Most readers of the Forum might be familiar with the noise problem I am having from what I believe is the rear of the truck. It is not a drive line issue.
If I hit a bump or a washboard stretch of road I get a loud metallic thud. Embarrassing and scary because I have to look behind to make certain nothing has fallen off!
The best description of the noise I can give is that if you had a piece of steel plate placed across two steel beams and someone dropped a steel bar on it and it bounced, that is what you would hear. It is not always there but most of the time it is.
I have removed the tailgate, rear shocks, checked the exhaust system, removed the skirts between the bed and the running boards. I have even driven with the doors open in case it was coming from there. The spring mounts are good. I believe the shackles are good too.
I thought it might be the e-brake cross shaft as it is a bit loose in its mountings, but have wedged pieces of wood in place to tighten it up.
I noticed that a groove was worn in the e-brake shaft where the bracket from the cross member rides against it, opposite to the clevis, so have separated it and put in a piece of hard rubber to insulate it.
The bed is down tight, the boards are tight and the fender bolts are tight, none of these over tight.
The only thing I can now think is that I am missing the rubber pads from the mounting blocks. The blocks are good BTW.
I think my next step will be to raise the bed a half inch and slip in the rubber pads.
But as it is I simply do not want to drive the truck until it is fixed. I did have a 53 which did not have that sound and the only obvious difference was it had the rubber pads.
Any ideas or suggestions, as always, will be appreciated.
