Wheel noise??

[Alloydude]

Hello. I have an 84 coupe. I've replaced all six U-joints and the rear bearing hub assemblies and the vehicle drives great but I am hearing a slight popping noise coming from the rear wheels as I bring the car to a stop. This noise was evident before I replace the parts mentioned earlier. It's a sound very similar to the popping sound the exhaust makes right after turning off the engine. I've had the car on jack stands with the engine running and the car in drive trying to reproduce this noise but haven't had any luck. The brake's and other suspension components all appear to be in good shape. Now when I reinstalled the half shafts with the new U-joints I neglected to put grease on the slip yoke's before sliding them back into the bearing assemblies. There wasn't any grease on them when I pulled them out and the Haynes manual didn't say anything about it either so I figured it wasn't necessary. Could this potentially be my problem ??? :confused

 

[69MyWay]

Is there any chance you have loose bolts (the two huge ones) that go through the torque arm and into the front of the diff?

I also assume your rear diff mount bushings are shot, allowing that to move and twist. That would make a bump noise too.

 

[Eagle85C4]

I would have to agree with my learned friend, 69myway, if those rear nuts are not torgued correctly then they will indeed cause a pop. I was ready to replace the rear end because it sounded like that was where it came from, mine made the noise more noticeably when the tranny was shifting from 2nd to 3rd. I had already replaced the joints and hubs like you did, not like they did not need it, and it still made the noise after awhile. The next door neighbor, a retired GM engineer. He said once you bust them loose you will have to retorgue a few times after install. Every time you start and stop or the tranny shifts you are changing the load on the shaft, nut and hub, in both directions. This will cause it to loosen up after a while, he had me torgue it down to 165 ft\lbs, the manual said 160 but I listened to him and for the last 4000 miles I have not had a problem.

 

[Alloydude]

Thanks for the reply. Ya know, I never tried to re-torque the bolts going through the torque arm. Will definatly check that since the tranny was replaced a short time ago but the noise does sound more like its coming from the wheel area which brings me to Eagle85C4 165 ft/lb torque spec. on the spindle nuts. My Haynes manual says to torque them to 81 ft/lb's ??? Not sure where you got the 160 ft/lb number but if your right I had better bust out the torque wrench again. :bang

 

[Eagle85C4]

I am pretty darn sure it was 160ft\lbs on my 85 as my torque wrench (brand new) bought for this purpose went to 150...so I had to get a bigger one. 81 is way too low....no wonder you got noise. Now I know very little of the 84 and it may not be right for that model...

 

[RedRagTop]

Thanks for the reply. Ya know, I never tried to re-torque the bolts going through the torque arm. Will definatly check that since the tranny was replaced a short time ago but the noise does sound more like its coming from the wheel area which brings me to Eagle85C4 165 ft/lb torque spec. on the spindle nuts. My Haynes manual says to torque them to 81 ft/lb's ??? Not sure where you got the 160 ft/lb number but if your right I had better bust out the torque wrench again. :bang

I notice you have the 17 inch sawblades on yours. These were not available until the Z51/52 package cars of 1988.
Looks good, though...

 

[Alloydude]

Been checking out a few other post's on this forum that pertain to the wheel bearings and they all say 160 ft/lbs on the spindle nut's and I'm sure my 84 is no different than your 85 aside from the tuneport injection.I'll update ya as soon as I get the correct torque on them. As luck would have it my torque wrench only goes to a 150 ft/lb's as well. Thanks for the complement Rjsrocket I have the 3/4 spacers on the newer wheels so no interference problems.

 

[Alloydude]

Problem solved

Took me a while to figure it out lol. Pulled both half shaft’s out with the bearing hub spindle and put liberal amounts of antiseize compound to the splined portion of the spindles then reinstalled them and torqued the spindle nuts to 160 Ft lb's and now they are completely silent. Thanks for all the advice.