I think Red Alert's rear end just failed...

[meissen]

Was driving to work, got on it while entering the freeway, got up to about 80mph, felt a vibration. Started to slow down to see if the vibration would change the noise, when BANG and the whole car was shaking/vibrating/grinding. It was while I was in a bend on the freeway, just south of Hall Rd/M-59 for you north eastside folks. Reason I say that is because one guy on FB said that his posi went out a couple times and he was OK in a straight line, since this happened in a bend I don't know if that's a clue or not.

When the tow truck driver got me off the flatbed, I had to back up off of the boards and it wasn't making any noises - felt like everything was OK. I guess the only way to really test what's going on is to pull it out of the garage and drive it around the little circle of my subdivision and see if I can tell a little bit better where it's coming from. That or open up the pumpkin obviously.

Any thoughts/ideas on other areas to look? I'm thinking it's the rear end because I had the bad u-joint in the steel driveshaft and I'm thinking that probably put a lot of strain/stress on the pinion. Visually, everything looks OK under the car - I looked while it was on the flatbed and couldn't see anything wrong.

[sman]

Pop the cover, could be a brake issue as well, I had a parking break blow up going down the road once that actually locked up a tire. Now that was fun.

Only thing that makes me think it would be neither of those is the fact that you said it was a vibration. Very curious. Keep us posted!

[mikewoods]

Sorry to hear Brian!

Unfortunately- its tough to diagnose via inter-webs, but if there was vibration and grinding, its a safe bet that it was something rear end/trans related. Did you notice any fluid on the ground under the car at all?

[c0ncEpT]

Trans is broken. See if it has all forward gears.

[meissen]

I'll take another look when I get home if I can even pull forward, when the bang happened and then the shaking of the car my RPMs didn't change like the trans let loose. I was going about 75mph when it happened so it's not like I really needed to give it gas to move forward as I got off onto the shoulder...

My dad also thought maybe the flexplate busted - we've known it's been cracked for awhile because the flexplate has a wobble to it. I didn't think that would cause the whole car to shake/vibrate or make a grinding noise.

[ruckusz28]

Probably a u joint. I had one fail in my old blazer. Was going about 50 down the road then "pop" "bang" "grind".

[meissen]

I guess it could be u-joint too... that'd be the best/cheapest case scenario. My dad was saying that when ujoints usually fail that they'll squeal though?

[Nocooler]

Lots of possibilities Brian. Start with the simple stuff. You've been messing with the drive shaft lately - start there. If the flywheel broke - the car would make a ton of noise trying to start it.

Trans check the fluid - same with the rear pop the cover.

[ThreeHonks]

trans is busted

[JoeliusZ28]

Sounds like what my car did when i spit a ujoint cap out at high speed.

[meissen]

Sounds like what my car did when i spit a ujoint cap out at high speed.

When your ujoint failed, was it squealing at all or just grinding/vibrating noise? My dad thought if it was ujoint it would squeal. It felt exactly like the vibration I had when the u-joint was bad, just magnified a lot worse. Like driving over the rumble strip on the shoulder.

[zeeman]

Nothing a couple of neutral slams cant help diagnose.

[Blue04ss]

Hope it's just a ujoint Brian. Good luck man!

[ruckusz28]

When mine went out, it had a little more vibration than normal for a couple days. I never noticed it because it occurred so gradually. My dad called it out one day when he got in the car.

Less than 48 hours later it did the same thing you described B. No squeels, just a loud THUNK one day when driving down the road at speed.

[meissen]

well I hope it's a ujoint and not something internal to the trans or rear!