I hear it sometimes ( not all the time ) when shifting from Park to Reverse. Whats goin on ?

Another note... when shifting out of 4wd I hear another noise sometimes.

Trany is automatic.

 

For the going from Park to reverse clank , the first thing I would check is the u-joints on the drive shaft.

 

Also check the slip yoke on the driveshaft while you're under there. If it's not the u-joints or slip yoke, it's probably the mate shaft in the differential. If the truck has a limited slip diff the clutch packs could be worn out and cause the same symptoms.

 

ohhhh man, once you've heard the loud clank noise it's all over.

 

My 97 did it all the time don't worry about it, I put 183,000 miles on it like that.

 

Thanks for the feedback. I just don't want to be stuck in the desert with no help available.

 

It could just be the Park pin getting pulled out of the hole with a lot of pressure on it. Parking on a hill and putting it in Park and letting the tranny keep it from rolling instead of using the emergency brake will cause this. When I park on a hill I set the emergency brake, then shift to Neutral and take my foot off the brake pedal to take all the pressure off the tranny before shifting to Park. Before moving the truck, I take it out of Park before releasing the emergency brake.

 

At 120000 k, you might want to check out the u-joint suggestion above. If the truck has hauled alot of weight, they could need redoing. They are relatively cheap, and it is definately better than being on the roadside with your drive shaft dragging on the ground.

 

I hear that !!! I already have plans to do them all this weekend. We have a pretty brutal Baja trip coming up and I want everything in top shape. Are there any tricks, secrets, or warnings I should wory about when replacing the U-joints? Are they all the same part # ? ( I have a quad cab so there are a couple more to deal with.

 

Turbo Deeezle,

I have the same noise you have. I had it in the dealer under warranty and they said it is normal pinion noise. They said better loose than too tight. You can check this by putting the parking brake on, shifting the tranny into neutral and crawling underneath and trying to twist the drive shaft. I was shocked how much mine moved. Mine moves at least an eighth of a turn. Every differential mechanic I talked to after the dealer told me that was normal also. I have been towing my toy box over the hill to Buttercup the last two seasons with it and it has been fine.

 

Good to hear that. I pulled the cover off yesturday and was pleases to see healthy teeth on all gears and only little micro fibers on the magnet. One thing I did notice was a bit of frothing(bubbles). I replaced with Valvoline synthetic.

 

I had 1/8 of a turn of play in mine, here's what my diff clutches looked like:

Take the cover off and make sure that's not the problem. If you don't have the LS rear, here's another scary pic:

 

Might be as simple as loose rear axle to leaf spring U bolts being slightly loose.

 

YIKES DAVE! That is one hosed up moofer! How did you do that? You must have been hearing some incredible noises coming out of that thing!

 

Second pic isn't mine, that's out of NuttyMopar's truck. It's a heavily bombed 1st gen with nearly 200k on it, he was getting a clunk when going from drive to reverse. He likes to do burnouts.

Mine was quiet, but if you go the my gallery and look at the spider gears you can see they were meshing with the side gears only at the very tips. They would have stripped out and sent pieces through my R&P before too long.