Another vibration thing

[dejello]

Another vibration problem

Ok, so my stupid story:

Was playing around in some mud last night, got out and was going to get back in. Couldn't see and the water nozzles were frozen (wipers useless), so I proceed to stop and wipe off the mud. Well before I came to a complete stop I put it into Park (my mistake). *Clunk* And it's not my usual RA bushing clunk. Get going again and now there's a wicked vibration (seemingly from the rear) and some kind of crackling sound like metal.

The vibration is only while accelerating or maintaining speed along with the crackle sound, but I don't hear/feel anything unusual while in reverse. Did several searches and it seems like I may have messed up a u-joint, or the pinion and ring gear in the rear axle. This sound about right? I'm still in the process of working on it and have to get to work, haven't been able to remove the rear driveshaft yet. I probably just ansered my own question there, so I guess how much so I expect to pay for this stuff? Any other suggestions? And can I do the gear part of the job myself or should I leave it to a mechanic if that's part of the problem?

 

[Texan01]

Probably a u-joint check em and see. the 'shaft on my '95 was a pain to remove as Ford put threadlock on all the flange bolts when I had to replace the pinion seal.

Will it still lock into Park?

I did something similar to my parents '84 Delta 88 when we were trying to figure out a loud clanging sound, turned out to be a bad u-joint, but stupid 10 year old me throws it into park with the LR wheel spinning at 20mph after the brake drum spins off (the drum didn't do any damage). I throw it into park and it immediatly makes a LOUD ratcheting sound and then jerks the whole car when the park pawl catches. Amazingly it didn't hurt the transmission, aside from the fact that it was a limp-wristed 140hp Olds 307 V-8 in front of an even more limp-wristed TH-200C (marginal even for 4 bangers!) which is more notoroius than the A4LD about failing.

 

[dejello]

UPDATE

Ok, yes, the driveshaft was a pita to remove, but i replaced the u-joints... Crackling sound is gone, and vibration is less, but still there... The vibration seems to go down to almost nothing around 50mph, then comes back... It's also there in reverse. The worst is felt around 15-20mph. Suggestions?

Oh BTW - transmission still seems to shift w/o problems, goes into park, and everything else.

Another BTW - I've been driving a '97 Malibu for the past couple of days... Got into the ex, good lord.. Feel like I'm driving a mountain

 

[dejello]

Just an update... The problem fixed itself today... Not sure what it was, but it popped back in place while I was going to work.. Hit the gas a little harder than usual going up a small hill and *bang*.... no bad vibes