Any ideas?

It's acting as if the splines are not meshing tightly. The axles has been pushed all the way in but it seems like it's jumpiing out a tad. I shift into reverse and it makes the sound. When I'm driving at low speeds and press on the gas, it does the same thing.

Thanks in advance.

 

Dana,
you may want to call NAPA but i think that is the shock of the drivetrain. If you looked at the stock drive shafts or if you remember that the looked like they seemed to have a rubber part where the shafts were join in between the to joins. I am thinking that its there to absorb the shock? i know your napa drive shafts don't have it..
Did you make sure everything is tight? like the axle nut. I don't see why it would come lose.
Also you may wanna check your sway bar endlinks to make sure they are setup properly and not "binding".

 

Where did you buy it from? Did you compare the length side by side?

 

yes we did. The were the same in length . Everything went together very smoothly.

 

i didn't notice the rubber part but if I can put one on, I'm going to do it. Can you take a pic of the rubber you're talking about. Thanks.

 

sounds more like something loose in the struts. Did you take the strut off?

If it went together smoothly and you were able to tighten everything up to spec it should be OK. Recheck all the nuts you took off and make sure everything's tight. I didn't have any rubber parts on my drive axles ('cept the boots of course)

 

The suspension is definitely not the case. I was able to stick my hand down through the engine bay and actually move the axle about 3 mm back into the tranny. The noise stopped when I did that.

 

Was there a snap ring on the new axle?

 

Warning:
Your driveshaft will probably fall out if you continue to drive like this, I know because I have first hand experience. Better make sure that snap-ring is doing it's job, which it obviously isn't right now. Don't drive it with it loose though, you risk wrecking the final drive gear as well as the having it come out.

 

Good O'le Axle play. . . could be the problem right there.

Other thoughts:
I assume the axle nut was tightned down to factory spec? I want to side with the problem residing with an inferior axle, its pretty difficult to install and axle improperly, and if you've matched the axles and they appear similar, it leads one to believe its in the build quality of the axle that is causing the problem.

But then again, axles dont really clunk, they will click... if its possible jack up the front end and re-create the situation, listen for the location of the noise and that should help to narrow it down.

 

Yeah there was a snap ring on the new axle. This puzzels me. I compared it to the stock axle we pulled out first hand and they were the same in length. the. Dana is there a NAPA near by that can exchange the axle for you?

 

I'll have to take a look.

The clunk has been narrowed down to where the axle goes into the tranny. It doesn't happen when I shift forward but I'll probably end up taking it out and inspecting this weekend if it doesn't rain.

 

the clunk is probably from the axle going into stress initially... I mean it's loose so it's going to have some play, once it moves to the limit of the play, it's going to stop and make that clunk sound.. hence the clunk when put into gear and when giving it some gas.. you probably can't hear it when you're going fast enough to shift into 2nd gear.

 

Well the issue is that there is some play and I'm trying to correct it with some suggestions.

 

I'm just going to take the axle back and get another one. Lifetime warranty FTW!!!