1970 dart rear end noise

-
A

Al Bundy

four touchdowns!
Joined
Aug 2, 2015
Messages
219
Reaction score
13
Location
California
Hi guys,I have a 1970 Dart Swinger with slant six,auto trans and stock rear end. Tonight I took it to the store,parked and when I came out and drove off I noticed a rubbing or scraping sound coming from the rear of the car only when making a right turn. It had never done this before and I am baffled why it would start after just being parked. Nothing occurred on the drive down there. The car doesn't make the noise when it's going straight or turning left,it only does this on right turns.
Anybody here have this problem before and why would it just happen after being parked? I didnt jump a curb or hit anything,etc. I hope it's nothing major as this is my daily driver.
 
I have seen exhaust systems rub the driveshaft turning in one direction , broken hanger etc.
Or could have something in the brakes, backing plate rubbing the drums are common.
Turning is causing the weight to shift and changing something to make the noise show up.
 
Left wheel bearing possible? Does it do it only turning in a parking lot or turning around? Or does it do it going around a curve too?
 
I presume it's a 7&1/4 inch rear (small inspection cover on the back). I think that your spider gears are toast on one side. It's a very light duty rear end and yours made it for 40 years so not much to complain about. The one behind my 318 let go in 1975... On the bright side now's the chance to swap to that 8&3/4 you always wanted!
 
blown71duster said:
I have seen exhaust systems rub the driveshaft turning in one direction , broken hanger etc.
Or could have something in the brakes, backing plate rubbing the drums are common.
Turning is causing the weight to shift and changing something to make the noise show up.
Click to expand...

It's dark now so I will have to wait until morning to check the drums,etc. I don't see why it just started after being parked. It's not like something happened to the car,it was just sitting.
 
str12-340 said:
I presume it's a 7&1/4 inch rear (small inspection cover on the back). I think that your spider gears are toast on one side. It's a very light duty rear end and yours made it for 40 years so not much to complain about. The one behind my 318 let go in 1975... On the bright side now's the chance to swap to that 8&3/4 you always wanted!
Click to expand...

Yes,I believe you're right,iit has the small bolt on cover on the back,I will take a photo tomorrow when it's light and post it here to help identify it,but am sure it's the 7 1/4" rear. How hard is this to fix/what does is generally cost? Is it something you can do yourself or one of those things like an automatic tranmission where you have to be at the mercy of a shop? I'd like to swap to the 8 3/4 but don't have access to one at the moment and since this is my daily driver need to keep it going without a long downtime. Does it usually just happen all of a sudden like this? It was fine earlier this evening. Then when I went to drive home when I turned right it makes a rubbing sound like a brake shoe scraping inside a drum. That's the best way I can describe it. It's intermittent too, like it only does it at one point in every revolution of the wheel.
I've been pretty gentle on the car,never abuse it or drive it rough,but as you said,it's 45 years old.

Just curious,what happened when your rear end went out in 1975? We're you able to drive it home? How much do you think a good 8 3/4" rear end would set me back? I don't see these cars at all in the junkyards anymore,but I know where there is one old Mopar yard that may have one. Woud'nt the gear ratio be different on a 318 rear end than one of the slant? Was yours 3.23?
 
71DodgeDemon340 said:
Left wheel bearing possible? Does it do it only turning in a parking lot or turning around? Or does it do it going around a curve too?
Click to expand...

I drove it straight home so I only turned a few times. It only does it when I turn right and seems to be louder the sharper I turn. I haven't driven it far to know what it does on a curve a speed. The sound is like a worn brake show rubbing inside a drum type of sound. Is that what a bad bearing would sound like? How hard is it to replace the rear bearings? I've never done the rear before only front bearings. I'm worried since this it my daily driver and I need to keep her going.
 
I just backed it out and drove down the block and turned right a couple times and now it's not doing it. ????
 
ok,I drove it to work this morning and when making right turns on curves,such as on the freeway,there is no perceptible noise. when I make a sharp right turn however I can still here the muffled rubbing/scraping noise that seems to happen at one spot with each rotation of the wheel.
I am going to go find some cardboard and slide underneath the car and see what,if anything I can see that could be rubbing underneath. i will also take a photo of the axle,but am sure it's the 7 1/4" rear.

Edit-
Ok,I just jacked up the rear and got the right rear wheel off the ground. I don't notice any wobble or much play when I try and rock the tire back and forth or up and down. I crawled underneath and did notice some evidence under the inspection plate of gear oil so I tightened the bolts down and surprisingly a couple on the bottom were not all the way tight. I was unable to get the fill plug out to check the level because it appears to need a 1/2" drive ratchet to loosen the plug and I only had my 1/4" and 3/8" along on my toolbox.
 
Can someone tell me what the factory recommend gear oil weight is for this rear end?
 
Thanks. I jacked up the drivers side rear wheel just now and did the same test,when I pull on the tire there is some play and it comes forward and backward a bit. Then when I tried rotating the wheel forward and backward is sounded rough like dry bearings or a shoe rubbing inside the drum. :( sounds like the bearing will need to be replaced.
Is this something the average person can do or does it require special tools? Any idea what it would cost to have a shop do this for me?
 
