Rear wheel noise

[dmrodco]

I have a 87 Vette with 105000 miles that seems to make a sqeaky scraping noise from the right rear wheel upon launch. I have pulled the wheel and rotor and cannot find anything that looks like its rubbing. Has anyone else had this problem ? I am starting to wonder about the rear wheel bearings. the half shaft joints feels tight I cannot find any loose parts at all. even the bearings don't feel bad however I don't know if I can put enough torque on them with my arm strenght to properly check them. Thanks..... DMG

 

[69MyWay]

Sounds like a U joint. That is the primary suspect, and the least expensive to repair.

 

[Vettelt193]

check the u joint by jacking the car up and moving the wheel back and forth... if there is a good amount of play, it is the u-joint

 

[dmrodco]

noise

If it was the u joint why would it make that scraping noise without showing any signs of it on any of the components ? Thanks Dewayne

 

[Vettelt193]

yes, a scraping or clunking would happen, but you can't really see the U-Joints... The 4 in the rear of the car are the ones that go most often, the other 2 rarely go. If you keep the car in gear (or park for an auto) parking brake off (put something in front of the front wheels) jack the car up, if the wheel moves back and forth more than about an inch, U-Joints are bad... make sure you replace all 4 in the rear, as the others will soon go anyway.

 

[dmrodco]

I'll give it a shot. Thanks for your assistance. See ya later DMG.

 

[dmrodco]

Problem solved

I found after taking out the half shafts that the U joints were trash ! anyway they got replaced with the A.Z. brute force and while I was there I replaced the rear wheel hubs. replaced the attaching bolts with regular hex heads in grade 8 to ease future replacement. Thanks for your help ! Dewayne