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weird "pop"

SELLERSRODSHOP

SELLERSRODSHOP

Well-Known Member
finally took a couple hours for me today. pulled the car out, cleaned all the dust off the windows & took it around the block for the first time in forever. got out on the main road & about the time I hit 3rd gear, heard/felt a loud pop. seemed more like one of those "bang" pops when you break something. let off of it & the car felt loose/drunk for a minute. got it back to the house thinking I broke something or left something loose when I had it all apart last summer but cant find a thing anywhere. it felt like it was something in the back end, but all seems well. only thing I can figure is maybe the auburn posi unit was dry from sitting so long & maybe bound up a bit? have had diffs do that in the past, but usually the pop comes when turning a corner. I think the drunk feeling is due to the front end being off so much. did some rough measuring & its toed in about 1/2" & has about 1-1.5 dgree pos camber on both sides. any ideas? rear is bolted down tight to the leafs & the u-joints are seated in place & tight. just not sure what else I could be...
 
everything checked out fine up front as far as I can see. cant figure out what it was, but it was violent enough that I was sure something was broken. strange... :confu
 
I would do an alignment on the front to see if that's the " drunk " feel you get.

The rear end could have broken and now your pushing the car with just one axle. That will make the car drive very drunk feeling. When you have a car that has only one working axle, the car will pull to one side under power and the other when you let off, very odd feeling for sure.
 
"SELLERSRODSHOP" said:
I see this thread taking a nosedive.....
Click to expand...

I encountered a very similar sound when driving Shag a few months ago. Found out it was the pork burrito I had the previous night. Quit eating them and no more popping sounds.

b24nosedive.jpeg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
"SELLERSRODSHOP" said:
finally took a couple hours for me today. pulled the car out, cleaned all the dust off the windows & took it around the block for the first time in forever. got out on the main road & about the time I hit 3rd gear, heard/felt a loud pop. seemed more like one of those "bang" pops when you break something. let off of it & the car felt loose/drunk for a minute. got it back to the house thinking I broke something or left something loose when I had it all apart last summer but cant find a thing anywhere. it felt like it was something in the back end, but all seems well. only thing I can figure is maybe the auburn posi unit was dry from sitting so long & maybe bound up a bit? have had diffs do that in the past, but usually the pop comes when turning a corner. I think the drunk feeling is due to the front end being off so much. did some rough measuring & its toed in about 1/2" & has about 1-1.5 dgree pos camber on both sides. any ideas? rear is bolted down tight to the leafs & the u-joints are seated in place & tight. just not sure what else I could be...
Click to expand...

Had a similar noise on my son's mustang.. After very close inspection, I found one of the caps on the A-Arm fell off and the shaft was free floating aoround.. All the weight on the A-ARM made the poping noise..
 
"Opentracker" said:
I would do an alignment on the front to see if that's the " drunk " feel you get.

The rear end could have broken and now your pushing the car with just one axle. That will make the car drive very drunk feeling. When you have a car that has only one working axle, the car will pull to one side under power and the other when you let off, very odd feeling for sure.
Click to expand...

I did a "redneck" alignment today. both fronts were at 1 deg pos camber & the left was at 1/8" toe in, right was 1/2" toe out. haven't driven it again. rear diff seems ok. everything turns smooth, both wheels turn when you rotate the driveshaft.

"toddwallace" said:
Had a similar noise on my son's mustang.. After very close inspection, I found one of the caps on the A-Arm fell off and the shaft was free floating aoround.. All the weight on the A-ARM made the poping noise..
Click to expand...

(shameless plug)
I have OPENTRACKER prepared upper arms. they are deburred, centered, balanced, blueprinted, nuclear powered & probably a few other things that john does to them! oh, they have little tabs welded on to keep the nuts from backing off. :thu idid have that same thing happen years ago on a 71.
 
I have had two pops like this. First was hard to find. It was an exhaust hanger bracket bolt that interfered with the leaf spring but only under heavy load or rough road. Finally found it and rotated the bracket a bit for clearance.

The other easier to find was the tie rod popping out in the front. Sounded like an explosion.
 
i'm going to try & get time to drive it again tomorrow & see what it does. i'll be more alert, watchful & ready if it does it again. first time it did it, the oh sh#^ factor kicked in & I wasn't ready for it. also figured out the t5 will need rebuilt or replaced. will probably replace it as there isn't anyone here local who I know of that does the rebuilds. so much for tearing it apart & painting it anytime soon...
 
Have you checked your tie rod adjuster sleeves? Mine made a loud pop as you describe, turns out the adjuster was slightly stripped and the toe would change with the pop with a lesser pop when it went back the way it was! I could see where it had move 3/8's and then back! kip
 
A thought come to mind. I know your trans setup is the same as mine. My shifter housing is real close to the right side of the shifter hole. Could it have torqued the the housing past the floor making the pop noise? Last time I had my console out there was evidence of the shifter housing hitting the floor. I did not alter the floor because i did not want to cut it.

I'm starting to think this may be the cause of the weird sensation I get when I accelerate hard.
 
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