2003 Trans. Clunking

[2003silvaradoltusa]

[quote=dgamage]Guys, I bought a new 2003 1500 silverado 4x4 ext cab in June of 2003. Had the "Clunk" from the beginning. Two dealers said it was "normal' according to GM specs. I fought with GM for 4 months to no avail. I filed a claim through their arbutrator the BBB. That was a Joke. I finally filed a Lemon Law claim through an attorney who specializes in Lemon Law claim and got a nice cash settlement form GM in about a month after getting the attorney. If anyone is interested you can email me and I'll be glad to share my experience and the name of the law firm. dgamage@heart.net[/QUOTE HELLO i TRIED TO EMAIL YOU AND iT BOUNCED BACK,iD LIKE MORE IMFORMATION ON THE LAW FRIM YOUR YOU USED THANKS STEVEN 2003SILVARADOLT@USA.COM

[who fan]

Do the drive shafts still have the carbonfibre sleeve. The older Chevs did my 98 shop truck had the sleeve until it cracked and wrapped up in pieces. We cut it off, since then the drive shaft clunks. this was used as a vibration damper/ silencer. Maybe the newer style truck no longer has this?

[noche]

The new 2500 do have the same problems. both the stuttering in cruise control going down hills and the noise between 1st and 2nd gears. The 1st dealership showed me a piece of paperwork that states that the noise should be considered as normal but to try these steps to see if it helps the problem. But the paper doesn't show the steps and he didn't know what they were. My truck has 1700 miles on it. I wish I had known of this before i bought it. Now what? Well off to another dealership to see what they say.

[mjgjr72]

had same problem on 2000 k1500, dealer did grease, yoke, did not fix

decided to try myself and noticed a lot of rear spring wrap and the driveshaft snaping up and down as axle hosing twisted so i installed some torsion springs i got from jcwhitney to the front of the rear springs and i havent heard that dam clunk since, have since put on a supercharger ,lift and 35's and replaced springs with a nice set of stainless torsion bars from rcd and there is no clunk and the rear end hook up awsum, no clunk no shudder no wheeel hope, just squits and goes,

[compteltech]

I have a 99' z71 it cluncks when puttingit into gear and going into or out of reverse. The dealer says its normal ? I asked a machanic at work who has about 40 company vechicles 1500 and 2500 2wd he works on. He says "they all do that, drive it till it breaks". I hope that does not come to soon 56k seems to soon for a major repair. Does any one know will this harm the trucks drive train? Should I $hell out some cash now to avoid big buck?

[Galaxi-99]

sniff, sniff, i'm going to look at a ford to day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Galaxi-99]

ok,, put some lader bars on the rear, Hmm why did'nt i think of that??
oh, lowering the line pressure , throught the computer ,will make it less pain full to put it in rev or drive .


Last winter it was snowing for about 3 months here in seattle ,and the wife drove it to work, I noticed as she was out in the street locking in the 4x4. I had her drive forward then stop and drive back, I noticed the left rear tire turned about 3/4 turn before it took up the lack in the rearend,Hmmm now what ,,,shim the spyder gears some more or what?

[Johndona]

Does same problem exist with similarly equipped GMC Sierra, i.e. 2500HD with 6.0 Vortec and towing package?

[mcr10]

Originally Posted by Johndona

Does same problem exist with similarly equipped GMC Sierra, i.e. 2500HD with 6.0 Vortec and towing package?

I have the 02, 2WD 2500HD with the tow pkg. and the two piece drive shaft. I never notice the slight clunk when towing my 6800 lb. travel trailer. But, I do have a slight clunk when coming off hwy run, stopping, then starting off again. Seems to only do it when hot. It is still under warranty, so may take it in and see what they say. Tech's on other groups say that grease will be temp. fix.

[Johndona]

Thanks for reply, MCR10. I've seen lots of posts complaining about the "clunk". Oddly enough, I took it out today and no clunk whatsoever. Shifts smooth as silk. Dealer had told me the electronics sense driving habits and possible that my letting it sit for 2 weeks caused it to "reset" and in the process the clunking occurred. Sounds like a line to me, but it's O.K. now. Guess I'll wait and see if it recurs.

[Sonny01]

Originally Posted by mjgjr72

had same problem on 2000 k1500, dealer did grease, yoke, did not fix

decided to try myself and noticed a lot of rear spring wrap and the driveshaft snaping up and down as axle hosing twisted so i installed some torsion springs i got from jcwhitney to the front of the rear springs and i havent heard that dam clunk since, have since put on a supercharger ,lift and 35's and replaced springs with a nice set of stainless torsion bars from rcd and there is no clunk and the rear end hook up awsum, no clunk no shudder no wheeel hope, just squits and goes,

I have a 2000 K1500 that I bought with 36k miles on it and it didn't clunk. Now it has 41k on it and it clunks all of the time....but...when I pull a goose neck horse trailer or carry any load in the bed it doesn't clunk. In fact it drives and rides soooo much better with weight in the back. I have heard about the springs twisting and will look into that. Also, mjgjr72 what supercharger did you go with? I'm thnking about buying one but I need some advice please.
Sonny

[mcr10]

