weird clunking and rubbing noise!!!!!!

[madmike]

ok yesterday im driving and i hear this weird like rubbing noise, only when driving, then i hit a bump and sounds like a bolt or a nut is bouncing around somewhere. i took the rear diff cover off thinking that mabey my locker took a crap on me but there was nothing, not even a sliver of metal. so im talking to a friend of mine and he had an idea so i wanted to know what you guys think! He thinks mabey one of my flywheel bolts or mabey a torque converter bolt came loose and is in the bell housing bouncing around, to me this makes sence considering the noises and that i have no loss of power and my tranny is shifting normal. but to check i have to take the tranny loose from the engine and pull it back to see , right? any input from you guys would be really helpfull. oh ya jon, the guy i bought the truck from had the tranny worked on and had an aftermarket converter put in, and they might not have put the thread lock on the bolts, what do you think? thanks, mike

 

[sncwfo99]

You should be able to pull the bell housing cover off and inspect your flywheel and T/C

 

[madmike]

well, i looked at it last night and i didnt see a cover, that is why i was thinking i had to pull the tranny back, but if there is a cover where is it? thanks, mike

 

[sncwfo99]

I don't know on ours for sure ( just because I haven't been under my truck much) but on any other auto tranny there is a bell housing cover. It is right at the back of the engine on the bottom of the tranny in front of the trans pan. should be pretty visible, the bottom is rounded and the top runs at an angle down from the engine to the pan. Hope this helps you out

 

[Opera House]

There is no inspection cover on an A4LD

You might be looking in the wrong place. I would suspect the radius arm bushing on the pass side next to the cat. These all go bad by this age and give a clunk. Hard to tell abou sounds. Maybe someday this board will have click on audio!

If you pull the tranny, converter must be unbolted first. These have a three step engagement. Converter pilot must be at least 1/2 inch behind tranny mounting face. If not fully engaged, it will destroy the converter.

 

[madmike]

Thanks operahouse, i did check the radius arms, they are good. I was just wondering if anyone had ever had this kind of thing happen to them, a bolt comming loose in there , that is. is it a pain in the a$$ to pull the tranny back to inspect for this? thanks, mike

 

[bikerboy4lif]

I had rattling noise coming from the front of mine every time i hit a bump too. I could never find it. Then we finally noticed that the bolt that holds the front differential in, had the nut broke off and was just bouncing around in the hole. The bolt was just to the left of the front diff. Kind of goes threw the traction beam and then threw the diff mount. Just something to check. When we changed the bolt we had to notch the edge of the radius arm with the torch to get the bolt past.

 

[madmike]

ya, this noise is definitly comming from either the tranny or transfer case, you can hear it bouncing around then rubbing on moving parts, and it seems that once in a while the bolt gets between what ever and clunks really loud, im pulling the tranny back on saturday to check as to what the hell is going on in there lol. i broke my right side drop down bracket on my blue truck this last weekend, both front and back, just got it welded up about an hour ago, damn superlift crap ha ha, anyway now i have something to drive, i will keep you guys updated on the "noise"

 

[Opera House]

Might have to remove the starter

Then you can inspect the four mounting bolts for the torque converter. These take a very thin walled socket because the starter ring interferes. Took ne forever to find one. You can rotate the engine with a wrench on the harmonic balancer bolt. A pain to do alone. Still, that will only check a part of it. Some have reported flex plates cracking after rebuilds and you wouldn't be able to check that through the starter.

 

[madmike]

funny you say that, i was at home this evening and read where you could check those by taking the starter out, is it hard to see in there or is it fairly easy? thanks again for all the good info. mike

 

[bhults]

Slightly off topic

I'm trying to isolate a clunking/rubbing/sqeaking noise too, and this is the third or forth thread i've read regarding the radius arm bushings. My noise, also, is coming from the left front, and the "rubbing" can now be heard when you steer left to right at low speeds. Can someone tell me where it's located/what it looks like and what to look for if it is, indeed, the culprit? Are they difficult to replace? I'd like to do it myself---need to save some extra $$$ for the holidays!

Thanks guys!

 

[madmike]

WOO HOO I FOUND IT!!!!!!!!!

Well i feel stupid. i disconnected the e-break cable a while back and a piece of the mechinism that is behind the rear rotor dust cover came loose and was bouncing around in the cubby hole on the passenger side rear tire. ha ha, whew had me freaking going nuts for 2 days lol. here is the sh@tting thing!

 

[madmike]

another

 

[Bashman]

Wow! Good find. Sure beats pulling the tranny. I was thinking if it was rattling around in there or the t/c you could have been in for some $$$ repairs.

 

[Opera House]

Related story

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