On my sons EA81 wagon the transmission just began clunking. It's not a grinding, but an actual clunking when driving in normal 2WD. It's especially prominent just after shifting gears or corning, but it really does it all the time in 2WD. If we pop it into 4WD the clunking goes away and all appears well.

 

Whats going on? 4WD not fully disengaging? This car is lifted 4" and nothing was really done to modify the 4WD lever or linkage.

Sounds like one of your front axle nuts are loose.

Nope, but ironically the inner CV boot was ripped on this side. I thought thats what the noise was and replace the whole CV shaft. All nuts torqued to spec and still the noise remains.

Probably the driveshaft. When it's in 2wd the driveshaft is freewheeling, when you pop it in 4wd it's being driven. So it's putting different force on the joints. It will stop the clunking.

 

When mine went, that was the exact symptoms I had.

987687........did you just change the u-joints or the whole drive shaft?

I concur - sounds like bad u-joints in the driveline. They will often go silent when in 4WD but will clunk around quite a bit when in 2WD.

 

Just change the u-joint. They are about $25.

 

GD

I changed the driveshaft because I traded one with bratman for a computer. Or something... but I was ready to replace them. You have a single piece, so you only need two joints.

Thanks all. I'll grab 2 new u-joints and pop them in.

Thanks all. I'll grab 2 new u-joints and pop them in.

 

Read up on it... they don't exactly just pop in.

Read up on it... they don't exactly just pop in.

 

Can't be that bad, they just press out of the yokes like all the older car u-joints, right?

Nope, the old Subies use staked caps not snap ring caps.

So how do they differ than the snap ring retainers?