Chime In...Driveline Clunk

02 Silverado Z71 · February 9, 2006

My 2004 Sierra Z71 Ext cab, with only 6500 miles on it, has just started with the infamous driveline clunk noise.

It's more of an annoyance than anything...but everything on this truck is SOOO quiet; I want to keep it quiet.

I did a search, and some were replacing slip yokes. Then they were adding the special grease to the drive-shaft splines. Then, NO fix at all.

What's the latest and greatest from GM?? Don't tell me, probably NORMAL, right??

I've had great luck by adding the special grease to the d/s splines on other NBS trucks.

Oh, and this is ONLY the come to a stop/accelerate clunk going on. 2-3 gear is perfectly quiet.

Can I use any type of heavy grease instead of blowing $10 for a can of it??

Jasonsupafly · February 10, 2006

Ive got an 01 Z71 with 58000 miles on it and my clunk has gotten really bad over the last 5000 miles or so and i would LOVE to know what to do about it cause it drives me nutts

-[Rupes]- · February 10, 2006

i've got 133K km's. I hear a very ANNOYING clunk when i hit little bumps!!!

slimjim2525 · February 10, 2006

If yours clunks coming to a stop or leaving from a stop it is your slip yoke. I just had mine replaced on dec 13th, and the clunk is now gone. I'm very happy i did it, and mine was done under warranty, so it cost me nothing. If someone could post the tsb it might help him. I went to the dealer with the tsb in hand, though i probably did not need it, they gave me no problem at all.

02 Silverado Z71 · February 10, 2006

Yeah, if somebody could post the TSB, that would be awesome. Truck is still under factory warranty...

A TSB in my hand would definitely mean I will NOT hear "...normal."

Mr. Smith · February 11, 2006

I grease my yoke every 7-10K or sooner if it clunks. I use Mobil 1 Synthetic.

Jasonsupafly · February 11, 2006

Anyone know how much a new slip yoke is ?

silverad03 · February 11, 2006

Anyone know how much a new slip yoke is ?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I took mine to the dealer last year for a ticking sound when I first put my truck in gear, which turned out to be a different problem all together from the clunk being discussed here, but they replaced my driveshaft and I believe (not 100% sure of this) the new driveshaft had a nickel-plated slip yoke on it.

My truck drove noise-free for half the year (about 10k miles for me) and then it slowly started clunking again getting louder ever so slowly.

Although it's possible that I may not have received the new nickel-plated slip yoke when my driveshaft was replaced, the fact of the matter remains that the dealership (or the factory) doesn't seem to grease the output shaft or the yoke at all on assembly (not that I could ever tell on mine anyway - my original AND my replacement yoke were dry as a bone when I dropped the shaft), nickel-plated yoke or not. I just don't understand how they can do that and not expect there to be an eventual clunk because the splines WILL wear down at a faster pace without grease. There have been cases on this site where folks (myself included I believe) have had the nickel-plated slip yoke start clunking after a while, and it's gotta be because of the complete lack of grease.

My point is, even if you get the nickel-plated slip yoke, I would still grease the darn thing, think of it as insurance that your slip yoke will last a little longer before it inevitably starts clunking again.

And btw, I did a quick search on google for the nickel-plated slip yoke part number and found this page CLICK HERE

From that page, I queried up the part number on gmpartsdirect.com for the slip yoke indicated for 1500 4WD trucks and the price came out to about $130 + shipping, which includes the u-joint kit required for install.