'84 Clunking Noise During Hard Acceleration

[DannyC4]

Alright, everything started pretty much when I took my car to the dragstrip for the first time, that noise is coming from the rear left tire, everytime I step on the gas hard, and it goes away when I take my foot off the pedal, and sometimes it does it too when you kick the tire, you can hear like if something is loose or even broken. What could it be? how expensive is that part(s)? And how easy would it be for a do-it-yourselfer with not a lot of experience to acomplish that job?
Thanks a lot everybody, and dont forget to wave

[thlew61]

on my 84, it was the U-joints in the half shaft. If this is your problem, a new shaft with ujoints is around $130 from Corvette Central. Hope this helps. (also check wheel bearings)

[mga]

first question: you bring your vette to a drag strip to play around, then you question how much will it cost? the old saying "play....you pay" comes to mind.

jack up the rear, and grab the wheel at 12:00 and at 6:00 and try rocking it in and out. if you have movement it's either the wheel bearing or play in the differential, or even a bad u-joint.

lay under the car and look for excessive play in any of the 3 places.

if it's a u-joint....having someone do the work....maybe $100- $200

if it's in the differential.....figure close to $1000

if it's a wheel bearing....same as above

[DannyC4]

so, how much would it be if it is the wheel bearing?

[DannyC4]

Alright, I got it!!! It was a bad U-joint, it was pretty pretty pretty bad, really bad shape, I cant believe I was driving it for so long like that, I replaced both of the U-joints in the left half shaft, and since I bought the wheel bearing, I put it in too, might as well, just to make sure, Im saving the old one to have a spare one. The clunking noise is gone, thanks everybody for your help!

[packen]

Originally Posted by DannyC4

Alright, I got it!!! It was a bad U-joint, it was pretty pretty pretty bad, really bad shape, I cant believe I was driving it for so long like that, I replaced both of the U-joints in the left half shaft, and since I bought the wheel bearing, I put it in too, might as well, just to make sure, Im saving the old one to have a spare one. The clunking noise is gone, thanks everybody for your help!

Did you change to u-joints yourself? How hard was it. I have an 84 and I think I need to replace one or more of my u-joints but I'm not sure if I am up to it or not. When I put it in gear it clunks pretty bad. Also has a squeeking when driving.

[DannyC4]

Yup, lol, sounds like bad U-joints. I didnt do it myself, I had a mechanic come over to my house and do it for me. It looked kind of time consuming, not hard, he charged me $25 bucks per U-joint (labor), each U-joint was around $15 at autozone, and I also replaced the wheel bearing, since I had bought it just in case that was the problem but it wasnt. I saved the old one as a spare. When the guy took the halfshaft U-joints out, they were pretty beat up, one was pretty much "all F*ed up", LOL, I cant believe I was still driving and doing burn outs like that, crazy, huh? Ohh well, Good luck man, let us know how that goes.