A523 Differential Play/ Metallic Clunking Noise

[jefo]

Hey Guys,

I noticed a metallic clunk or pop when changing from reverse to 1st gear in my a523. It also happens when transitioning from engine braking to throttle.

Below if a video of how much play is in my diff/transmission with it in 1st gear. I'm assuming this is a worn diff pin? Or is this amount of play normal, and I should look elsewhere for the clunk? There is no play in the CV joints.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJ83...ature=youtu.be

1991 3.50 a523 with diff pin savers, Redline MTL, in a 1989 voyager that was running low 14's in the 1/4.

[135sohc]

The movement in your video is the gear train backlash, its inherent given the layout of our transmissions and the manufacturing/design tolerances. If the differential pin was extremely worn from non stop one tire fires that could add some noise as the pinion gears are free to slide fore-aft in the carrier housing as your getting on-off the throttle instead of sitting held stationary and transferring power to the side gears and axles but that would be an extreme condition that is very unlikely IMO. The snap-clunk getting on-off the throttle I would suspect the front engine mount and/or the bottle strut is done.

Reverse is a straight cut sliding idler gear that has to mesh with two other straight cut gears. Some metallic clunk/noise is almost inevitable as the sliding idler is meshing with the input and 3-4 synchronizer sleeve.