When you find out, let me know, I have the same problem but on a much larger scale, U-joints are solid, half-shafts are perfect, ring gear bolts have been replaced...

I've been told that it's either the posi clutches chattering or the spider gears.

My great uncle said to mush up a banana and put it in the differential fluid.:crazy:

 

Bump

I just developed the same noise last week-end. Was going under the rear of the car this week-end think will wait to see what comes of this thread

 

wow!! I am glad I am not alone on this mysterious ping/click sound. I have heard the posi-diff stuff chatter before so I don't think it is this. It is like a single ping/click sound that you can feel vibrate through lightly to the gear handle. Does it 99% of the time only when I change directions in the car...sometimes I will get 2 quick & small clicks/pings but most of the time its just 1 ping. Also it will only do this when I give the car the gas vs just rolling the car...I must have rolled my car 100 feet with my buddies and me on a roller sled hanging on underneath feeling/watching/listening to every part and all moves smooth as silk.

 

Pinion bushing is bad. Go poly.

 

sounds like it's spreading. We might have a full out epedemic on our hands if we're not careful :lookinup:

 

I got it too.


I think mine are the U-joints.

 

I'd have to make sure that there's none of the parking brake hardware rolling around in there. Typically, U-Joints don't make noise when they're good, bearings will not just make a single "click" or "ping" with a direction change, and pinion bearings will rumble all the time.

There was a time on the C-4's that when you shifted from R to D there was a "ping". It was the half shafts taking the load of the different direction. The fix was to bend the nozzle of a can of spray undercoat and get it into the vent hole under the center of the U-Joint and squirt about 1/2 can INSIDE each half shaft, then go drive the car to spread it out inside the shaft. . No more "ping"

 

On Thursday I took the vette on a 700 mile road trip to my parents for Mothers Day...she made it up here without missing a beat avg 19.8mpg with my 6 speed 80mph@2,300rpms. Got a ton of looks and :thumbsup: cruising up the FL turnpike, I-75, I-10 on my journey which was really cool.

I stopped by the local vette shop to see if they knew what the sound was...he said they had a 66 doing the exact same problem but less noisey "ping" compared to mine. So I scheduled an appointment for next week Thursday to have them replace the u-joints on that side as this is what he said it most likely is. Also while visiting my folks I stopped by my high school buddies auto repair shop where he always has a few nice older muscle cars around and he said it sounds like a bad u-joint also. It is getting worse but no problems once I have moved the initial few inches where it pings. Hopefully it is just a u-joint. If not the corvette shop says then it will most likely be the parking brake shoes. Front diff poly bushing is good & tight so all is good there.

Also I am going to get a compression check done to help determine the health of my engine. She burned a little less than 1qt of oil over the 700 miles.

Wish me safe journeys back down to S. Florida on Sunday....

 

I made it back to Miami tonight....675 miles. Ugghh!!! What a long drive...about 1,500 miles round trip. Vette did good except for I heard her ping/knock/detonation for the first time ever when I accelerated in 5th gear out of a rest stop. Cruising she did just fine but one of the last rest stops I decided to get up on her and heard an awful pinging/knock sound so I instantly got off the gas and then shifted into 6th and all was good. I am thinking that my new L88 CAI & carb spacer has made the car run too lean as I was already at 13:1 before the carb spacer so maybe if it can suck more air now at the higher rpms the ratio is getting too extreme gong to 13.5?:1 or something. Well....she is going to shop on Thursday for the u-joint replacement & compression check as I burned about 1qt every 650 miles going up & back.

 

Yeah, sounds like you definitely need to put in some bigger jets.

Imagine how great it will accelerate once it's getting the correct amount of fuel.artyon:

 

Don't see how this could be u-joints. It could be the parking brake hardware binding in there. Could be lots of things. Jack it up and move the wheel back and forth, left to right. Could be a bushing worn all the way through. TA? Strut Rod? :huh: But I doubt it's a u-joint.

