2002 2wd
Silverado 1500 ext cab
80,000 miles

OK this is driving me nuts. About a week ago I noticed a chirping noise form the under side of my Silverado. It started off after about five minutes of driving and only at low speed. Once I pass about 20 mph I can't hear it. Now the noise is all the time at low speeds.

Today I got under the truck and everything looks fine. The driveshaft has no play at the u joints. The carrier bearing moves around a bit but not too much.

I jack the rear end up and put the stands underneath, block the front wheels, and put the truck in drive. You can hear the chrip but it is very had to pinpoint where it is coming from. I put the truck in neutral and rotated the driveshaft by hand. Now I can hear a faint chrip/squeek but it sounds like its coming from inside the transmission. My question is can the noise of a bad u joint travel down the shaft like a tuning fork and make it sound like its coming from the front of the transmission.

 

yep, factory u-joints are ungreasable and yours are dry. the driveshaft is easy to remove and then you can inspect the u-joints and find the culprit. if one is bad do the other cause it probably has the same amount of miles on it

 

Yeah...these are the OEM u joints. I really like this truck in 7 years this is the first major thing that has gone bad. Well I did have to change the water pump and drivers side window motor and the battery one day after I brought the truck ......It just freaked me out when I heard the noise in the transmission, but then I started to think if the vibration could travel up and down the driveshaft.

 

believe me a u-joint is not a major thing, but it sounds like your having good luck

 

I'm planning on tearing it apart this weekend and replacing the u joints and carrier bearing. Hopefully by Monday all will be back to normal.

 

Got it done tonight ........ took about an hour and a half to replace the rear two u joints. The worst part was burning out the plastic insert. The squeak is gone....thank god.

 

Oh so they are the stock u joints only the stock ones have that plastic injected molding. They should be easy to replace from hear on out!