I have 2 questions. 1. There seems to be a lot of vaccum lines running all over. What lines do I need? I would like to do away with most of them. 2. I have noise coming from the rear end. Do not know if it is from the rear or from a bad bearing? Is there a way to tell were the noise is coming from. If it is a bearing is there a best way to fix??
Yes....there are a lot of vacuum lines, but more than likely they are all doing something. Yes, you can eliminate some. I doubt you can eliminate "most of them". The best way to fix a bad bearing is to just replace the bearing. I am sure others will chime in on the best way to determine which bearing is making the noise....if that is your problem. I would get it looked at pretty quick, because if you let it go too long, you can have a wheel fall off . (Don't ask me how I know that one. )
Only vacuum line I have is going to the advance on the distributor and automatic transmission. If you have two vacuum lines going to the distributor you can disconnect the inner hose at the other end and let it lie where it’s at. Do not plug this line cause the diaphragm inside the advance canister won’t be able to move freely. Take a test drive and when you get back home crawl under the car and feel the axle tube ends. If their hot...then the bearing is shot. Pull the axle and take the axle to a shop to have new bearings pressed on. If axle ends are cool...then it could be the gear.
i check with a mechanics stethoscope with the car running on lift to listen to each bearing in the rear end. the thing is that all the bearings in the rear end had gone the same distance in the same environment. i would recomend replacing all bearings if you have one bad one.
I had a rear wheel bearing go out. I just felt the wheels and one was abnormally warmer than the other. Oddly enough when I rebuilt the entire rear this spring. The bearing that failed had been replaced before. The other side was original as was the seal.