Clank in differential and play from driveshaft

[steviebsf]

Hi Good Spider People,
82 driveshaft, diff, tran & engine in 78, running & driving well for a year+

Q: My rear end makes a loud clank occasionally when first starting out or changing directions. Under the car I discovered there is roughly 1/8 to 1/4 turn of play between the drive shaft & diff. U joints good, bolts tight, seems like its in the diff and i have zero knowledge.

Thoughts, comments, fixes?

many thanks,
stephen

[narfire]

Yeup...same issue in a 80 diff I had. Take the rear plate off the diff. Now I really don't know what the gear is, perhaps crown gear, but it is held in place with a pin. This pin became loose/sloppy by about a mm or so giving me the bit of a clunk and seemingly too much slack in the shaft movement.
I had another rear end kicking about so swapped it but I did read somewhere someone did a temp fix by "peening" the top of that pin to take up the slop. Now whether this is correct, I really don't know but hope someone here would chime in that has a better mechanical background.

[vandor]

Sounds like the rear end gears have worn and gone out of adjustment. Adjustment is beyond the scope of a home mechanic, you'd have to take it to a rear end or driveline shop and have them check it out.
As stated above, the pin holding the planetary gears may be loose, but I don't think that hurts anything.