Originally Posted by Sonny01

I have a 2000 K1500 that I bought with 36k miles on it and it didn't clunk. Now it has 41k on it and it clunks all of the time....but...when I pull a goose neck horse trailer or carry any load in the bed it doesn't clunk. In fact it drives and rides soooo much better with weight in the back. I have heard about the springs twisting and will look into that. Also, mjgjr72 what supercharger did you go with? I'm thnking about buying one but I need some advice please.
Sonny

Same here with mine. Rides much better with weight in the back or pulling my trailer with approx. 1000 lb. tongue wt. No clunk or lag at all which indicates that it is not the trans. I have read on other groups that the HD's have a much stiffer suspension which, when unloaded in the rear, places the bed higher and the u-joints /drive shafts at a steeper angle which cause them to clunk somewhat. Unusual though, that mine only does it only after driving for sometime and everything is warm. Also, read a lot of info that greasing the spline is a temp fix. So, it sounds like it could be several things on diff. models causing the clunk. I am going to check under there for loose bolts or worn mounts and see if that could be causing some of it.
MR

[2003silvaradoltusa]

Well I,m still here yes i still have this junk-clunk silvarado lt.I,ve gone to the knightridder news san franciso bay area, trying to get the freepress, to help,gone to the attorney generals office,gone to the portland oregon,spoke to a couple of attorneys her in portland,they say I have a case,I need others with the same problems to come forward.As a team we can kick there buts,One on one they win,what do you want to do let me Know thanks Steven owens email me at 2003silvaradolt@usa.com or call 1-503-880-3069

[mcr10]

Originally Posted by 2003silvaradoltusa

Well I,m still here yes i still have this junk-clunk silvarado lt.I,ve gone to the knightridder news san franciso bay area, trying to get the freepress, to help,gone to the attorney generals office,gone to the portland oregon,spoke to a couple of attorneys her in portland,they say I have a case,I need others with the same problems to come forward.As a team we can kick there buts,One on one they win,what do you want to do let me Know thanks Steven owens email me at 2003silvaradolt@usa.com or call 1-503-880-3069

I would guess your clunk is much worse than mine, hence I don't think I need to pursue legal action. That is not to say that mine will not get worse, but it did get better.......read on. I am looking at this problem from an engineering point of view; i.e. u-joint & cv-joint alignment/ misalignment, torque constraints etc. Below is a post I made the other day on alt.trucks.chevy. Check out the bolt tightening I did that relieved some of the clunk and see what you think about inserting some temp. spacers(wood or otherwise) in the space between the bottom springs and the next spring up. It is near impossible to put enough clamping force on the rear axle housing with the u-bolts to keep the axle and rear from rotating under certain acceleration conditions due to the bottom springs having a space between them and the upper springs. This is the only connection of axle housing to frame and why they left a space between the springs is a mystery to me; unless it was for a softer ride and still have the load capacity. It is not a sound design IMHO. If you take any of the steps below, be sure and let us know of your results and I will do the same.
TIA,
MR
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Post from alt.trucks.chevy
I happen to notice when I am towing my 30ft. RV, I don't have any
clunk at all in the rear end. I do have a little hesitation or
wrap-up and clunk or catch when not towing starting off from a stop.
My hitch weight is around 1k lbs. when towing and the truck is level
with the weight dist. hitch. So, I started looking at the spring and
axle configuration and saw that the bottom leaf at both ends only,
where the pads are, has about 1/2"- to 3/4" space between it and the
next leaf up when unloaded and not towing. When hitched up for towing
there is no space between the springs at all. I noticed that there is
no torque arms on the rear axle which mean that all the torque is
taken up in the springs at each end where they attach to the frame.
With the rear not loaded I put a wrench on the u-bolts that clamp the
springs to axle and was able to put approx. 3/4- to one turn on most
of the bolts. On a recent trip of 900 mile or so, I noticed that when
not towing most of the clunk/wrap-up is gone except when accelerating
rapidly. I plan to load the rear up with my trailer again and see if
I can take up on the bolts any more without over torquing them. I
would guess though, that it would be better to not have the space at
the ends of the bottom spring which would not rely on the u-bolts to
keep the axle housing from rotating. This I suspect is what lets the
u-joints get over misaligned so that they are out of spec on the max.
misalignment angles and causing a clunk or snap. I may cut some
blocks of wood to fill the spaces on the springs and see if that
completely eliminates the problem. I would like to hear if anyone
else has tried this.
TIA
MR

[mcr10]

Originally Posted by compteltech

I have a 99' z71 it cluncks when puttingit into gear and going into or out of reverse. The dealer says its normal ? I asked a machanic at work who has about 40 company vechicles 1500 and 2500 2wd he works on. He says "they all do that, drive it till it breaks". I hope that does not come to soon 56k seems to soon for a major repair. Does any one know will this harm the trucks drive train? Should I $hell out some cash now to avoid big buck?

Darn. I should have read your post and that would have confirmed my thoughts about the rear end wrapping up and making the u-joints get over-axis and cause the clunking. The web site even has a diagram showing the results of wrap-up. Thanks a bunch. Looks like the RCD Trac-Link would be the answer without spending a bundle.
MR