posi rear rebuild

got a 80 camaro 12 bolt posi in my 53 chev.when i'm backing up or in a turn at speed i'm gettin a clinking sound.had many folks pull up next to me sayin that my back drivers side wheel was wobbling.any ideas?also wondering about a good source for rebuilding one on the cheap ha ha.been told its the spider gears but im not very familiar with posi rears.

 

Have you jacked it up and seen this wobble or run-out. first thing that comes to mind is a bent axle

 

depends on the posi unit but a lotof them do some funny stuff when turning, the out side wheel turns faster that the inner one

 

can you be more specific on the clinking noise?

 

sounds kinda like a knocking noise hard to describe i guess hard to work on with out a lift

 

Ford 9 inch rear end ***emblies are traditional. Maybe,... time to become a traditionalist.

 

got this one for 100 bucks 8 years ago.got my 100 bucks worth i guess.how much for a good ford 9 inch?

 

Have you put the additive in for the posi???

 

yeah posi grease in.

 

They have an additional additive that goes in with the grease. Had a corvette posi and it sounded like it was coming out of the car. Until I added the additive...ghost

 

Congrats! This is one of the dumbest answers to a legit question I've seen on here in a looooooooooong time.

****ing "Trad Police."

Back to the problem at hand:

Check the plug welds where the axle tube goes into the center section. I've got a good friend who has built rear ends for 30 years, and he told me this summer that it isn't uncommon for Chevy 12-bolts to have these plug welds fail, allowing the axle tube to get sloppy in the housing. That is one thing that could account for your wobby wheel.

I had this conversation with him because the Dana 44 in my Suburban took the big ****. It was also a Posi, and it also started clicking when I went around corners. The plug welds all failed on the p***enger side of the housing, and the whole tube had 3/8-inch play out at the axle bearing. Between the leak where the tube goes into the cast center, the leak at the dif cover, and the leak at the pinion seal, the rear end ran nearly dry. Not totally dry, and it didn't seize up, but it sure didn't do anything inside any favors.
This lead to a spun bearing in the axle housing, which junked the housing.
The way I discovered it was a really loud BANG one day, and the *** end of the truck jumped like I rolled over something, then the engine and trans free-wheeled.

When I tore it apart, I found the portion of that axle's splines that slipped into the spider gear was stripped. The engine freewheeled and the truck didn't move because the posi clutches (45 years old) were long since worn out, so it was essentially an open dif.

I don't know what the clicking was for certain, but I suspect it was the splines slipping or skipping teeth in the spider gear under the additional stress of going around a corner. Eventually, they wore down far enough that they just finally stripped out. It was odd though, because I was just going down the street, and not beating on it: 3rd gear, 35 miles an hour, just cruising.

-Brad