What the hell is that whining noise?!!

Hi fellas, I really need your help.
My stock '71 has a whining noise that increases in pitch and volume as speed increases and is louder with the power on.
I've had the box rebuilt, all new cv joints and new wheel bearings all round, none of which has made any difference. Now I'm out of ideas and patience.
Before I drive the f'ing thing off a cliff does anyone have any bright ideas?
My latest grabbing at straws is a cv on the wrong way round or a bent drive shaft. One front tyre has a bit of a feathered edge but other than that she is faultless, EXCEPT FOR THE NOISE WHICH IS DRIVING ME MAD!

Video of the noise? There’s going to be a lot of guessing without one...


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Very very very first thing, swop the offside rear wheel and tyre with the near side rear wheel and tyre then re test, no change ? Swop the offside front with the near side front wheel and tyre and re test , any change?

Ozziedog ,,,,,,, now we got somewhere to start from :mrgreen:

Video is here https://youtu.be/RRjXX_NkdLU

I've swapped the tyres as you suggested ozziedog but there is no real difference in the noise. I guess I should get the front aligned sometime as the wear on the front left is a tiny bit uneven though it stears fine. .
I'm still thinking it's at the back. Where would you look next?

Who built the gearbox? If it's at all speeds could be that. My old box whined as soon as I pulled away.

Bears motorsports

It certainly sounds gearbox related. It might sound a bit drastic, but might be worth getting hold of a cheap 2nd hand 3 rib box, and chucking that on. At least that'll tell you straight away if it is a problem with your current one. I'm sure someone would even lend you one to try, but at least it stops you from shelling out on replacement parts that might actually be ok.


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sannabay said:

Bears motorsports

Click to expand...

Contact them first and explain the noise, if you local take to them.

There is oil in the gearbox, yes?

Yes there is oil in it. I doubt I'd want to show my face round here if I'd not checked that early on.

So, tonight I thought I'd slide underneath and rule out bent or otherwise damaged drive shafts. What I found was that the left side shaft floated in and out about 6-10mm nice and easy, the right on the other hand (!) moved only about 3mm and not floaty light.

I got the shaft off and on the bench. The wheel end moved OK but the box end was tight.


After some research it looks to me like the cage is facing the wrong way.
Could that be the answer?

Is there any sign of wear? Like where something’s been rubbing where it didn’t ought to be rubbing? The noise,, whatever it might be, is more than likely components rubbing and not a high frequency or a harmonics type thing. If it ain’t right ,and it’s the only thing that you’ve found, just double check the box end and the hub end and make sure they’re rotating nicely while you got this little monkey out.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,, I hope you’ve cracked it :mrgreen: