kisk

1995 Camaro v6 3.4L


I've been trying to find the cause of the humming/howling noice coming from my rear end. I initially thought it was a wheel bearing so I changed it out and it wasn't.

I just dropped my driveshaft and one of the ujoints has a LOT of friction in the directions shown in the pic below. The ujoint on the tranny side moves freely like I would expect, but the ujoint on the differential side has quite a bit of snag -- by hand you can barely turn it in the direction shown below.

Would this cause a humming/howling sound from the rear end?

Thanks,
kisk

95camaroinok

yes, and from the shadow it looks like your still running the 2 piece DS that it came with... Do yourself a HUGE favor and just swap it for a one piece while you've got it out. Just about any one piece F-body DS from 83-02 will swap right in. Measure yours and hit the salvage yards. Im running one from an 89 Firebird in my 95, 1000X better than that 2 piece. Plus you dont have to worry bout the center bearing exploding on you and leavin you sittin.

kisk

yes it is the stock 2-section DS. You say your 1-piece is 1000x better -- why is that? And the measurement part -- from where to where do I measure -- obviously, start at the end of the tranny side spines; do I measure to the end before or after the ujoint? I'm guessing before the ujoint.

Just an added note to help narrow down my humming/howling noise problem:
When the car is driven on-road, the sounds are there. When the rear is jacked up and rear tires are spinning in 5th gear there is NO humming/howling.

PS. I'm an automotive amateur so bare with me here

95camaroinok

The one piece will last a million times longer than the 2. The center section on the 2 piece eventually just lets go and leaves you either with no driveshaft or binds up and tears things up underneath the car. The center section on the 2 piece is not servicable. 1 piece is stronger, much stronger. It will also remove some vibration from your floorboard since it bolts to the torque arm and usually one side breaks and it wedges itself between your floor and the t-arm. Trust me, if you already have it out call the salvage yards and find a one piece, it will save you a headache, it also gives a better torque transfer to the rear.

Many places will tell you different ways to measure. Some places say center to center where the u joints go, some say end to center. Neither should include the u-joints or the yoke. Your yoke WILL work on another f-body DS if you need to reuse it. I used the one from the 89 'bird just as it was, exact fit, same splines, same u-joints as yours. From what I have researched, 83 to 02 is an exact fit, steel or aluminum. Steel will run you a lot less, thats all preference and how much you want to spend. Its been a few months since I changed mine, but I think it came out to 43 inches, from end to center or center to center. Just call around and see how they want you to measure it, take your old DS with ya and check. If I remember right, you should be good 1/2 inch either way of your original DS length. Some people will tell you more is ok, some say exact only. It has to be able to slide a little with suspension movement without bottoming out in the trans or coming too far out and putting wear on your tailshaft seal/bearings.

Shouldnt be too big of deal to find one. As far as your noise, its could be either the axle or the u-joints/DS without a load on either one theres not much other way to tell with out changing parts or inspecting farther. You already said that U-joint was very stiff, so I would just do the DS with new u-joints and go from there. Like I said the new u-joints are the same for both DS and 83-02 for the most part, so you will be out the $ for the DS itself if it doesnt solve your noise problem. I picked mine up for $35, so its not like its a huge investment, and it still saves you the headache later.

Do some searches in the drivetrain forum on here for more info on your rearend gears. Look in your glovebox and there will be a code on the RPO sticker that will tell you what gears you have. Should be like GU2, GU3, GU4,GU5 etc, it will be a GU* code. Also do a search for GM RPO codes and you will be able to look up all the rest of those codes and find out a few things about your car. Research is your friend when your trying to get into cars/learning how to work on them. If you have problems with codes, send them to me and I can look them up I have lists of pretty much every GM RPO code saved on my computer. If you need any more help just post it up and we'll see if we can help you. Hope this clears some things up for ya.