Gearbox/drive shaft clunk Options

[Euphoria]

Hey, I've had a fair few clunks that have come and gone since I've owned this car but I've had this clunk for a long while and it is getting extremely frustrating, everytime you lift off in a low gear, put your foot down or just make the car misfire the whole front end has a very loud clunk noise, almost like something under there isn't tight, like a loose engine mount, only everything is and I've literally checked every suspension/cross member and engine mount bolt.

both bearings have been done recently and are problem free, struts and springs were done a couple years back and all bushings seem to be fine.

I can see it possibly being the driveshafts as they have never been changed, only the boots have been changed but they are showing no signs of play or noise when the wheel is moved whilst jacked up, this is also making it not seem like gearbox.

I have noticed when the car is jacked up I can move the driver side spring and it makes a clunk type noise, where as the other side doesnt and either does any other car I've looked at.

How loud can a bad strut mount clunk? also is there any other ways to determine what is wrong?

Thanks.

[Euphoria]

Yeah looks like its the transmission, jacked it up and made my dad drive and almost certain its coming from there and not the driveshafts, defs think its the same as what you have chinaman, will see when I take the driveshaft out.

[chinamandrift]

Yeah looks like its the transmission, jacked it up and made my dad drive and almost certain its coming from there and not the driveshafts, defs think its the same as what you have chinaman, will see when I take the driveshaft out.

you can check by

jacking the car up

putting jack stand on for safety reasons

take the wheel off ...then take the mud guard off

grab the center of the cv shaft and pull up and down on it and side to side ( not in and out)

it should barely move talking like less then 1mm of movement ( i can look up specs later for you)

we are checking the movement of the inner cv shaft going into the transmission

you can also put the car in gear any gear then rotate it clock wise and counter clock wise

there is free play before the gears actually move the axles( the part where it moves with the least resistance)

there should be very minimal freeplay ...talking like less than 1mm again (i can find specs later)

my car lol the inner cv moved like it was a hot dog in a hallway

and i had too much freeplay clockwise and counter clock wise

basically the clunking is everytime you put a load on the axle (accel decel)

the tranny gears move first ...then its over comes the freeplay ..and metal slams into metal

basically beating it self to death

This post has been edited by chinamandrift: Aug 19, 2010 - 10:04 PM