Twice in the past couple of weeks while driving my 61 LeSabre, I've heard a strange noise that I can best describe as "a ball bearing bouncing off the floorboard underneath". I think it may be the spherical support bearing on the driveshaft but I don't feel any play or roughness when rotating it by hand. Anybody got any ideas? This is the first car I've owned with a two piece driveshaft, so that is the first thing I thought of. Thanks.
Is it repetetive or just happens once and that's it? RPM based or MPH based? Those carrier bearings can be sneaky to diagnose. But your CV joint could be failing, too. Those are troublesome because if the hard parts are trashed, you can't fix it. My last one that was trashed, I had to have a new driveshaft made without the CV joint. Still a 2 piece with a U joint and carrier bearing, but it got rid of that giant mess of a connection.
It just happens once in a while and only once Does not seem speed dependent. I probably drove it 4-500 miles this weekend and it did it once during that trip. Did it once a couple of weeks ago. What am I looking for when I pull the driveshaft?
Is it just one "thump" and stops? Or is it thump thump thump thump etc? If it's just a single noise, I would be looking at shocks or something like that.
It sounds like a bolt or a ball bearing made several bounces off the bottom of the car. It was not a rock. Definitely had a metallic sound to it, plus i was many miles down the Interstate and running 70+ when it last happened. .
Rock, As a 1st. step I would lube the slip joint on the shaft. Remove the plug & install a grease fitting, lube & install plug back. Easy to do & costs zero $$$. Got to start somewhere. Tom T.
Well, all looked ok with the driveshaft. The slip joint was a little dry but not sticky. I lubed it up and gave everything else a shot, while I was at it. We will see. A friend usually says, "It will make it's presence known at sometime." I hope not.
