88 GL-10 Steering Noises

[M45]

First, many thanks to those who helped with the transmission case / driveshaft job, including parts! It's running great, no leaks.

 

Now I'm experiencing a noise coming from the left front when I make turns at low speed. It is a kind of clacking sound, about 3-4 clacks a second. The car runs fine at speed and makes gentle turns at speed.

 

Another symptom is that when I'm turning at low speed and have to apply power due to incline or sharpness of the turn, one of the tires chirps, but it seems to be a rear wheel. It is as if the fronts or a front wheel not getting enough power and the rear is attempting to compensate.

 

Finally, the front right wheel makes a tzinging metallic sound that is speed dependent, as if some bit of metal is hitting something, but it is not regular in frequency.

 

There is one or two other bits of diagnostic info which I will hold for the moment because it would skew the diagnosis. In other words, I'm hoping for detective work and ideas that would either break my main theory or strengthen it by surviving scrutiny.

 

Thanks for your interest.

[bratman18]

The clacking sounds like a cv axle, the tire chirp sounds like maybe you have an LSD and it is working very well! And the metal sound could be a tie rod or ball joint. Jack your car up and wiggle the front tires in all directions and see if you get any movement, then look to see where the movement is coming from. Also look at your rear diff and see if it says LSD on it. If not than there could be something wrong with the rear clutches in the tranny

Edited March 3, 2009 by bratman18

[M45]

Well, strange developments.

 

First, the missing clue that I didn't want to skew the diagnosis is the fact that the boot on the left front CV joint is broken.

 

However, ... something happened that may point away from the CV joint.

 

The other night I was going up the driveway and I heard a loud bang from the rear of the car. At first I thought I had smacked the rear differential on the pavement, bottoming out, or had almost jumped a curb. I even went back to see if I could see scrape marks, but nothing was visible.

 

Interestingly, the next day I immediately noticed that the chattering on turns from the front left had disappeared and there was no slipping or chirping from the rear tires.

 

It seems that somehow the problem fixed itself! It is strange and fascinating that what seems to have been a problem in the rear differential would create symptoms and sounds in the left front!

 

I wish I knew what had happened. The only hypothesis I have is that somehow the rear differential was out of whack from when I had installed the driveshaft. When I did that, I had to rotate the rear portion of the driveshaft about 5 or 10 degrees to get the bolt holes lined up. At that time the rear wheels were firmly resting on the ground.

 

Could that have caused it?