Dragging cans

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Jp5

Jp5

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Sonora, CA
hello, all. Took the 65 valiant for a 1000 mile road trip last month up and down Californian. She did great. Only thing is since I've been home it now sounds like I'm dragging a tin can behind the car. The noise happens when the car is on the ground rolling- in gear or not. The noise does not happen when the car is on jacks, in gear, wheels turning. Everything feels mechanically sound while driving and rotating the rear wheels by hand. No obvious grinding or looseness. No shavings in the differential fluid that I could see. Seems to be a weight vs rotation situation. Is there an obvious problem I'm not seeing. As always, thanks again for you input.
 
A few random thougbts on it.......
Positive it is coming from the rear of the car?
Jack the front up and spin the front wheels.... lug nut rolling around inside a hub cap up front?
Disc brakes up front? If so, stone/dust shield come loose?
 
I would bet that your exhaust system is just barely tapping the driveshaft somewhere. You will never find it up on Jack stsnds unless they were under the rear axle housing to compress the springs. Check it out,
 
[B-onefan, post: 1971434782, member: 11751"]Do you have hubcaps on it?

Yeah that's true. Moms 63 Valiant with full wheelcovers used to squeak and make noise all the time.
 
bummer. think i found it in the rear end. dropped my drive shaft, took my wheels off, gave it good long spin... pops, clicks, squeels, grinds. even jams up a little. guess i'll be looking around for some new gears

thanks for the input!
 
If you still have the 7.25 rear end there it would be cheaper just to find whole rear end people practically give away 7.25 rear ends..... if you were here on the East Coast you can have the one out of my 68 if you remove it.
 
Might not be the gears at all. Could be outer bearings. I'd pull the cover to inspect it.
 
ragtopfury said:
If you still have the 7.25 rear end there it would be cheaper just to find whole rear end people practically give away 7.25 rear ends..... if you were here on the East Coast you can have the one out of my 68 if you remove it.
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that's nice of you bud.
 
FURY440 said:
Might not be the gears at all. Could be outer bearings. I'd pull the cover to inspect it.
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yup. think you might be onto something. rear left wheel doesn't generate the same noises as the right
 
Jp5 said:
yup. think you might be onto something. rear left wheel doesn't generate the same noises as the right
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Yep, pull the cover and inspect the gears, but I doubt it's that. I'm steering towards the outer axle bearing.
 
A used 7.25 rear-end usually goes for $100 here. I bought a spare. Bad differential gears usually make a high-pitched whining sound. More likely the bearings will make noticeable sounds. I used to be able to take an axle to an auto parts and they would change the bearing (requires cutting off a metal collar and pressing on a new one). But, that was decades ago and those shops are getting rare. But, the tin can sound you describes sounds more like something rattling against the brake backing plate, probably brake components like a self-adjuster that came off.
 
bearings it was!
pulled the axle to find a rusty old dried up bearing that turned like it was full of gravel.
replaced all the appropriate goodies and viola, shes rolls like she's supposed to again. thanks for the pointers, gents.

jp
 
Jp5 said:
bearings it was!
pulled the axle to find a rusty old dried up bearing that turned like it was full of gravel.
replaced all the appropriate goodies and viola, shes rolls like she's supposed to again. thanks for the pointers, gents.

jp
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What is strange it that you found them rusted. Was the gear oil level low or was the car sitting for a long time? Either way, you got it fixed and you're back to driving.
 
jp5 , did the car tow a boat , some people back the rear end in the water to load the boat , could get water in the bearing through the brake side seals .
 
7.25 doesnt lube by diff lube. They are a sealed at the axle so the bearing lube is all done outside that seal. I bet it was a submerged bearing issue. Manual also states that iff diff gets submerged, you need to drain and refill due to possible water ingress via the vent.
 
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