I let a prospective buyer drive my car and he thought that my rear bearings were making noise and going out. The car is a 93 auto with 323 gears. its hard to say when the noise first started but i first noticed when i changed the shaft to a 1LE. The old shaft was warped pretty bad and after i busted the first tranny mount and replaced it the vibrating got alot worse. So i then Got the 1le shaft ($124 ebay). It also happened to be polished, god only knows why. But as soon as i got it in i hear this whooshing sound. I'm not sure it this sound is my Shaft, Gears or my axle bearings. I never noticed till i got my shaft in because the old one was so bad and would vibrate till about 40mph. My bro in law has experice with race cars and is an auto engineer and he thought it sounded like loud gears. And this guy that drove my car said it sounds like the bearings back there are on the way out. I need to know if there is a way to check if it is really my bearing. I'v been driving with this noise for a while and it has not gotten any worse. I'm thinking i could jack the rear end up and give the wheels a turn and listen. Let me know what you guys think. The noise kind of sounds like a marble being spun around in a tin can.

 

since the 7.625" 10 bolt is a semi floating axle, the testing can be relatively simple. most rear bearing noises can be heard when turning at lower speeds. it'd be best doing about 10mph in a school parking lot with the steering wheel cranked all the way around. object is to put as much side load on the bearing as possible. going faster eliminates some side load since the wheels are spinning faster. and the turns wont be as sharp to the pavement. this is when most rear bearings will be noticeable. only extremely worn bearings would make noises going straight. for ring and pinion noise, the sounds will usually come and go with speed, acceleration, and deceleration. most commonly, a ring gear noise will occur at lets say 45-50 mph on acceleration and then go away when you let off the gas. those are usually a higher pitched howling noise. bad or improperly installed U-joints can also make noise. u-joint noises also vary in speed and such. i would do those tests and gather more info. doesn't sound like bad bearings to me. those are'nt usualy things to go bad right away. the symptoms don't sound like rear bearings to me either. do some basic tests and let us know

 

hey bro thanks for the tips. i did what you said with the tight u turns. i didn't hear any noise at all while doing so. I can hear the noise on the freeway while cruising but when i let off the gas it goes away. I can hear it speeds up to 45 or so whether i'm accelerating or not. What i really wanted to know was could this be my 1le driveshaft. I'v heard they are not as smooth as the ls1 shafts and i was wondering if anyone else has one of these and is it loud? And if it really is just loud gears do i need to be worried? As far as i knon i have the stock 3.23. My car shifts at 40 and 70 unser full throttle. The noise is not really high pitched but could be described as a rocking chair on a wood floor. A mechanic friend said i needed so pull the plug on my differential and smell the fluid, and if it smells burnt then my rear end is no good. Is this true?