Rear End Noise -- Update?

  • Thread starter Thread starter drkknight196
  • Start date Start date
ok guys, brougth my car dowm to the dealer and told them to find the noise, this the third time there for the same thing. they called two days later and said it was the trac bar coming form off the axle. replaced it and the noise remained. i threw out the idea of body bushings so they checked. said everything was tight, so they lubricated them. called today and said that is definitely the problem, i get the car back thursday and will give the final result, hopefully they solved it. will keep ya posted.
 
OK, problem resolved! As you might remember, I've had almost the entire rear end replaced, to include the shocks and shock bushings without success. Then I mentioned what BlueMarauder had done with good results, and wahlah!! The simple and final fix is to have the right rear body bushing repositioned and lubed (if necessary). Job takes about 10 minutes!!
 
drknight: do you mean the bushing that mounts the body to the frame? Is it all the way back by the bumper? Holy moley!

thanks for posting that.

mike
 
I do not know for sure, as I just dropped off the car. But you can call my dealership (229 242-7930) and ask "Sonny," the service rep. Tell him Mr. Berger gave you his name.
 
Got my car back today and so far the bodymount bushings seem to have been the problem, haven't heard the noise yet, will keep posted
 
Got an update on this myself.

I was at the dealer this morning (for ticking and other reasons), and the technician went through most if not all of the body bushings, and had a close look at shock mounts. He checked tightness on several rear end components, and had to significantly tighten the bolt on the passenger's side of the frame where the "watts linkage" (forgive me if I butcher this, I forgot what it's called) is fixed to the frame. In case I got the name wrong, it's that lever'ed contraption that helps locate the diff in its proper place.

I haven't had a chance to attack the same lot entrances at the same speeds that once generated this popping sound from back there, but I will say this: the car is SIGNIFICANTLY quieter on the roads. I was getting used to the noisy back end on rough roads (umm, that would be ALL the roads here!) but now it just seems so TIGHT and quiet, it's like driving another car.

Funny that I had gotten used to this sort of noisy bump reaction from a stiffly-sprung RWD large car and come to expect it, especially after having installed some stiff KYB gas shocks on the '85 Parisienne with an already stiff suspension to begin with. All of a sudden, I now have this large RWD car with great handling but a very quiet rear axle!!!

So, thus far: creaking from the front solved by tightening MANY front suspension components. And now popping/clunking from rear solved (I think) by tightening linkage bolts. Sounds like my car should have come with all those rubber bands holding it together like y'all have been finding lately....
 
TTA -
Yep, my service techs found most of the underside fasteners in need of serious tightening ............ would not like to believe Ford has such poor QA .................
 
Drkknight, Tripletransam and others,
Is it possible to think that these `tightening' problems are 300A related or not? Just a thought. Interested in hearing if any other cars have this problem and whether or not they are 300A or 300B models. We do know that Ford has made running changes. We would also hope that they learned as they built our cars.
Our 300B doesn't seem to have any looseness, but then it only has about 550 miles on it.

Gordon B.
 
Mine is a Canadian 300A here, which is pretty much the equivalent of the US 300B.

The more I drive the car, the more I think it's simply fantastic. This last improvement from tightening up the rear linkage really changed my car... I'm amazed how much extra noise was going on back there, that I was not paying attention to.
 
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Interesting news TTA.
Was the rear end linkages tightened under load or with the wheels/axle just hanging ??
 
WolfeBros said:
Was the rear end linkages tightened under load or with the wheels/axle just hanging ??
Click to expand...

Under load.

The tech checked pretty much all body bushings and said things were tight. Same with several other items (shocks, shock bushings, etc.). But once he came to the watt's linkage mounts, he found one that required a significant amount of tightening.

It was the mount on the passenger's side. The bracket onto which it bolts is the same bracket that is welded to the frame that will probably show signs of interference with the bump stops. I asked about the possibility of the stop rubbing along the frame and 'snapping' over the protruding edge of the bracket, but the tech seemed to feel that the flexible stop would just "give" quietly instead of snapping hard.

Based on drkknight's feedback, I'm almost inclined to have the dealer go over as many of the bolts/fasteners with a torque wrench just to check for more surprises, when I drop it off for the resolution to the ticking problem. This might just become part of my future pre-delivery criteria, too...
 
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