Aboubek Posted May 24, 2015 Share Posted May 24, 2015 Hello,let me ask you for a help with my issue, concerning rear axle differential on 1960 Buick LeSabre. A few years ago, we've been facing strange noises, coming periodically from the back of the car during acceleration. Our service recognized this as a failure of the differential, probably caused by a lack of fluid exchange (what was inside was more a vaseline than oil).We were also advised to endure the noises (which persisted), since repairing of the differential would be quite demanding. So we were using the car (not on a daily basis, it's still a vintage car) with these quiet noises until a few days ago. By this I mean the moment, when the car started to emit significant noises from the engine space when in higher speeds and having gear in. Also, there often are vibrations in the accelerator.None of the engine parts is lacking the fluid at the moment. A visit of the service showed up, that the differential is now emitting stranger noises than ever when the car is lifted up and one tries to move a wheel by hand. So now we have a hypothesis with almost dead differential, sending vibrations to the front parts of the chassis. Have some of you experienced a similar difficulty? Would you confirm or deny the assumption? What would you recommend to do next? Regards, Jakub Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnD1956 Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 Was there any grease running down the big metal plates behind each wheel attached to the rear axle? If so you probably have bad outer bearing., which are not hard to service for most Mechanics. If not then we probably have more questions to help isolate the problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
60FlatTop Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 That's not a hard rear end assembly to remove. Just pull it out and remove the torque tube first. You might get lucky and just find a bad u-joint in the rear section of the propeller shaft. Bernie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NTX5467 Posted June 6, 2015 Share Posted June 6, 2015 It might be that your service operative is not well-versed in rear axle repairs, OR desires to become involved with such. I've observed that many trusted mechanics will automatically declare something "shot" when they either don't know about or want to get involved with any sort of repair they might not feel comfortable with "living with forever" sort of repairs. Naturally, they don't desire to have a stall in their shop tied-up looking for "unobtainium" parts and then having to patch something back together . . . that's lost income to them. In reality, there might be a few quirks about the Buick drivetrain in your vehicle, one of which is the torque tube design, but the differential is probably not really different, internally, than any other differential on other vehicles. Just the internal parts can be unique to the Buick vehicle and not shared with other General Motors vehicles. Notice the attached picture in the above post for the driveline items. Are these unusual sounds coming from the rear axle during light or hard acceleration or coast-down? Turning corners slowly or at higher speeds? When the gear selector is moved from Park to Drive or Park to Reverse at base idle engine speed? Is there a "dry squeak" at lower speeds, even accelerating? Is there a light vibration at freeway speeds, like a tire that's a little out of balance but the tires are all balanced well? Without a more detailed description of the sounds you are hearing, it can be hard to better define what your vehicle's issues might include, unfortunately. In what part of the world are you located? Thanks, NTX5467 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aboubek Posted July 28, 2015 Author Share Posted July 28, 2015 Hello, so it looks like, that the noises were caused by the cardan and its components, which have almost tore apart.I've started a WTB thread and asked for the parts at several places, however without any results. Can maybe some of you advise me a place to get the cardan components? I guess they can be the same with some other GM cars, can't they be? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
60FlatTop Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 Familiar looking parts. Mine was a small squeak at low speeds and I found the needle bearings shot in one cup of the universal joinl bearing. I showed a friend pictures of the job in progress and he said "that sure is a lot of work for a little squeak." Is the same "mechanic" fixing it that said it was OK to drive? Just wondering how demanding this is compared to his first estimate.Bernie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barney Eaton Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 I have never done a torque tube car, but they look like standard "U" joint parts. There is a little damage on one but if they are not twisted or bent, push out the old one and up in a new one. I checked RockAuto and they show a Dana #5213X for a 1960 LeSabre and it fits a lot of cars from the '50's to 2011 Fords, GMC, and Dodge...you should have no problem finding a replacement. PS I have only purchased a few things from RockAuto but it is very helpful when you need to get information on a part. In this case you do Buick, then the year, the model and it gives you a screen with all the different areas of the car. Find the drivetrain and then Universal joints, it shows two different part numbers for Dana, Now click on the colored part number and another screen shows you all the cars and years this part fits......great if you are going to the salvage yard looking for parts... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aboubek Posted August 5, 2015 Author Share Posted August 5, 2015 I checked RockAuto and they show a Dana #5213X for a 1960 LeSabre and it fits a lot of cars from the '50's to 2011 Fords, GMC, and Dodge...you should have no problem finding a replacement. Hi, thank you for directing me towards RockAuto, the website seems helpful at least in the terms of seals and bearings. However the crossing, you mention, seems a bit different, that what we found in the cardan, which is a bit strange, since our car is listed in Dana #5213X specification... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
60FlatTop Posted August 6, 2015 Share Posted August 6, 2015 (edited) Here's my bearing cup with no needles, Stay away from the guy with the computer at the parts store, Just say u-joint, 1" cup, and internal or external clip (whichever you find). They are common. I just looked at your pic again. It's an internal clip like mine.Bernie Edited August 6, 2015 by 60FlatTop (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aboubek Posted November 1, 2015 Author Share Posted November 1, 2015 (edited) Hi, so I (as I'm European) wasn't able to stay away from the guy with the computer and recently received a wrong U-joint.So currently am I looking for the right one... Is any of you experienced with this one? http://www.summitracing.com/int/parts/mog-434/overview/ Edited November 1, 2015 by Aboubek (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
60FlatTop Posted November 2, 2015 Share Posted November 2, 2015 That one has only two internal clips. From memory there were four internal clips on mine and the cups were 1" O.D. These guys ship to Europe, ask for Lenny. http://www.northwesternautosupply.com/ Bernie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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