clunking after bushings and lowering

[rtkjadams]

Just lowered car and installed bushings.... Now i get clunking sound from rear end when going slow in 1st gear and pushing in clutch. clunk, clunk, clunk....

Ray

[Rod10269]

Sounds like you might have something in contact with the wheel...I used the Eibach spring set and did not have any issues..did you do it yourself?

[Doc]

How did you lower the car and what bushings did you install?

[55Designs]

check your sway bar end links

[rtkjadams]

When I have the car on the lift, and grab the driveshaft and turn it back and forth, I get the clunking...... It's like the gears in the rear end have to much play.


Ray

[flyby]

Not too much play. My bet is the clutches are bad. Mine did the same thing.

[1977and2010]

Could it be the harder bushings? Mine does the same thing and I think it is because the harder durometer bushings have taken out the cushion from the rubber bushings with voids. Let us know what you find out.

[thekid96]

Bingo, excessive lash in the ring and pinion is your problem. I had the same problem which was greatly magnified when I installed solid bushings. I spent weeks trying to track it down, camera under the car, etc. I finally found almost 1/4 turn of slack in my diff by rotating the driveshaft.
I pulled the diff and had Unitrax set it up properly to spec and all noise/clunk is gone. This problem is common, GM has a lot of tolerance in the trans and diff set-up. I had my trans apart which was well outside of spec as well.

Originally Posted by rtkjadams

When I have the car on the lift, and grab the driveshaft and turn it back and forth, I get the clunking...... It's like the gears in the rear end have to much play.


Ray

[rtkjadams]

The car only has 3400 miles on it...... So, you had the rear gears reset? Who did you have do it? A local speed shop?

Ray

[mdinferno]

After i installed my eibach lowering spring i had the same noise.. it ended up being i forgot to bolt up the sway bar.

[JusticePete]

Originally Posted by mdinferno

After i installed my eibach lowering spring i had the same noise.. it ended up being i forgot to bolt up the sway bar.

Good point. After doing any suspension work where the result is a noise the first thing to do is double check all of the bolts to verify there are tight to OE specification.

[thekid96]

My car only had 800 miles on it, I am confident the issue is there from the factory but is masked by the soft rubber diff and sub-frame bushings. When you solid mount the diff and/or sub-frame the noise becomes more apparent. I took my diff to Unitrax, they are local to me and do excellent work. You might want to contact Janetty and have him do the posi upgrade while it is apart.

Originally Posted by rtkjadams

The car only has 3400 miles on it...... So, you had the rear gears reset? Who did you have do it? A local speed shop?

Ray

[rtkjadams]

I will recheck all bolts, but I think its in the rear diff. I searched and saw that gm is suppose to be coming out with a spacer that will fix it.......

Ray