crackeling in reverse

[spazmoid]

Just latley, when ever i put my 94 mtx into reverse, which is sometimes hard, as i move backward, i hear crackeling sounds coming from what it seems to be the gear box, but i guess it could just be the transmission too. Its not grinding though. It sounds like something is hitting the underside of the car even, but i doubt that cause i checked and everthing but the fabric heat sheild is solid. Has this ever happened to anyone, and do you know what it is and if it's serious or not? thanks alot

 

[Huntervf]

That would most likely be your exhaust pipe contacting the shift box. That happens a lot if you have weak/torn motor mounts or ESPICALLY if you have a dynomax exhaust with the slightly larger pipe in there. If you're able, get under the car and examine the exhaust pipe around the area where the shifter box is; you'll probably find that you have only 1/4 inch clearance between the exhaust pipe and the passenger side rear bolt for the shift box. When you shift into reverse the engine will torque forward, causing the exhaust to shift and contact that bolt. And anytime you have an exhaust pipe making contact with something it's going to rattle and send all kinds of nasty vibrations through the car. It's not going to hurt anything, but it's annoying as ****.

My fix was to do some bending/manhandling of the exhaust around the middle hanger...helped but still wasn't a complete fix. Finally I took a die grinder and lopped off about a 1/4 inch of that bolt that was sticking down, and I never had another problem.