Preventative Maintenance questions

[<3Safari's]

Hello
This is my first post, so greetings to all

I bought an '86 Safari from my friend, $350 (cnd)
It came with brand new blizzacks too

Ive hade it for a year and a half so far, and im starting to love the thing.
Its getting old with 240,000 km on it.
Its been through a theft in witch they crashed it around 180k.
Ins fixed the trans, rad, ingnition, a few suspention parts.

Like i said, I love the van. Best vehical around as far as im concerned.
And I would like to keep it around for as long as i can.
I have done three oil chages, a trans flush, new brake pad/rotors, water pump, and regular car washes .

So after all that my question is...

What are some things I can do to keep the van around for as long as posible?

One problem that is starting to arise is, when merging onto a highway from slow or stoped position, there is a harsh clanck or shutter from the rear end noticable when the vehical is changing from 1st to 2nd???

Also when the vehical is engaging reverse or drive it seems to 'clunck' or push the vehical when put into gear from park or nutral.

my "friend" says this is a tell tail sign of u joint in the drive shaft.
So i changed those, with no success.

As I said before, I got the van for 350
And I think its worth putting a few grand into

Thnx ahead for you time

Jordan

[jsanders]

when the van clunks or push the vehicle, that means you're idle speed is too high I believe. wait til someone posts back to confirm. i got a propane 88 astro and that was the problem

[Blue Bowtie]

It could also be increasing pinion gear lash in the rear axle. The crush sleeve can shorten after repeated poundings, teh differential side and spider gears can wear, and/or the ring gear carrier support bearings can wear and allow lash to increase. If you raise the rear of the vehicle and support it securely, set the parking brake, place the trans in neutral, you can turn the driveshaft by hand and measure the amount of rotation in the driveshaft to determine is the axle (gearset) is getting loose.

[<3Safari's]

Thnx for the reply's

Originally Posted by Blue Bowtie

It could also be increasing pinion gear lash in the rear axle. The crush sleeve can shorten after repeated poundings, teh differential side and spider gears can wear, and/or the ring gear carrier support bearings can wear and allow lash to increase. If you raise the rear of the vehicle and support it securely, set the parking brake, place the trans in neutral, you can turn the driveshaft by hand and measure the amount of rotation in the driveshaft to determine is the axle (gearset) is getting loose.

The sound is defininetly comming from the rear-end.
so the differential is suspect for sure.

Is it possible to by parts from a parts store and fix it my self, or would it be better for me to go out and find a decent diff from the wrecker's?

Thnx for the help, im off to the garage to inspect my diff for any loose linkage in the driveshaft.
Ill post back with a little info on that.