79 versaillies rear end ??s

[joe]

good day I have a 79 versailles I have being working on for the last couple of months. Upon taking her out for the 1st time I have quite the "noise or growl"

from the rear end area, I am not sure if its the pinion/gears or an axle bearing.

1st my question,  what axles are most the common, the axle code on the vin plate shows B 2.47 ratio if that helps.

The car drives good at 60 or 70 mph [no shake or vibration] and the noise is constant with the speed

If I lift the rear of the car up there seems to be a fair amount of "slop" in the gears. The tire can be rotated back and forth about 1.5" or so before the drive shaft will start to turn, is this normal?

[2] are these 28 or 31 spline axles?

I have a rear end out of a truck [f150 ] and a Granada also but I would need to dig it out of the snow.

thanks for your help regards joe 

[robic58]

Are you Joe Miotti?

It may or may not be your differential. And yes - 2.47 top range was the standard issue dfor those cars......


Before I would tear in the rear end.. I would thoroughly check out the rear drive shaft U-joint- they use double cardan joints on the Versailles and as they wear, they have quite a bit of slap. Ihad replaced on mine. It explains that you can drive at 60 mph ,steady and have no vibration.. as the rotational torque pressure of the driveshaft is pretty constant,, but you'll have a bit of a rumble due to the looseness of the joint.

A double cardan joint will set you back about $100 USD-- quite a bit more than a regular U-joint.

Obviously, can not diagnose a problem from a description... but the drive shaft joint is a possibility.

Good luck.

Ralph