Hi, gang!
I just drove the TR6 a total of 393 miles over the Cascade mountains from
Bend (my home) to Salem, Dayton (to visit BPNW!!) to Portland, and back to
Bend. (Oregon, that is!) The trip went fine and although I did bring a
supply of tools, I never had to use them!
I did have a weird thing happen in Salem, however, after coming down off of
a VERY enjoyable drive over the Santiam Pass on Highway 22. I think it was
the first traffic light I came to... as I approached the light I took it
out of gear and braked to stop for the light, my usual routine. As much as
a FULL SECOND after coming to a COMPLETE STOP, I heard (and felt) several
fairly heavy CLUNK sounds coming from the rear of the car. My first
impression was that it came from the diff, but I'm not sure. Understand,
these "clunks" came when the car was COMPLETELY STOPPED, gearbox in
nuetral, foot on brake pedal, engine at idle.
Now, the diff in this car has NEVER been rebuilt. I've had it out of the
car a couple of times in the thirteen years I've owned the car, and I did
replace (about 10 years ago) the diff mounting bushings. The UJ's are all
fairly new and have maybe as much as 15000 miles on them.
I've always fought the "clunks" from the rear of this car, doing everything
SHORT of rebuilding the diff, all of which helped but the clunks were never
TOTALLY gone. The diff, I think, suffers now from a whole HELL of a lot of
play I think between the pinion and ring gear. I don't know much about
diffs, but I know that shifting in my car is always tricky as I try to do
it gently and smoothly to try to avoid getting a little "clunk" from the
rear.
There is no typical "gear noise" or "howling" that comes from the diff,
though, at least not that I can hear. It is pretty quiet once you're
finished shifting gears.
Does anyone have any guesses as to what these clunks may have been? I was
pretty worried (and puzzled) at the time and was afraid that the diff might
finally expire along the way. As it turned out, it did this a couple more
times driving through Salem, but once I got out on the open road again it
was fine and it never acted up again. I arrived home safely last evening
with no break-downs.
This diff may have somewhere between 150,000 and 200,000 miles on it, so I
KNOW it's gotta be AWFULLY tired. Any hunches out there as to how many
more miles I might get out of it before it finally "lunches" given the
condition it's in?
Thanks in advance!
Pete Chadwell
1973 TR6
(and a differential with 3 feet in the grave and one on a banana peel!!)
|