How much does yours move?

GTtopLESS

New Member
Nov 8, 2007
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With the car in 1st gear, you standing in front, how much can you all "rock" or push your car back and forth? I expect there to be some kind of movement, but I was waxing mine yesterday and noticed she will move a good half foot or so. Is this normal? It always feels like I have slop in my drivetrain, is this indicative of something?
 
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Im sure someone must know why this is. If your reading go give your car a few shoves and see how far you can rock it 'forward and backward'. I think this may be connected to my "slop" that I feel in drivetrain. Is there movement in the tranny that would allow this?
 
I know this is a strange topic, but I think this may be connected to the notorious "clunk" that alot of us experience. When I do this I can hear a clank from around the tranny, followed by a quieter clank towards the rear. I will look into the spider gear theory. Thanks for the help!
 
First of all, you should always make it a practice to set your parking brake. There will be no movement when you set the brake and it is more certain your car will not roll away.

I highly doubt spider gears are the problem. I've never heard of a problem with the spider gears being loose.

You should check the U-joints though. Otherwise, the extra movement might be in the rear end, specifically the ring and pinion or their bearings.
 
Thanks for the response. I normally do set ebrake, was waxing front bumper when I noticed this movement. I have been meaning to re-examine u joints. It is hard to tell if they are bad from how I know to check them... If your reading this go and give your car a few shoves front to back, any noise? Let me know...Im freakin out here...!:flag:
 
Sorry to hijack a thread

This mysterious clunking.... Every time I shift gears, doesn't matter which gear or how fast I'm going I hear a sick clunk from my rear end area. I just replaced my tranny fluid, and I had no metal flecks or anything to tell me something was wrong with it. I replaced my rear pinion seal, and although I had lost alot of fluid there didn't seem to be anything wrong with it. I go to school for auto tech, I can't figure it out, and neither can my instructors. Wtf is going on? must be rear differential right??? It's a 97 GT. Please help me it's driving me nuts. Another symptom is me having to wrestle to get into gear sometimes, and i see no clutch or tranny problems. This might just be the way mustangs are though.
 
I am not in tech school, but I dont think it is normal. I have aftermarket gears, which is reason for backlash. Unless a tranny can get worn and create some slop...I am leaning towards those U Joints. Is this an easy fix? I bet those bolts are a mofo to break loose.
 
I had a nasty clunk in the rear everytime i released the clutch. I pulled the diff and could slide the spring in and out with no problem. So it is a worn clutches, sring, or both that CAN cause excessive lash in the rear. I replaced the diff and the problem went away.
 
The rear is what I fear!! I have no idea what the hell goes on in there. I am very mechanically inclined, how difficult is messing with the end? What does a typical rearend rebuild cost?
 
You can rebuild the rear with just bearings for $125 in parts. If it's the diff you can rebuild the clutchs for like another 50. However to shim the diff you need a specific tool. If you are a grease monkey, rears are not hard, you just have to know what you are doing. If you've never done it, get a complete service manual to guide you through, and make sure you have the proper tools. You will need torque wrench foot pounds, rotational inch pound torque wrench, dial indicator, and and micrometer. You can get away with setting the pinon depth be reuseing you stock shim.
 
what gear did you have your car in, i left mine in 3rd on mistake and forgot to set my park brake and mine rolled like 6ft in about 3hrs time. also check your clutch adjustment, if its too much then your clutch is partly to blame.
 
clutch has nothing to do with it

:rolleyes:ahh yea the clutch could have something to do with his problem, an unadjusted clutch say after a few miles could result in a loose clutch. therefore he might not notice goin down the road, but maybe not enough to hold full pressure when not running. i know it sounds silly, but they put a park brake on vehicles for reason, you cant always rely on the inner workings of the drive line to stop the vehicle from moving while not in opperation:nice:
 
I had a fairly loud "clunk" noise everytime I loaded up the drivetrain, turned out to be a busted u-joint in the back. Took under an hour to change.

The way I figured it out was to put the car in neutral, lift it up, and manually rotate the tires back and forth, and rotate the driveshaft back and forth and look for something that's not moving right.
 
I am pullin the d.s. tomorrow and replace u joint. Why did Advanced tell me they dont sell the front joint, only the back?? Are they the same or is this another reason not to return to AAP...? Gonna replace trans fluids (Mobil 1) and put on a poly trans mount while I'm down there. Anything else you all would recommend looking at that could cause this slop in the DT?