Driveshaft clunking noise

99HOE · Jun 28, 2007

Need advice on how to cure this problem. When you take off from a dead stop, there's a rather loud clunking noise coming from the area of the driveshaft/rearend. My mechanics fix was originally to fill the yoke with grease. This worked for about a month and then the problem came back.

After checking with several other sources (including techs at the Chev. dealership), the only thing anybody could suggest was, as funny as it sounds, to place a quarter-sized superball in there to fill the slack. This hasn't worked at all.

It's really strange that even the Chev. dealership can't figure it out.

Any suggestions or ideas?

Zishan · Jun 28, 2007

I just picked up a Tahoe and I'm having the same problem. Is it a soft clunk/thump sound when accelerating from zero. I thought it was the transmission. :confused2:

The same sound was coming from my other car, but that was a loose bowling ball......ez fix, remove bowling ball from trunk. :lol:

mightymouse · Jul 13, 2007

If the U-joints seem tight, the ring and pinion gears could be worn causing this noise.

Hope this helps.

mysshoe · Aug 5, 2007

easy fix!!!

Well i've got good news and bad news. The good news is if you change the slip yoke for an upgraded zinc coated one from gm the noise WILL go away, the bad news is if you let it go for long enough, it will cause noise from the transfer case, like mine unfortunately. What it is, is the stock slip yoke wear down prematurely causeing excess play, the zinc coated one takes up the slack and won't wear down cause of the zinc coating. I've seen a bunch of these when i was working in a chevy garage. I hope i could be of some help.

Rinnybob · Aug 8, 2007

Clunking noise

I have owned my 1999 (rebadged 98') since Jan, 08' and have dealt with the dealer on this noice since day one. In an attemtpt to correct the clunking noice they front loaded the drive shaft with an added spring load. This seemed to correct the problem for quite a while, but it is back and I just live with the noise on take off. It certainly seems that it has to do with the drive shaft area and the change in yoke that was suggested sounds like a good approach to try.

jetfxr27 · Sep 1, 2007

I am jogging the bowels of my mind here, so bare with me.

If I rememeber right, me and a friend troubleshot this very same issue ten years ago , on his Suburban. He was very anal about his stuff , so we worked for about 6 months off and on, trying to get it to go away. We finally talked to a guy that was very aware of the Klunk. He said GM actually has a fix for it. The fix is "no lie" anti-klunk grease.

We called GM and sure nuff. Part number 12345 , or something insanely easy like that , was "anti-klunk grease. We went and picked it up. It said right on the can anti-klunk grease.

It called to be applied between the transmission tail shaft and drive shaft. Around the splined shaft When we pulled the shaft out a big plug of silicone fell out. Obviously a temporary fix from a previous owner.

So give it a shot. Like I say the Part number is 12345 or 01234 or 1234. Something along those lines.

00'hoe · Oct 19, 2007

I have a 2000 tahoe (older body style) z71, and the very same problem happened to me, i went to my GM dealer in charlotte, and they actually said that they had recalled my drive shaft yolk,and the previous owner didnt replace it when they had offered the new part for free.

In the end i had to pay for the part, but it was good to know that it was a bad part in the begining and it wasnt something that i broke.

hopefully that helps

kennyvvvv · Oct 19, 2007

slip yoke

If everything else is fine. it s the slip yoke. coloradok5 has in depth solution on this very topic. gm has a grease solution. and the newer models have a new slip yok e recall.

marinekilz · Oct 20, 2007

if it was a recall you shouldn't of had to pay for it, I wouldn't go to that dealer again, but atleast the problem is fixed

00'hoe · Oct 20, 2007

yea
but it was recalled in 2001, and i didnt get it fixed untill around 5 months ago, so they said that i had to pay for it

The previous owner just got lazy i guess

Black96 · Oct 23, 2007

i have also had this problem too with my 96, i just had to replace the yoke, cause the freeze plug was starting to leak and now that it is relpaced, it has stoped making the noise

Jason_Ridgeway · Oct 23, 2007

Mine is doing the same thing,I thought my rear end had slack,I will be replacing my yoke too!Thanks guys

Black96 · Oct 23, 2007

just to warn you replacing it is a little costly, but then again im workin on college funds lol, but yes the noise has gone away

00'hoe · Oct 24, 2007

yea
i let mine do that for a good 4 or five months and my transfer case basically self destructed
haha
and i had to replace that too

Black96 · Oct 24, 2007

Yeah thats not good

bigrick2179 · Oct 24, 2007

read post on automotiveforum.com u can have the rear end lube switched out for posi lube and normally takes care of problem

Raist103 · Nov 3, 2007

good info i guess i am going to look up a yoke tomorrow

JKmotorsports · Nov 3, 2007

Here's a part number you guys can check out: 12477702. A nickel plated slip yoke was manufactured to take care of the clunking noise due to the original yoke sticking. GM finally figured out that the yoke would stick/unstick and that's what made the clunking sound when accelerating and/or braking. The nickel plating doesn't stick. That's why packing the yoke with heavy grease like wheel bearing grease helps, but only temporarily. Hope this helps some of you.

96ProCompTahoe · Nov 3, 2007

so is the replacement zinc or nickel coated? or is there two different ones? if so which one is better? i believe i'm having the same problem, (that or the rear end or transfer case are making noise) and since it was just lifted, better to be safe than sorry anyway.

JKmotorsports · Nov 3, 2007

96ProCompTahoe said:
so is the replacement zinc or nickel coated? or is there two different ones? if so which one is better? i believe i'm having the same problem, (that or the rear end or transfer case are making noise) and since it was just lifted, better to be safe than sorry anyway.

The only one I know of is nickel plated. Haven't heard of a zinc plated replacement yoke.

Driveshaft clunking noise

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