mrbadwrench,
You appear to be very knowledgeable and make some good points. My biggest issue with this characteristic is that it appears that only certain vehicles exhibit this clunk. It seems to be a quality control issue that GM should be able to get their hands around.
Like I stated in the original post, I do understand that a certain amount of driveline "slop" is to be expected and frankly is needed for everything to mesh together. But for GM to say that any amount of clunking is normal does not seem like an appropriate way to deal with all of these cases.
I feel that a lot of the slop in my truck stems from the trans. I find it odd that I have absolutely no clunk in 1st gear. Do you have any idea why that may be? Also, what is a U bolt dampener. I didn't find anything with a quick google search.
Thanks.