 

check the halfshaft flange to the spindle flange.. I had a clicking on one side that i discovered was this. I didnt have the french locks but instead just lockwashers - a bit of threadlocker and the click is gone

 

Really? I haven't checked that on mine, I never even thought of that.

Thanks for the heads up.:thumbsup:

O.P., any updates?

 

torqvette......tha vette is LOW!

I love it.

 

I had a noise from the rear also.. Mine turned out to be 2 things: Bad U-joint on the passenger side half-shaft, and the parking brake was binding ( rubbing against the rotor at one point). I pulled the rotor and found the parking brake wasn't releasing as it should. After blowing all the dust out, and spraying it out with brake cleaner.. I re-adjusted the parking brake ( pullled the rotor off, backed off the adjuster, put the rotor back on) until it stopped rubbing and the rotor spun free, and the parking brake worked like it should. Took her for a test drive, and no noise!

Also.. Be sure to jack the wheel up.. as it will bind if left hanging. I wasted an hour trying to find out why it was wheel hopping - Felt stupid when I found that little tip out!

 

thanks for the tips guys....vette was dropped off first thing this morning at the vette shop for some TLC getting the following done...

1. fix clicking sound in rear passenger wheel (replacing u-joints first and then tackle the parking brake if problem persists)
2. compression check & leak down test done for first time (should be interesting)
3. extend a fuel line as adding the extra 1" carb spacer has put too much tension on the line that I currently have on there
4. oil change (too lazy to do it myself since its already there at the shop might as well have them do it)

I will post later today or tomorrow what they find....

 

Are at going at this by process of elimination....

replaced u-joints...still there
checked parking brake hardware....still there

Next step they are currently doing is pull/re-shim the spindle to see if it this helps things. They confirmed without a doubt that it is coming from the inside the rear spindle/hub area and not like the shock mounts/trailing arm bushing, etc. This is what I also could hear it coming from when I had my buddy drive the vette and me listen for the pinging/clicking sound.

 

The bearings will be wrecked as they are pressed on. Now I suppose some may try and reuse bearings knocked out but I wouldn't. Weren't these just done?

 

yes...they were just done this past Winter. So you are saying that if at first re-shimming the spindle tighter does not work that when they go to pull the spindle they will need to replace the bearings, correct? If so makes sense to me.

 

You can't get to the shims unless you remove the spindle but pressing or kocking it out of the inner bearing. That is too much force to apply on the cage IMO - I'v ehad to do it and always start with new bearings and grinding the shims to the correct endplay. You're basically rebulding the spindle again.
I would look elsewhere before doing that.

 

Thanks Gary for the tips....I was actually on the phone with the mechanic while you replied and he says he literally has exhausted all other possibilities checking shock mounts and even pulled the trailing around to check the front pivot bushing but no luck. I put my life in my friends hands the other night and got on a wheelie board laying down under the car on the flat wheelie board and listened for the clicking sound and it is almost without a doubt coming from that spindle area as he drove a few feet up/back and I could feel the clicking the strongest coming from that area with my hand on the half shaft near the wheel. I hate spending extra monies but as of right now I don't think I have another choice but to have him pull the spindle and replace the bearings. Maybe some how I got a bad set of bearings? At least by Monday we should know if this solves the problem. It is definitely something drivetrain pressure related as you can feel the ping/click all the way through too the gear shift handle and slightly in the motion of the car. Ugghh!!!

It would have probably been much quicker to just have done about 30 burnouts until whatever it is snaps, LOL!!!

 

That's how we did it with our radar system on the ship, when we couldn't find what was tripping the breaker we just kept resetting the breaker until whatever it was finally burned up.:laughing:

I've gotten a bad bearing/bearing job before, mine took about 8 months to rear it's ugly head but when it did, it was one ugly mofo. Wherever you took it to get the bearings done, don't go there anymore.:thumbsup: