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Ever since I got my 122 in 1997, there has always been a clunking in the driveline that has been a !@#%^&* to track down .... finally, Cam Louvre ( love ya Guy!!) suggested that the rear driveshaft might be a TAD long .... so finally my son as an Xmas gift gave me the money to have the driveshaft shortened. Made an appointment with "Parts for Trucks" in Dartmouth, and after we had the car over the pit two mechanics and myself crawled under her .. discussed what had been done to the car (switched from awfulmatic to M41+"J" type OD) and as they said ... well, really the only thing that had changed is that the tranny and OD unit were slightly longer than the awfulmatic .... which caused the steady bearing mount to sit about 3/4" back further than it should .... just the ends of the two steady bearing mount pins were in the grommets .... so we decided it was really the FRONT shaft that needed to be shortened (not the rear as Cam had suggested). So out came the shaft and 3/4" was removed from the front shaft. When they reinstalled the shaft, the pins holding the steady bearing holder in place went all the way home into the rubber grommets and the whole thing bolted perfectly into place.
Being a pessimist, the first thing I did was a rather, shall we say, Sporty, take off which was guaranteed to cause great clunking and thrashing in the driveshaft tunnel in past .... and guess what .... NOTHING .... just the sound of rubber being burnt off the rear tire ..... Gee, never could do that before .... ABSOLUTELY NO Clunk .... well, I tried it again .... this time with a bit MORE enthusiasm .... HOWLING TIRES .... NO CLUNK, BONUS !!!!!! Soooooo if'n you have done the swap from Awfulmatic to M41 and "J" OD .... shorten the FRONT drive shaft approximately 3/4" and you will have BLISS !!!!
Happy New Year Everyone !!!!
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Brett Sutherland & the 1.5 million mile 122 Canadian
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