silverbulletwa

Now to get me a trailer...

Appreciate the thoughtful response. I realized yesterday that I can make that grinding noise happen by slapping the gas pedal whilst cruising (if I do that thing where you tap the gas and let all the way off, making your car lurch like it has square wheels), though it doesn't make for a constant grinding sound like when engine braking or at idle on start up, it just sorta "barks," gives me the noise for a brief instant. Gear selecting is all pretty smooth, there is a noticeable "clunk" when engaging second and third, particularly if I'm giving her the beans. You can hear and feel said clunk. At a regular cruise there's no real pronounced transmission noise, a bit of a whine but it's hard to tell if it's trans whine or various things vibrating (i.e. the push button itself vibrates at certain RPMs and makes a whine, you can mute it by putting a finger on it).

I gave him a holler, he said that it's under about two feet of snow on a trailer about a quarter mile from any drivable road. So that's definitely an option, but not one that's likely to be happening in the particularly near future. He also wasn't even sure if it was a manual or not. Haha guess it was his pop's car

Tbh my trans knowledge is pretty limited. I am wondering after some googling if there's a potential it's just my front U-joint. My trouble there is that everything I've seen is that A) swapping a U-joint on these is a bit of a bugger, and B ) every article/post says to "check for play" but I have no idea how much play is too much. I can wiggle it a little bit by hand and make it clickity clack, but not loud, and we're talking like the amount of motion you'd get if you wiggled a drill chuck. Not enough to measure but you can definitely find SOME play in it. Any advice there?

Garage had heat, thank the Lort. Could keep it a manageable 45ish in there, so no sweat. Got the clutch swapped (went with the engine pull method, that was definitely the move, not nearly as hard as I thought it would be) and she's back on the road. ...unfortunately, the grinding noise persists, even after swapping out the gear oil, there was metal on the magnetic plug and the oil was silvery. Little quieter now that I put some heavier oil in (lil stiff shifting in the cold mornings but not too bad), but I'm thinking I have a trans bearing that's a bit of a ticking time bomb in there now. There's no real noticeable play forward/back side/side in the input shaft, making me think that it's not one of the main bearings? Transmissions aren't really my specialty though so I'm not too sure here. Any input is obviously welcomed. New symptoms noticed now that some of the other mechanical shouting has quieted: I hear the grinding on startup, and depressing the clutch doesn't always quiet it. Any time I'm pointed downhill it happens more, and it's most noticeable with second and third engaged, as well as reverse. Seems to be more frequent in the cold, but that could also just be it being worse as I drive it more, haven't had a warm enough day to determine which is the case there. Additionally, the grinding is accompanied by vibration, but not through the driveline, I can feel it in my seat only. The steering vibration is gone, making me think the CV axle and ball joint swap did their job. Case re-opened. If it is a bearing, pull the trans, crack her open, swap the spinny bits? Or buy Chris' in Libby and stab it in there? New sound: in 4wd there's a "tinging" that matches drive shaft speed, but I can't find any interference when I move the shaft by hand. Any thoughts on that cause? Thanks in advance gang.

Sooooooo the latest is that I swapped out the CV axle, and did the passenger side ball joint while i was in there (it was looser than my old.... well it was loose). Backed her outta the garage to go for a little shakedown, and paused to close the door. Put it back in reverse, let out the clutch and *bang.* Suddenly it sounds like there's a bag of gravel in the bell housing. Clutch decided it was done with all this mystery and exited stage left. Got one on order, should be here tomorrow (weather permitting) and I'm gonna spend the evening dropping the trans and seeing what goodies fall out. Case closed! Until the next problem

Oh my bad. Didn't see the PM, I'll take a looksee. Really if I was gonna go through the trouble of swapping a trans I'd prolly be more keen on sourcing a dual range manual transfer case one.

Well here's hoping it got swapped with the clutch replacement then, I'm not especially keen on doing that

Appreciate the info, I'll keep it in mind. Currently I'm just trying to keep my beater with a heater from turning into a project car with a heater in the spirit of being a thrifty son of a borscht. A to B is all I'm after here, with as many trips per dollar spent as possible

is a pilot bearing a pain in the rump roast? They're not that expensive to buy...

excellent advice, I'll be crawling around under there next week sometime, hope to come up with some answers

I didn't own it at the time of the clutch job, so I couldn't tell ya. I couldn't say if the clutch is new, but it passes the ol "high gear bumper on a light post and dump it" test at least

Thanks folks, these are some excellent avenues to work down, I'll certainly be reporting back with what I find. There's some vibration accompanying the noise, but the vibration seems less severe than the noise might make one expect, if that makes any sense. The noise is a 7/10 on the "whoa momma" scale, vibration is like a 2.5. On a bumpy road the vibration wouldn't even be noticeable. I'll give those diagnostic tests a shot and see what happens. PO did say they threw a 'new' clutch on it semi-recently, though there is some grinding feedback at engagement on occasion, particularly in reverse. If I was somehow able to source a GL trans with the dual range, is there anything besides drop, swap, and roll involved? Fab work/odd parts to snag at a junkyard? El_freddo, I saw some stuff about the uni joints and was figuring on checking those as well, as far as the mounts are concerned, how much oomph are we talking? Lie underneath and try to bench press it (I'm no body builder but I can reef on it a bit) or like put a jack to it/a long crow bar sorta oomph?

Hi friends, been searching all over the site for someone with a similar issue to mine and have been coming up dry. The set up: bought a "beater with a heater" for 650 bucks. It's an 88 DL, stick shift, FI, pushbutton four digger, 247k on the clock, engine runs like a sewing machine. This is my third 80's wagon, so I'm fairly well-versed. Did plugs and wires, clutch cable, both front sets of wheel bearings and the drivers side full CV axle when I got it. I have a passenger CV ready to slap in but won't get to it until second week of January. I had the typical clicking issue at lock even after replacing the noisier one (the driver's was missing about two inches of bearing housing on the CV joint), so I'm gonna do both sides. My mystery: When I'm engine braking and (until this morning) only when I'm engine braking, there's a grinding "growl" and accompanying vibration from right around the transmission hump. It seems to be a little more towards the passenger side, and sometimes sounds like it could be from where the CV axle and the trans mate, but other times seems back directly below the stick shift. I'm worried that my CV swap won't fix this one (I initially thought it was the play in the CV screaming at me) because this morning when I fired her up I heard that same sound, or at least it seemed to be the same sound, while in neutral with the clutch in. Turning makes no difference, and I hear it more in second gear than any other gear, though I can get it to show up in any gear as long I load the trans sufficiently. Any thoughts on what I should check next time I'm crawling around under there? There's a fair bit of play in the stick while in gear, and when I shift under load there's a distinct *thunk* that I can hear and feel when disengaging 2nd and then a second time engaging 3rd, not sure about the others because I don't think she's got the oomph to load the same amount in the upper gears. Does anybody have some good ideas on where to start, or should I hit it with the radio fix and forget about it until something goes for real and I need to limp home in 4wd?