"Whats that clickin noise?"

[cjlloyd81]

First off if you get the humor in the title you listen to as much Sirius Blue Collar Radio as I do lol.

Down to business... I'm thinking I know what the problem is but before I tear it apart for nothing I wanted opinions.

Vehicle:
1986 GMC C3500 4 door long bed dually w/ 454.

The symptoms:
1) Speed relevant (i.e. faster I go more it clicks)
2) clicking only when steering wheel is anywhere left of dead center.




I'm thinking wheel bearing, agree? disagree?

Thanks

-Chris

[kjc292]

havent heard of bearings clicking when they go out. usually a howling sound.

[cjlloyd81]

If it was 4x4 I would think u joints. It's that kind of clicking/tapping.

[roger97338]

When I hear a noise like that, I recall being a kid and putting things on my bike that would hit the wheel spokes and make a clicking noise, and I picture my young self being transported forward in time, seeing my (also his) pickup, and deciding to attach something to the suspension so that it would hit the wheel and make a clicking noise.

Little me would totally be an a** hat and do something like that.

[cjlloyd81]

Update:

I'm now officially thoroughly confused. I took a look at it last week and couldn't duplicate the clicking no matter what I did (including spinning the hub with and without the wheel), took a look at the wheel bearings no excessive wear or anything obvious. repacked the hub, put it all back together and everything was great for a day. Then the clicking noise started again.

Went out this morning to let the truck warm up before my drive to work and I can hear the clicking noise when the truck is sitting still. Looked and looked and looked and can't locate exactly where it's coming from. It's definitely not a motor click/knock/tap tho I ruled that out last week with a stethoscope.

The fact that I heard it today when the truck was parked (neutral and e-brake on) rules out any thing on the wheel assembly because no parts were moving. So now I'm thinking a rock somewhere (seems obvious right?...) but i'm stumped because how/where would a rock be that'd click only when going straight or left before and now when sitting still? Again nothing obvious that I could see from looking around.

When I find this mysterious object I'm going to have it bronzed for all the aggravation it's put me thru lol. I hate rattles/clicks/ticks/knocks.... $#it pisses me off till I find out where it's coming from.

[mrolds88]

Chris, Check the ps pump. Pull the belt and see if it still makes the noise. If it does, pull the Alt belt. I'm thinking it's in the pump. Maybe the flow valve chattering. Dont try to drive it though as the ps pump runs the brakes too.

[cjlloyd81]

I'll check that tomorrow. Power steering n brakes were fine this morning when I drive it to work. It's still there causer I'm on call tonight so I brought the tow truck home.

[old Rusty C10]

here's a stupid one for you are the motor mounts good... I had one once that the motor mount was bad and the fan would ever so slightly touch the shroud

[cjlloyd81]

Motor mounts look aged but not bad, good idea tho.

I checked my power steering unit and the pulley has just over 1/4" of in/out travel from the pump. I picked up a pump from Oreilly's tonight and will go have alot of fun putting it on tomorrow. I'm hoping the "cap?" on the back of the one on the truck comes off and fits on the back of the new one (there's an oring on the new one so I'm assuming parts switch?) cause if it don't I got the wrong one. We'll see in the morning.

[mrolds88]

I presume that when you say "cap" you are referring to the reservoir (sheet metal) or the fitting that comes out the back. If it is the reservoir, yes an o ring that seals to the pump body. If its the fitting, they made 2 types. One ha O rings and the other is inverted flare. And wow..... 1/4" play!!!! Yikes!!

[cjlloyd81]

It has three or four lines on the bottom of the "cap" and a hole on top of it that goes to my reservoir (divorced)

[mrolds88]

OK thats the reservoir. simple swap. just lube everything and should slide together well. Also with the clickin, you may have some shavings in the system. Might want to flush it.

[cjlloyd81]

Yeah I'm going to flush it. My plans were to do all of this today (friday) but ended up spending all day at the bank refinancing my wife's Avalanche. So it got postponed till tomorrow (Saturday).

I have two return lines, one from gearbox and one from brake booster. Do i need to drop both of them to flush or just one? If just one which one?

[mrolds88]

Flush them both. They both return to the same reservoir. If one is now contaminated the other will be soon too.

[imjeff]

Originally Posted by cjlloyd81

repacked the hub, put it all back together and everything was great for a day.

You meant you repacked the wheel bearings, right?

[cjlloyd81]

mrolds88 - yeah I just flushed both lines. Thankfully the new fluid i got was clearish and the old stuff was the usual red. so it made it easy to tell when each side was flushed.

imjeff - yes

Update:

So saturday I flushed both steering and brakes on my P/S system. Took the pump off, and took it up the the NAPA store about 20 minutes away cause they were the only store in town that had the pump I needed. So got up there, pulled pully's off, pressed them on the new reman pump. It had the same slop (not pully slop but shaft slop) as my old one.

Brought it home and it wasn't the right one. The return lines weren't in the right spot but since I was replacing the hoses anyways I wasn't worried about that part, but the bracket was NOWHERE near right to bolt up (didn't bring the bracket with me). So ran back up to NAPA and got old one back, put pully's back on it (again same slop) and got it all put back together except with new fluid and two inline (return line) filters.

Bottom Line:
Still clicking/ticking. but its intermittent. And even tho the new reman pump wasn't the right one, it still had the same slop as the one that was/is on my truck I'm not convinced it is the power steering pump. What other ideas can ya'll come up with? I'm beyond stumped at this point.

Thanks,

-Chris

[Irish1941]

I've been reading this and I'm sure it's not your problem but I had same deal going on. Clicking/ticking. Driving or stopped. Park or drive. Pulled half the drivetrain apart and no change. Made me nuts!
Then I found this:



Somewhere, in it's past life, somebody dropped this in behind the front bumper mounts and would rattle just at the right rpms. Took me 4 months to figure it out.

[cjlloyd81]

I've looked (and still looking) for something like that (tool, nut, bolt, etc...) tucked in somewhere. But what he's me is that it is so consistent. It's speed related meaning the faster I go the faster it is. And it's a steady consistency, like beats in a song.

[willett]

How's your rear u joints?


You opened your rear diff? Gov lock? Your Diff has to do its thing when cornering, Just an idea....

[RIDE-RED 350r]

Hey Jonly Bonly, when are you going to Boldly Go??? LOL!!!

[PEDROSKI]

Have you checked your caps on your wheels to make sure they arent loose. I had a similar issue where the screws for the cap where loose on a wheel, tightened it up and my "clicking" noise disappeared.