So in my new-to-me 98 sport, I have been having a noise that sounds like someone dropped their car keys in a coffee can and rolled said can down a hill, which I assumed was bad unit bearings, so I replaced the driver's side where it sounded like it was coming from, no difference, old bearing seemed fine, decided to replace the passenger side, no difference, bearing was bad though so it's good I guess that I replaced it. It seems to correlate with wheel speed, so my other thought was u-joints, but I don't imagine u-joints would make a sound like that, any thoughts? I checked the pads and calipers when I was changing the bearings and there was nothing to indicate a stuck caliper or the pads hitting the indicators. Usually when my u-joints go bad it's just a clunking type sound. Searched a lot on the forums and google but wasn't able to find anything resembling my problem. thanks in advance for any help.

 

Move to the rear and start examining everything that rotates there.

Long shot would be torque converter nuts/bolts loose.

 

My bad should have mentioned it's an AX15.... throwout bearing possibly? That's way low on my list of possiblities though since it doesn't seem to change with clutch engagement/disengagement. Theres like a 5% chance it's something in the rear, definitely sounds like it's coming from the front and I've checked everything in the rear already.

 

...bump... nobody?

 

I'm not a moderator, but they take a dim view of bumping on this Forum. It's in the rules you agree to by signing up on this website.

If some one has something to say, they will say it.

Check torque converter bolts. Also, find a safe area to get up to speed, put it in neutral, turn off the engine, and see if the noise persists while coasting down.

If it does, it's in the drive train.

If it quits, it's in the engine, transmission or transfer case.

 

Like I said, I have an AX15 so it can't be the torque converter since I have a clutch....

I get off of work at 2 in the morning though so finding a place to try the method you suggested shouldn't be tough. I'll post an update with my results after that. Thanks.

 

Yeah, I did read that. Sorry. It's pretty late.

 

Was able to shut the engine off and throw everything in neutral, still made the sound, I'm thinking it's probably a severely worn u-joint on my rear driveshaft, as it seems to get louder when I reduce load on it (skinny pedal). Any thoughts? What's a good way to check for a bad driveline joint? Just check for play in the shaft? Or do the ring and pinion have a certain amount of play from the factory?

 

Okay so I ended up ordering an Advance Adapters full short shaft kit. Almost positive it's either my output shaft bearing on the housing or the u-joints at my yoke or pinion. As I work 10 hours a day and get off work at 1:30AM, I'm just doing the SYE one little baby step at a time. Last night was pulling the old DS. I was surprised it only took me like 5 minutes, I've never had to pull one before and didn't realize the only thing keeping you from sliding it off are those two u-joint straps at the pinion. Drove it around in FWD (front driveshaft only in 4hi) and woooooow. Has anyone experienced this crazy of an amount of torque steer? I couldn't even keep the heep straight at like 15mph, I almost hit two parked cars driving it around the block like that. Every time I shifted into second the pressure plate started bouncing and it would torque from left to right almost uncontrollably. Is driving around in 4H with only a front DS something you can only do with an AW4 because of the torque-iness of the AX15?

 

Almost sounds like you have a ujoint in the front end binding. When I had to drive mine around in fwd. I had no problem other than I couldn't turn at 20 mph while on the throttle. Off throttle it was no difference from rwd.

 

Come to think of it, there was a loud pop a couple times when I was taking off or trying to correct the torque steer. I'll check them when I pull the front DS, I'm gonna have to pull it anyway since I'm dropping the tc.

 

Um, so, I think I may have found the source of the noise... along with a spline or two sheared clean off inside my slip yoke.....

This was one of the caps on my pinion joint: