to back to I get a clunk from it engaging.

In a previous post of mine from last week actually. Someone mentioned that if your hearing a clunk from when it engages that the oil in the xtransfer case and rear diff could be thinning out with age and to replace the oil with new correct weight.

I've got some bottles of Redline Heavy Shockproof waiting for install to help with the clunk. But I have stopped being worried with the movement as I've found that with the age on cars now it could be considered normal and also they might of come from the factory with that much movement it just wasn't noticable until they aged and we all became aware of the wear and tear and doing these checks.

 

[Dylan0123]

Cool. Yeah I checked it today with the front on the ground and rear tires in the air and there was only like 3/16'' rotation. The rear dif fluid (redline heavy shockproof) is like 15-20k miles old and the x-fer case is 25k miles old. I'm sure it's fine, I just like to over analyze things. Thanks for the help everyone