List,
My TR6 is on its second summer since a complete chassis and mechanical
rebuild. I am begining to notice a clunk coming from the rear end and I am not
sure exactly what the problem is. The car has a fast road engine in it that at
best guess makes ~140 horse at the crankshaft (The G-tech I have said 135 at
the rear wheels). I do not "baby" the car. Don't get me wrong, I don't abuse
it, but I do run it in local SCCA solo events, and I do enjoy a "spirited"
drive.
The clunk is not extremely loud, and it only shows up when you change the
direction of the torque of the driveline (ie. accelerating, then decellerating,
then accelerating again). To expand, If I have the gas pedal on the floor and I
get off as fast as I can, the next time I push the pedal the rear end will
sometimes let out a clunk. The noise is most consistant if I don't get a
downshift perfect right before stopping at a light or stop sign. If I don't get
the down shifts right it will make the noise as soon as I start to engage the
clutch in first gear.
I am a little unsure what parts I should take apart to check out. The diff
mounts were boxed in and reinforced 2 years ago, and the diff mounting bolts
are still tight, with no abvious signs of any cracks. I also checked all the
bolts in the rear suspension, which were all tight. Could this be a bad U-joint
(I replaced them myself, and it was my first experience with U-joints). I am
also curious if it could be worn rear axles, but when I assembled the car I did
check to make sure that the sliding joints were tight. The UJ's probably have
4,000 miles on them, and the diff mounts are poly, I don't know if that makes
any difference. I'm not toooo worried yet, because the noise isn't violently
loud, but it has gotten worse now that I have beeen racing the car and I would
like to know whats going on back there.
Thanks for any suggestions,
Ryan Miles
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