Weird Trans Noise help!

[Doug F]

Uh oh... I hope you aren't right!

[Doug F]

Take the rear driveshaft out and drive it on the front axle, see if the noise goes away. You might find a whole new set of noises if your front axle is a bit loose, but it might help narrow down the issue.

Growling on decel is a typical bad rear end symptom. Often it won't do it in nuetral, just when the load from the engine braking is going through the gears.

GRRRR!!!! It is the rear axle!

I dropped out the rear driveshaft and locked the 1967 vintage hubs and took 'er for a spin and NO NOISE! NOTHING! No whine, no roar, no squeeks... It handled better and felt less labored too! Are there any drawbacks to driving it this way? Besides tire wear?

I plan on totally swapping out the rear axle with a wider, newer 9" with 31 splines so I can eventually run the Explorer 8.8 rear disks; I just don't have the money now.

[averagef250]

If the front axle is in fair shape and you take it easy on it there's nothing to go wrong.