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U join squeak?


Nismo280zEd

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Just replaced all the U joints on the halfshafts on the 280. Greased them up.. and they squeak! They arn't rubbing on anything and they only do it while the car is on the ground. IN the air they don't make any noise... is this just the rubber settling on the seals? I even sprayed some silicone spray on them to see if that would resolve the squeaking but with no luck. I should mention they are the U joints with Greasable fittings. I've double checked to make sure they are full of grease too.

What do you guys think?

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  • 2 weeks later...

What did you use to replace the u-joints? Did you use a press or did you just hammer them out? Its possible that you actually bent the driveshaft where the caps go in. I have done this at work and it just makes the u-joints a little tight. I havent had one make any noise though. All you have to do is take a punch and hammer on the cap ends, they usually arent bent much so it doesnt take much to get them back to straight.

 

Just a though....

 

Guy

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Why did you replce the U joints and did they squeak before replacement? Driveshaft u-joints will squeak about 3-4 times wheel rotation speed due to the differentail ratio. They will increase frequency quickly as you accelerate from a stop. Like 80LT1 before you may have bent something if you used a big hammer. Did you move the u-joint cup back away from the u-joint cross after installation? If there's preload inside the cup against the cross you could hear noises after a few miles when the metal to metal dries up the grease and the parts turn blue. You'd have to take the cups back out to see that. Not recommended is your install is correct. A squeak on accel/decel maybe halfshaft splines. They make noise once when loaded in a new direction. Depends on when you hear the noise and what you are doing to make the noise. I've seen dry door jambs make noises on accel especially with big motors.

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  • 2 weeks later...

This is definatly half shafts, not drive shaft. It seems to be heat related, the hotter it is outside the louder they squeak or click. They are so loud I thought bolt was loose, but all are tight. Like I said before... when the car is on jack stand and I rotate the wheels, it makes zero noise, they are greased and the fittings are tightend. It only squeaks when the car is on the ground.. I can push it forward and it squeaks, but I can't find on what. Nothing rubs the halfshafts.

 

The noise it made before was a clunk because the rubber seal failed and deteriorated the bearing on one U-joint. No hammer was used to remove from the car. Machine shope replaced them for me, I installed back in my car. However, I did put a lil grease on the backside of the halfshaft to the Diff connection, is this what's causing noise?

 

 

Driving me Insane, you can easily hear the clicking or squeaking from outside my car as it drives by.

-Ed

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  • 2 weeks later...

Now the noise has gotten extremely loud I ducked under the car again to see wtf was going on. To my dismay... the U-Joints have slop in them causing them to hit each other as the rotate causing the noise. So is this the machine shop doing a bad install with the press or faulty U joints?

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If you have play in the joints,it was definately a bad install.Its easy to have a single roller in a joint cap slip out of place and get jammed underneath.This would account for the squeak.When its replaced again,you'll most likely find the culprit.A big PITA but stuff happens.At least you know which joint to replace now,and a single joint is not very expensive.Maybe the shop will redo it for cost of the part?Good luck!

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OK so I went up to the shop yesterday with both Halfshafts. I've known this guy for a while and I always recomend him to anybody needing machine work done in the Houston Area. He's always honest and gives it to ya straight.

 

I went up there and told him what was going on and that I wanted to know if it was part failure or bad install. Turns out it was neither. The U joints where fine and the install was good... problem is my rear suspension. He showed me where the yolks have been hitting the mounting plates on the halfshafts causing them to spread and bend the caps. So basically my halfshafts are toast and I have to find a donor pair. I noticed when I took them off that the bushing on the driver side of the mustache bar was toast and new metal was showing. So I'm guessing my diff is floating as well as my suspension being too soft for the torque i'm putting out now.

-Ed

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