99 Chevy Suburban with a clunk [Expired Topic]

How many miles are on it? What type of engine/tranny do you have?

It has 110K miles, 350 chevy engine, tranny??? 4 wheel drive.

could be;
broken motor mount
broken trans mount
broken transfer mount
ball joint
u joints, and not the ones you smoke :mrgreen:
it really could be a lot of things and without looking at it and driveing it we are all guessing without a lot more info

Wow, nice garage. I can't stand these hack garages. It's really sad when they resort to telling you nonsense to get your vehicle in for repairs it probably doesn't need.
Sounds like it might be a U-joint. Do you notice the sound when you go from forward to reverse, or vise-versa? If so, then it's very likely your u-joints.

It only makes a noise when you go forward (accelerate, usually from a stop) and go over a bumpor incline at the same time. It sounds like the the rear end is shifting on the leaf springs. I understand that it cann't or should but that is what it sounds like. Definately in the rear of the vehicle. it seams to me that they were really stretching it to say axels, it does not sound like an internal component moving but something external like the rear end is actually twisting.
We already have a truck (Chevy 3/4 ton)that spit out it's rear end, almost literally, big whole 5 inches in diameter in the rear cover. I really don't what to have pay to replace another one.

i really dont want to say this, but i'm gonna.
back in 85 i had an 85 IROC, ya young dumb and more money than brains. but back to what we were talking about. it got recalled for 2 things. head gaskets, and the rear end. they replaced the head gaskets after i blew one. no charge. then the rear end started makeing a wineing,, they replaced the rear end fluid with, this is true now, wale oil. no cost. i'm not saying this is whats wrong but anything is possible. check with a local dealer have them run a recall check on it buy the vin. no.
also i have and 86 burb right now that when you drive forward it made a clunk on the left rear, we searched for days, u-joints, no. leaf springs, no. finally we put it up on jack stands, put it in drive and heard the clunk, it was the brake drum. somehow i or someone else must have droped the drum. take the drum down and see if it can be turned. its possible, if it is egg shaped just get new ones.

I actually had the same problem going back about a year ago. when I would come to a stop, and then go again the back end would clunk. I had it check pretty thouroughly, and never found it. Then during the summer when I would take the parking brake off in the morning the rear wheels were still locked. The brakes were sticking to the drums. come to find out the inner wheel seals where leaking, and when the heavy oil, and the brake dust mixed, it made a glue like substance, that would hold the brake shoes hard against the drum.
Honestly it's a real b*tch to clean the drums completely after something like that, and obviously you'd need new brake shoes.

Check your drums for out of round, and while you're at it, see if you've got any leaking. (You'd only have that if you had a full floating axle.)

Let us know what you find

clunk

The clunk is where the drive shaft comes out of the rear of the tranny. It needs to be lubed. It moves ever so slightly, the actual clunk is the rear supension moving back and forth, not up and down. A transmission shop should have the right lubricate. I've got a 93 GMC that I went though all sorts of grief to finally figure it out..
The dealer might be aware of this problem..The one I went to wasn't..

Good luck,

Yachtzmon

@TrailLeadr

come to find out the inner wheel seals where leaking

Click to expand...

The rear seals of my Suburban are leaking too, is it a difficult job to replace them? :roll:


Regards,
Peter.

rear seals aren't easy to replace...wheels need to comeoff. problem is if you don't replace them they'll leak into the brake drums.. it won't stop, at least not very easily..been there done that..

yachtzmon

rear seals aren't easy to replace...wheels need to comeoff. problem is if you don't replace them they'll leak into the brake drums.. it won't stop, at least not very easily..been there done that..

yachtzmon

does it pop pretty good in reverse to if so mine does the same thing when you move forward or reverse it clunks and going over a bump to that would be the yoke thats dry its a common problem you will have to live with and greese every so often