VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1949-1954 Rear End 51 Chevy 2 door

grease monkey 123 here
My 51 is a power glide and when I put in reverse it has a clunk. I turned down the idle and it not as bad but still there. When on the road there is no wind in the rear.
Be fore I digi into this is there an easy fix for it. In the manual it looks like a big job to take apart but even in doing that I am not sure what I would be looking for.
Any info would be of help. Thanks for your time in advance
Ps 80 yrs old still working on good old chevies. It sounds like it is in the drive line.

A whine when increasing the speed is cause by a bad front pinion bearing.
When decreasing speed is the rear pinion bearing (less common)
Also could be caused by the ring gear and pinion adjustment or gear wear.
Worn side carrier bearings will make a slower rum, rum, rum noise.

Thanks Gene for the info,
I had talked to you about this a while back and you said to try to cut the idle down which I did, Do you think this could be a ujoint problem?
It only does it when i put it in reverse. The pinion and ring seem to be running right by that I mean in the center of the ring gear,
With the idle cut down it is not as bad but I don't think it should be there at all. The Transmission is a power glide.

I have a 51 Styleline Deluxe powerglide. Even with the ring and pinion backlash set at .007,it will still clunk going into reverse. I think it is somewhat of a common issue with these cars. If it is really bad, check your backlash, and , yes, the u-joint could also be contributing to the clunking. You could also have some slop in the pinion assembly where it is splined to the drive shaft. How many miles are on the car?

It is what is called "they all do that" ........don't worry.

I agree. My '51 Powerglide clunks when shifted into reverse. Has done it ever since I owned it. My memory is that it was just a quirk of the beast even when they were relatively new. We had 50s Chevys on Dad's car lot never had a brand spanking new w/Powerglide. Did have a couple new three speeds in the family.

Hi Gene,
Miles on the car 04647 Maybe been around once.
I just thought if it could be fixed and it wasn't a chevy thing I would tackle it.

As always
thanks for the info. Ps It sure is great to have the knowledge you have and a person to go to when stuck.

We had a '52 Chevy with a Powerglide and it did the same thing as well.

The 53 chev. I had in high school also had a slight "clunk" when going in to reverse. Keeping the RPM down is important. As a senior in high school (1963) in my automotive class I rebuilt five powerglides 53-58 (I was blessed with a great instructor) and most were for broken reverse bands. The bands installed I believe were improved over the original.

The reverse band LINK breaking was more common up thru 1954.
Usually both the link and band were replaced.