Have you inspected your brakes by removing the drums? May just be a broken spring inside there, ive had it happen before
 
You have a sloppy axle bearing. It's letting the axle move around just far enough so that your brake shoes are getting into the rusty part of the drum on those right turns.
Axle bearing is about $20 at any auto parts store.
Hardest part of pulling the axle on a 7.25 is jacking it up.
Any shop can R&R the bearing assembly for about $40
 
This sounds familiar. WhitePunk and I just went through this. I have the tools to do it, but if you don't, get the bearings and just have a mom and pops place press the bearings. I think my local shop does them for $10 an axle.
 
whitepunkonnitro said:
You have a sloppy axle bearing. It's letting the axle move around just far enough so that your brake shoes are getting into the rusty part of the drum on those right turns.
Axle bearing is about $20 at any auto parts store.
Hardest part of pulling the axle on a 7.25 is jacking it up.
Any shop can R&R the bearing assembly for about $40
Click to expand...


BINGO! You are exactly right! Thanks for offering to guide me through it,that would be a great help. I just ordered the two bearing and two seals from oreillys. The hearings were $16.99 each and the seals were $14.00 each.
Funny thing was I called two local shops because I had looked at the service manual and knew that the bearings would need to be removed and pressed on by a shop. Guess what the shop qouted me? $200 per axle! Looks like I need to try somewhere else.

If you can give me tips and guide me through the procedure I would greatly appreciate it.
 
Mopar92 said:
This sounds familiar. WhitePunk and I just went through this. I have the tools to do it, but if you don't, get the bearings and just have a mom and pops place press the bearings. I think my local shop does them for $10 an axle.
Click to expand...

I wish you were in Southern California,I would gladly pay you to do it for me and even throw in a few six packs for good measure!
I just ordered the bearings and the seals today and they will be on by Monday. The bearings were National brand. That was all I could find. I tried for Timken brand but couldn't find a local place that carried them.

Hope you guys see this and reply.
 
One thing I was surprised by, I had called a local mopar shop that I had seen do some abodies before,they advertise the do transmissions,engines,etc. the guy was super rude and said he wouldn't touch a 7 1/4" axel except to throw it in the trash.
 
Any mom and pops place should be able to do it. 7 1/4's are good rear ends for what they are. Low HP applications. They are very low friction and are an economical axle. Surely there is a shop there that can press those old ones off and the new ones on very easily. Start asking automotive machine shops. They can do it too.
 
Mopar92 said:
Any mom and pops place should be able to do it. 7 1/4's are good rear ends for what they are. Low HP applications. They are very low friction and are an economical axle. Surely there is a shop there that can press those old ones off and the new ones on very easily. Start asking automotive machine shops. They can do it too.
Click to expand...

I called a reputable shop that services a lot of 50's,60's and 70's cars,there is almost always some sort of classic in there. The owner told me he would pull the old bearings off and press on the new ones for $40 for both axles,so I'm going to take them to him.

Hope whitepunkonnitro will visit the thread again and offer some tips as to how to do this. I've been watching some videos on you tube and looking at the manual and it looks pretty straightforward,but I've never messed with a rear axle before. According to what I've read there are some c clips that hold the axles in.

By the way I did check my gear oil level and it was all the way up and the gear oil was pretty clean.
 
Negative on the C clips. Here's what you will need to do.
1- get the cars rear on jack stands.
2- pull wheels and brake drums off
3- get a 9/16" deep well and pull the 4 nuts off per side holding the bearing plate on
4- you should be able to pull the axles out.

I just went the other day over to Tony's and I couldn't get the axles out. Rust had the bearings stuck in the axle tubes. I sprayed some PB blaster between the bearing plate and onto the bearings. I don't have a proper axle puller so I used my slide hammer with a hook. I hooked onto the axle hub and they popped out. Sometimes you can put the drum on backwards and tighten the lugs up and pop that with a rubber mallet. I've never had axles stuck in as bad as the other day at Tony's. Barring anything stuck bad, it's a 20 minute job with an electric impact.
 
Mopar92 said:
Negative on the C clips. Here's what you will need to do.
1- get the cars rear on jack stands.
2- pull wheels and brake drums off
3- get a 9/16" deep well and pull the 4 nuts off per side holding the bearing plate on
4- you should be able to pull the axles out.

I just went the other day over to Tony's and I couldn't get the axles out. Rust had the bearings stuck in the axle tubes. I sprayed some PB blaster between the bearing plate and onto the bearings. I don't have a proper axle puller so I used my slide hammer with a hook. I hooked onto the axle hub and they popped out. Sometimes you can put the drum on backwards and tighten the lugs up and pop that with a rubber mallet. I've never had axles stuck in as bad as the other day at Tony's. Barring anything stuck bad, it's a 20 minute job with an electric impact.
Click to expand...

Thanks for detailing the procedure to me. So you are saying there are no c clips and I don't need to pull the cover off the differential then,I just undo the bolts and pull on the axle shaft?. I don't have an axle puller either,I saw a snap on one at the swap meet for $20 but someone else got it before me. Maybe I can rent one.
 
you wont need an axle puller. Just remove the 9/16 nuts that you can get to by rotating the axle till the hole lines up with each nut. then just pull it out, not hard to do. I think you will need to have brakes removed to remove the axle.
 
Cool! Thanks for the info. Sounds easy enough,I just have to wait for the rain to be over. We're expecting some more rain early in the morning,tapering off by the afternoon,so I should be able to get to this on Tuesday.
Thanks again to everyone here for their help and advice. This is a great site! My dart and I thank you.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top