jrddawgyo

Also your spider gears in these 8.25's seem to get sloppy. I have seen this a lot. Throwing a locker in the rear (mechanical locker like a powertrax no slip) cured the clunk for a buddy. I also noticed with the stock aluminum cherokee wheels it didnt clunk on my jeep. When i put the mickey thompsons back on for whatever reason it amplifies the clunk. My cherokee is also flawless except for that stupid clunk so I hear you.

Sandyman

Sorry to revive an old thread but this describes my issue perfectly. Exception is as follows. I replaced the leaf springs on my 2001 cherokee 2WD. After replacing them I hear a clunking coming from both sides of the rear independently. The old leafs were frowning and the bump stops trashed. 165,000 Miles. I can push the jeep side to side and hear it clunking like the break hubs are loose. I deleted the rear sway bar and retorqued the U bolt nuts with no change. So today I pulled a wheel and the axle will move in and out just a little and you can hear the same clunk as when I was under it and a helper was moving the jeep from side to side. I didn't take the wheel off on the other side because I know it's doing it also.
My situation is I don't know anything about the axle and the differential so me taking the diff cover off and looking does me no good since I don't have a clue what to look for. I can take it off but what do I look for and if it is an issue that someone already knows about, should I take it to a mechanic since I have no experience with this and I have plenty off tools but no special tools that I look like I might need from pictures I have seen.
Any advise or help is greatly appreciated. If you need more detail let me know. Sorry for the length of this but I want to be concise. Thank you in advance. Sandyman

Jor2010dan

Sounds like bad spider gears. If you can move you axles in and out. Thats what my clunking was. Not hard to fix. I ended up putting an aussie locker in. Wasnt very difficult. Doesn't require too much disassembly of the diff.

67 GMC

I think you have a Dana 35 (not the Chrysler rear diff).


Are you sure the noise is from the axle/differential? Did you torque the bolts on the spring eyes and shackles to the correct values. Any slop there will cause a noise in the back end. I think there is some play with the c-clip axles anyway but you shouldn't be hearing that if everything in the differential is ok. You didn't do brakes at the same time and pull the c-clips, shims out did you? Did you check the differential fluid level recently? Not hard to change out. Sorry for all the questions. Sometimes better to start a new thread as the OP has information that doesn't apply to you.