engine and drivetrain 76 2002 with driveline whine. 5 speed swap, please help

[keechusmc]

I have this 1976 2002 that i just picked up a couple of weeks ago and while on the freeway i went for a pass of a slower vehicle and raised my speed to around 85 mph or so. As i was pulling off the freeway for my exit i noticed it making a whining sound from under the handbrake area. The noise increases and decreases with vehicle speed.

For example if i just to start to drive the car in the morning after letting it sit all night it wont make the noise until i rev the car over 3-4k rpm's. The noise is constant even if i depress the clutch and put the car into neutral and coast say from 40mph-0 . Transmission works great and has no grinding or crunching noises. Clutch engages just fine, no slipping. (Just changed the transmission fluid last night with some redline fluid).

Flex disc looks brand new and all the hardware is attached still. I can pull down on the driveshaft and move around the center bearing quite a bit.

My mechanic said for the most part any sort of "whine" from the transmission tunnel is usually a bad transmission where someone ran it without the proper amount of fluid. I changed mine just to verify that there was fluid (and there was). Trying to rule out the transmission right now.

Any ideas? Thanks for the help and i am going to see if i can take some audio of the sound in action.

[keechusmc]

I can milk it and keep the rev's below 2.5 -3k and the noise will go away for the most part. But any kind of downshifting or reving over 3k and the noise will come back.

[ifayeoh]

Sounds like your center bearing is going out. Probably failing due to it not being pre-loaded during install or maybe mis-alignment of drive shaft or both.

Replacement not that hard, part cost less that $50.

Search site for how to and alignment.

Frank

[AceAndrew]

As has already been said, check the centerbearing.

.... but what hasn't .....

How's the oil level in the diff? Low or no oil in the diff will whine like you're describing.