What is this noise?

[G.M.]

4 clicks per revolution sounds like it is in front of the rear. Indicates a 3:78 rear and sounds like the pin in the shaft coupling pin. I have seen a number of these pins come loose. They slide out as the drive shaft turns and hit the torque tube. The pin is to long to drop out. I doubt this can be repaired by drilling a hole in the tube as someone mentioned. A peice of heater hose is good for listening. G.M.

[Mart]

Pulling just the one side was a suggestion I made when I thought it was in the rear, rather than the driveshaft area. On balance you'd probably do better to pull the whole rear and give it a thorough checkover considering the long journeys you like to make.

Mart.

[Old Henry]

Originally Posted by PeteVS

I saw somewhere that a problem with the Ford rears was that the pin in the driveshaft coupling would break and rattle around.

Originally Posted by G.M.

4 clicks per revolution sounds like it is in front of the rear. Indicates a 3:78 rear and sounds like the pin in the shaft coupling pin. I have seen a number of these pins come loose. They slide out as the drive shaft turns and hit the torque tube. The pin is too long to drop out. G.M.

I already went over a year with that danged pin rubbing on the inside of the torque tube before it finally wore down enough to drop out. Most annoying noise. So, it's not that.

As I said earlier, my "stethoscope" indicated it is inside of the differential at the same frequency as the drive shaft so most likely a pinion gear bearing.

[Old Henry]

Originally Posted by BILL WZOREK

Old Henry:

Just out of curiosity have you pulled the plug and check the grease level,
I know it is like closing the "BARN" door after the horse is out,but do I remember you taking your car to a Professional lube & oil change center.
Not Ha Ha funny but still funny that 2 of you from the same area have had some type of rearend problem.

Originally Posted by jimTN

Pull the plugs on the center housing, look for metal in the grease, shine a light in there and look around. Sort of sounds like a loose bolt that has run out and rubbing the housing to me.

Had the differential oil checked just before our trip and it was full. Haven't pulled the plugs yet to check since. May do that today just out of curiosity.

Must be something in the water on our street that Chuck and I both have had rear end problems this year.

[Old Henry]

Originally Posted by Mart

Pulling just the one side was a suggestion I made when I thought it was in the rear, rather than the driveshaft area. On balance you'd probably do better to pull the whole rear and give it a thorough checkover considering the long journeys you like to make.

Mart.

Yeah. I had pretty much concluded the same thing after reading a recent thread about it here: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=89668

[Old Henry]

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Through the Stethoscope: Here's a video of the previous test hearing the internal sounds through the stethoscope I bought today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1P1B...ature=youtu.be

Whadaya think?

Here's a picture of the liquid gold I drained out of the differential - clear sign of metal wear inside. (That oil was just new before our trip.) You can really see the sparklies on the plug.

[PeteVS]

What does it do in reverse?? (There might be answer to my question up above, but...)

[Old Henry]

Originally Posted by PeteVS

What does it do in reverse?? (There might be answer to my question up above, but...)

Reverse is no different.

[Ole Don]

My hat is off to you sir for driving a 65 year old car regularly. Things happen in old cars. This is one of those things. Fix it once, fix it right. It will be good for the rest of your time.

[sonny]

I'm not sure if that rear has "spider gears" or not but I had the exact same noise come out of a Dodge rear. It was the shaft that runs through the spider gears. The keeper pin broke and the shaft would move back and forth, but to long to fall out. Just saying.

[Old Henry]

Originally Posted by sonny

I'm not sure if that rear has "spider gears" or not but I had the exact same noise come out of a Dodge rear. It was the shaft that runs through the spider gears. The keeper pin broke and the shaft would move back and forth, but to long to fall out. Just saying.

I do have spider gears and will certainly check those when we get it apart. Thanks for the tip.

[Mart]

The early ford rear does not tend to suffer from that sort of pin drifting out problem because it has 4 pinions on a forged cross shaped pin thing.

Don't rule anything out though.

Mart.

[Henry/Kokomo]

Sonny - I think spider gears are a requirement for most, if not all, differential gear set-ups. FWIW

[Old Henry]

Originally Posted by Henry/Kokomo

Sonny - I think spider gears are a requirement for most, if not all, differential gear set-ups. FWIW

Even my walk behind self propelled mower has them. If it's a differential rather than solid axle (like some ATV's) it's got spider gears.

[G.M.]

Run a Magnet through the oil. If it's metalic the magnet will remove the particals. G.M.

[Tim Brown]

Take it to Chucks up the street and work on it there.

[sonny]

Henrykokomo, I'm familiar with the workings of a differential I used to set up rear ends for racing. I asked about the spiders because I have also locked up rears without spiders. FWIW

[Mart]

All "open" diffs have spider gears, Sonny was referring to a non Ford type diff having the pin that the spiders run on come loose and start to come out, hence making a noise. These diffs have two spiders and a single pin. Early Ford diffs have spiders, but 4 of 'em on a cross shaped pin forging. Hence in a ford diff the problem of the pin coming adrift cannot happen.

Mart.

[Old Henry]

Originally Posted by G.M.

Run a Magnet through the oil. If it's metalic the magnet will remove the particals. G.M.

I did run the magnet through the oil. I didn't think it would pick up anything because I thought all of the shiny specks were brass colored but I couldn't think of what in the banjo would be that color. Well, turned out all of the shiny specks that clung to the magnet were silver colored steel - they only looked gold because of the color of the oil. So, definitely have something steel wearing out in there. Hope to find out what tonight.

[ford38v8]

Sonny, please don't confuse us with Dodge knowledge. We're working overtime here just to keep up with our Ford stuff!