Loud click sound from rear end

Today while moving my truck. I heard a rotational squeak from my driveshaft area sounding closer to the rear end. While messing around with that to try to diagnose it(driving forward and backward) I started hearing a loud violent click when I put it in reverse and started rolling. When I put it in reverse and when I start rolling it sounds like something is binding or cracking but it drives and feels perfectly fine. What could this sound be? I’m assuming u joints but just want to see if anyone else has experienced something similar. (trying to upload a video but its not working)

 

Sounds like a U-Joint from your description.

Video uploading isn't supported, you have to post them to a 3rd party site like yotube and then post the link here.

 

thats what im thinking. going to go ahead and replace all three while im at it. Any brand recomendations?

 

I think Spicer is the OE manufacturer.

 

This is what was left of the rear u joint. When I took it apart all of the needles were turned to dust. This obviously ended up being the issue. Replaced all three u joints and the carrier bearing while I was at it and now 95% of my vibrations are gonna. Well worth the headache to replace them.

 

My lord, did that have a zerk?

 

It did and I was always very good about greasing it. Not sure how it ended up like that

 

Usually one dry cup out of 4 is an indicator one of the seals was comprised allowing the grease to work it's way out and/or water to work it's way in.

 

Good point. Meant to mention this. Once I had the u joints apart the rubber seals crumpled like nothing. They were so brittle and worn out. Expected from a 14 year old truck. The u joint pictured was the worst out of all of them by far but all had bad seals and were susceptible to water/environmental damage

 

I just did mine about a month ago. Despite 17yrs and 150K the seals were still holding up. The truck lives in an dry environment that's not too hard on it.

Good job on getting to the root of the problem, driveline issues can escalate quickly.