Something Popped!!

FasterThenU72 said:
check the leaf springs.....i see it every day, the shackles bust apart, but you still seem on the road.....thats my guess anyways....

Well I checked the shackles and they are fine. I drove it this morning and the knocking sound is not as loud but you can definitely still hear it. I don't even know where to begin troubleshooting this.
 
I'm gonna try to jack it up after work tomorrow and see if it is the rear wheel making all that noise.

Where is the wheel weight?

I should probably clarify that it doesn't so much as hop but seems to slow the car down. The car staggers at low speeds. It probably does it at higher speeds but its not as noticeable.
 
if its just draggin, id say something brake related. better not drive it until u figure it out. especially if its brakes or anything really for that matter. could be something in the rear end, but unlikely. sometimes a consistent knocking is a u joint, but you wouldnt have the lag id say. how do you know its just one wheel, can you hear it for sure from one side or something?
 
Ok, so today I jacked up the rear driver's side wheel to turn it and it only rotates about 1/8 rotation each way. After that, it doesn't want to rotate anymore. Isn't suppose to rotate 360? I'm about to take off the wheel and take a closer look but I wanted to see if anyone had any ideas? Thanks a lot.
 
silly question, but is the car in neutral when you are trying to move the wheels?
also
wait a minute i always thought that if you lose the u joint in any way shape or form, your gonna have a sick vibration all through the car......?
Yes, im sure it could cause this, but on my old truck when the u joint started to go bad, it just made a clunking noise when you put the car in gear and got under any kind of load, there was no vibration, although i dont think that this is his problem, it was just an idear!
 
fluid seepage is not uncommon at all on a 35 year old car. jack the car up in the back and see if you can wiggle the wheel up and down if so you have a bad wheel bearing. had the same thing happen to my old 70 cougar and it had what you are describing with the wheel "hopping" it almost feels like you're driving on a flat tire huh?