Rear diff vs. rear wheel noise

[turboguzzi]

Hello All

 

Purschased rear wheel bearings, was ready to change them. When I lifted the car though two things confused me.

 

Wheels have no freeplay whatsoever when trying to yank them this way or other whereas the internal end of the sub axle, where it mounts on the rear diff flops around!

 

Could it be that my "rear wheel bearings" noise was actually a rear diff bearing noise?

 

Read all about the wheel bearing replacement (believing that was the issue) but have found little in the forum about attacking the rear diff.

 

How difficult a job is it? I did an engine swap, so quite handy, just dont know if the rear diff requires any special tools to deal with.

 

Are there any posts on this that I missed

 

Thanks

 

 

TG

[idosubaru]

could it be a noisey rear cv axle as well...i'm not sure what the noise is.

 

maybe the rear diff bushings are shot, that would cause clunking on accel and decel.

 

rear diffs are easy to swap out, you won't have a problem nor do you need special tools. 4 12mm nuts hold the driveshaft to the rear diff, two nuts hold the diff at the rear on the hanger (believe they are 17), then there's one holding it up top as well. then the axles.

[turboguzzi]

thanks

 

at the end it was indeed a rear left wheel bearing that was shot.....

 

cheers

 

TG

[DerFahrer]

Just because there's no wheel play doesn't mean that the bearings aren't bad. I've replaced six noisy wheel bearings (need to replace four more), and NONE of them have had wheel play.

[AlpineRaven]

What kind of noises were there?

Was it clunky or what?

Cheers

AP

[firstwagon]

Just because there's no wheel play doesn't mean that the bearings aren't bad. I've replaced six noisy wheel bearings (need to replace four more), and NONE of them have had wheel play.

 

If they have no wheel play, how do you tell which one is bad?

 

 

I too have a "bad bearing like noise" coming from the rear of my wagon but I can't seem to tell which side the sound is coming from. I jacked up the rear of the car and found no play or roughness on either side. Without taking everything apart, how do you tell which one?

 

I suppose it could be both bearing but I'm hoping for one only.

 

It could be the diff but there's no clunking sounds, just a low rumble like an off road tire.