Clutch/Transmission Clunk? '03 3.4L v6 Manual

*Update on post 15*

Had an interesting problem today. Not .25miles away from work on my way home I started getting some random clunk & ping. Seems to happen when slowing to a stop. But hard to pinpoint what causes it.

Can feel it in the pedals, and it feels like it slows the truck sort of jolty each time the clunk hits. Doesn't happen at constant velocity, but a little bit on acceleration and more on deceleration. Hard to say it's so random if it's when it's in gear or not.

Have been hearing a rotational growl when depressing clutch for a little bit now, so I'm thinking it's related to the clutch?

Another fact to note, the ebrake light has been on, and before I pulled over to call a tow it almost sounded like the abs was buzzing?? The light is usually on because the pull lever doesn't go all the way back in. But I WD40d the spring under driver seat, so it now retracts fully, but light is still on.

Brake fluid just below low mark. Oil level fine, I changed it 1 week ago. I replaced timing belt/h20 pump 14k ago at 200k.

Checked suspension components, everything seems tight, no sway bar. Will remove all the skids tomorrow am to get a better look under everything.

One more note, which doesn't seem related, but happened today, is the coolant leaked quite a bit from both ends of the return hose that attaches to the bottom of the radiator. Took a lyft to oreillys & back then drained the rad by the petcock, replaced the hose & filled 'er back up with coolant.

Thanks for reading all that- can anyone chime in on similar experience or suggestions? I'm off all weekend to try and get it all fixed up.

 

Clunk: Check for a dry-ish slip yoke...? Greasing mine resolved my "clunk" issue.

 

Clunks can be tricky !!

Could be quite a few things get under there and look.

Missing or dry rotted bushings any place front to back.

Engine mounts or Transmission mount broken or loose.

Drive shaft CV Axles u joints slip joints

CV axle boots in good shape not torn and exposed to all the road dirt and water and grease washed out

 

After you get a peek at it with the skid plates off, let us know what you find or see or are thinking

 

Thanks for the responses all! I'm about to start tearing into it and seeing what's up.

My transmission mount looks just like this one here, I'm thinking this may be the source! He begins the fix at 13:11 for those interested.

 

Took the skids off & looked at what everyone suggested, thanks for the direction.

CVs are fine, slip yoke looks dry, transmission mount has some play in it, driveshaft could use some grease throughout. Rack and pinion have a bit of grease on the boots.

Here's what I picked up today to do Sunday (hoping this takes care of it!):

Grease & gun for all driveshaft zerks

New transmission mount

2qts 75-90 gear oil for transmission drain/refill

3qts 75-90 gear oil for rear diff drain/refill


Dry Slip Yoke:

Transmission Mount:

Rack and Pinion:

Slave Cylinder:

Can anyone confirm if this greased up part on the right is a problem for me? I'm just thinking it has years of oil filter change spillage and recent coolant leak all over it..

 

That sounds like a plan. Make sure to hit all of the zerks when get to the grease gun. I wanna say there are 9 zerks between front and rear? There is a thread here that shows all of them.

 

thank you for the video link

 

It sounds like a U-joint.

Does the noise with the clutch depressed happen when moving in neutral, moving in gear, stationary in gear or stationary in neutral?

Does the brake light come on after/during cornering? If so, you are low on brake fluid, if not, you need to adjust the cable under the driver's seat to remove any slack.

Sounds like a bad hose and or connection. Did you clean any corrosion off of the Al fitting before inserting into the new hose?

 

Clutch growl happens in all instances when clutch is pushed in maybe once per day. Stopped in neutral & in gear, when moving while shifting too. So I make the shifts quickly so the growl doesn’t last long.

Brake light has been an issue since I’ve owned the truck, will get under and adjust the bolt on the e brake action today.

What’s the Al fitting you’re referring to with the new hose? Both sides of the what I attached the new hose to looked pretty good, just the hose looked a bit weathered. I did not clean anything off- aside from just removing the old hose.

 

I forgot last night I was gonna mention that after reading through original post again that it sounded like a possible u-joint in the driveshaft. Looks like someone mentioned it last night

 

Sounds like the throwout bearing is shot.

 

Looks like your steering rack boots have fluid in them...that's not good. Most likely the seals inside are broken, if they are then a new steering rack is likely in your near future. I would slide those boots off and see if any fluid comes out. Shouldn't be any fluid in the boots at all, the boots are there to keep dirt from getting into the rack

 

If your hearing a growling grinding type noise when your clutch is pushed in it sounds like the clutch release bearing is on the way to failure

 

*UPDATE*

I greased all the zerks in the driveshaft, changed the transmission mount, drained/refilled: rear diff, transfer case, transmission. No shavings in the transmission oil or the transfer case, however some small metal dust in the diff. The new transmission mount seems so much more sturdy!

All much needed service. But it turns out:


Took it for a test drive & could clearly hear driver rear brake pads sticking and grinding the metal inside the drum. It clears, catches, then grinds. I can feel the friction it provides when it's grinding & can hear it clank and release and the truck goes easier, only to catch again abruptly.

Traveling for work tomorrow until next Saturday, so on Sunday I'll be able to get into the brake work, pb blasting the cable and adjusting it, and assessing the rear brake pads/drums. I'll be searching for brake adjustment threads here, as it's always been a problem on this truck.

I didn't hear the clutch growl on the test run, but it didn't do it 100% of the time, so I'm sure it's still there. So that's something I'll continue to monitor.

Thanks everyone for chiming in, I do feel that we eliminated some of the clunking. We had to have: the old transmission mount had two bolts that were less than finger tight- just spun right out, and the mount itself had a ton of play in it.

The driveshaft is happier & my fluids are fresh. It's been a good weekend, and I'll get to learn about rear brakes next weekend!

 

Lolol hey it happens. At least they are wise things to maintain and now you have a clear path to go forward. Keep us updated

 

Another update here. Last Sunday tore into the brakes to check them out.

I found my axle seal is leaking oil into the passenger brake drum area. Gunked up the shoes real good. This may be causing the debris to catch the shoe on the inside of the drum, causing that grinding noise I hear, then when the debris clears, it clunks & the friction is alleviated.

I’ll do a search on here as soon as my in-laws are out of town tomorrow & I have more time on my hands. But I’m wanting to goet a parts list going- can anyone identify what this seal is called? Is that the inner or outer axle seal? Anyways, pics of said brake drum below.

 

Big weekend of work done. Front pads/rotors, rear shoes/drums replaced as well as the passenger inner axle seal & bled the brakes. This has helped quite a bit with the brake catching/grinding.

A friend of mine unplugged the ABS sensor in the passenger side of the hood area, and I'm not sure if I re-attached it properly- I've never seen a plug like that. Can anyone confirm how to plug it back in? Wondering if that's the cause of my ABS light being on & it buzzes when slowing down from freeway speeds upon exiting.

While working on it over the weekend, I noticed my passenger LBJ has about 1/2" play in it- so I'll replace both LBJs this next weekend!

 

Homie, if your estimate is right on a half inch of play, that is definitely a lot, A LOT. I'm hoping you just kind of said that as a number meaning to imply it was time to change them. But if it's really a half inch play in LBJ be safe and godspeed

 

With tire elevated & suspension dropped i can pry the tire from the bottom & see at least 1/4in play in there. I’ve seen the lbj failure pictures & definitely want to avoid that!

Would you say I ought to park it until I can fix it?