After 4 months on dirt roads in Nicaragua the classic has developed a clunk which took me a while to narrow down. Initially I thought it was a U-joint but those all felt tight, ball joint had very minimal play as well (which may have to be looked at soon - guessing there should be absolutely zero play there).

Worked my way back to the rear drive-shaft (even though it sounded like it was coming from mid-passenger side) and recreated the sound by hand by rotating the rear driveshaft back and forth. Somewhere between 5-10 degrees of play and a nice hallow clunking on either end.

Keep in mind, these components aren't stock on my 95 RRC. Instead I have a LT230 transfer case and a 4.71 geared Tru-Trac LSD in the back. Xfer case is old (~150k assumed), Diff maybe has 20k. Is this clunking normal? New gear oil in both xfer case and diff (non-synthetic), recently greased drive shaft U joints....

Obviously the sound only happens when the shaft is under no load (no acceleration).

Just a noise to deal with or a problem about to happen?

 

I'll test the rear diff today. I tested the front a while back (where I thought I heard the noise originally and they were fine), but yes once I noticed the play in the rear shaft I should have logically went there. I don't know what excessive play feels like for these vehicles yet.

After posting this yesterday I came the closest I've ever come to losing the truck while adventuring, so at this point a possible failed new rear diff is fine news to swallow!! Here's a photo ... full story at https://www.instagram.com/roverlife/