96 GT Rearend

[scotts96gt]

I have a 96 GT and recently i have developed a rattle in the rear end.. You can only hear it when taking off in first gear, or while accelerating in the other 4 gears. The sound does not seem to get worse with greater speed or acceleration. At steady speeds everything sounds normal. I dont feel any slippage running it up through the gears. Any ideas?

[OldSVTGuy]

Check your sway bar attachments or possibly your upper/lower control arms. Something's loose, most likely.

[scotts96gt]

Originally Posted by OldSVTGuy

Check your sway bar attachments or possibly your upper/lower control arms. Something's loose, most likely.

Checked all that and everything seems to be okay. there is a large U shaped bracket that wraps underneath the front side of the diff, near the driveshaft / u-joint. Seems to have rubber bushings and has a lot of play in it. not sure what its for because it really doesn't seem to be holding anything. i tried duplicating the sound with it up and jack stands and didn't hear anything.

[1955657belair]

check to see if your rear sway bar is broken. grab ahold of it where it bolts to and pull down. my 96 gt mustang had the same symptoms as yours and it turned out to be a broken sway bar. the two pieces of sway bar were hitting each other making a sound like the rear gears were chewed up.

[scotts96gt]

Well i slid under the car again today and wasnt really able to come up with too much else.. I think i may have found the source of the sound though.. My exhaust over the last 5 years must have just shifted on the drivers side and is now rubbing on the upper control arm. i can bounce the car up and down and hear it scraping. it does not sound anything like what im hearing while driving but under WOT and moving is a totally different story... But while i was under there i noticed a small leak coming from this small rubber hose right in front of the passenger side rear wheel. it appears to attach to the back of the dust cover for the rotor. any ideas what that is for? its not the brake line but is leaking a clear fluid (probably dot 3). it looks like it has been rubbing a bit on the underbody. Looks like next spring i will be giving everything a good looking at.