Rear End Rattle

[mdixon]

I finally got my car on the road this week end. It's a 71 240Z for those of you who don't know me yet.

When I make a right hand turn I get a rattle noise from the rear end. It is pretty loud and sounds as if something is touching the drive shaft while it is spinning. It doesn't do this on a left hand turn. It doesn't matter if I am on the gas or not.

Does anyone have any ideas on this?

[Ed]

My first guess would be that someone has lowered the rear of the car by heating the springs. Now the spring has sagged and when you make a right turn the suspension compresses and with the weight of the driver either the tire rubs the wheel well or some other part of the drive train is touching. (just a guess)

Have someone sit in the back of the car, left side. Look underneath and see if something is close to rubbing against something. If you can't find anything then jack the car up and remove the road wheel. Inspect all your suspension components to make sure that everything is nice and tight. A worn out bushing would most likely be the culprit. Those 30 year old rubber bushings don't last forever.

Good luck.

[beandip]

A couple of things . Have you checked the ujoints ? My car was doing the same thing on a left turn and it turned out to be a ujoint on the half shaft. I ended up replacing all four . As it turned out 2 of the four were going to be a near future problem one was bad and the fourth was good but I dident want to pull all apart again so I just did them all. The other thought I had was a slack e-brake cable or linkage. Is the e-brake functional ? If loose this could be contacting the drive shaft. It could also be a axel bearing going out in the rear as well . This will show up when aditional load is put on the wheel in a turn. Hope this is helpful. Gary

[Bambikiller240]

I also suspect one of the "hangers" for the E-brake cabling is disconnected, or stretched and allows the cable to contact the axle (half) shaft. Had that happen once on a Z that I owned previously.

[mdixon]

Thanks for all your help and comments.

I took the driver rear wheel off last night. Found the problem.

The pads for the brake shoes had come un-bonded. They were just moving around in there. That was making the rattling sound. I 1st thought the U-joints too. When the pad would move all the way around the drum it would hit the other shoe and man what a clunk it would make.

All is well because I needed to replace the back brakes anyway.

Thanks again for all your help.

Mark