Metal Clanking Sound From Transmission

Okay so this is a shot in the dark but I thought I'd try. I have this metallic clanking/clinking sound. It's a very hollow metallic sound that is a high pitched clanking/ticking that will increase in speed or decrease, then disappear (possibly due to road/wind noise). It's very prominent in first and second. I can't really hear much in 3rd gear. It has nothing to do with the motor.

I'm thinking it may be something related to the transmission. I had a similar sound to this a year ago in a parking lot, it would go away when clutch pressed in I believe (or maybe the other way around). I only heard it a couple times after that then it went away.

Just some background info the Jeep needs tranny rebuilt as the second gear is really rough. The Jeep has been sitting for a very long time it took me way longer than it should have to get the front and rear suspension done. The clanking seems more pronounced and frequent compared to before. I have quite a few other issues and odds and ends to sort out but this one has me stumped.

hear said:

Any trans problem is probably best first diagnosed by dropping the pan and checking the condition of the fluid, and also for chunks of stuff. There are 2 holding clutches that are in use in 1st & second gear that aren't in use in the other gears (2/4 & low/reverse), but I don't have the layout of the 42RLE memorized so I can't offer any useful diagnosis. Does it always happen in 1st & second gear, does it ever go away in those gears? Does it happen at all in any other gears.

Any trans shop is just going to tell you it needs to be rebuilt, and they may be right. Hard to say. That's assuming it's actually the tranny. Could just be the exhaust rattling at some natural frequency at lower speeds.

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I probably should have specified this is for the LJ with the NSG370. Fluid was changed to Redline MTL beginning of 2022 about 1500 miles ago. There were some metal shavings stuck to the drain plug magnet but nothing looked out of the ordinary. It's a bit inconsistent in first and second, it seems to come and go, clutch in or out doesn't matter. When I'm in third gear the noise is virtually gone but I need to do a bunch more test driving first. I know it's very difficult for anyone to diagnose anything with me just using words like tinking and clinking. I need to make a video or just drive it more. If I had to throw a dart at the wall I would say throw out bearing or pilot bearing but it's hard to find videos of what a bad one sounds like. It's kind of like when one person says the opda going bad sounds like laughing monkeys, another person says birds stuck under hood. Describing sound is kind of pointless I guess.

I did some test driving today, made some videos, and discovered some things going on.

The clanking is real soft at first, and gets worse and more prominent at the end of the test drive. It is not gear dependent. I could hear it in 3rd, 4th, and even 5th at 60mph. It was very faint but just barely audible. Clutching in and hitting the brakes hard seemed to really bring the sound out, whether going 45 or 15 didn't matter. I wasn't totally convinced that it had anything to do with the brakes and clutch at first because I could hear the noise while coastin as well. Also pressing in the clutch and brake was killing off a lot of the engine rpm which was getting in the way of hearing the noise. But now I'm maybe thinking it is related to the brakes. Despite all the shit I give the NSG it was actually real smooth today. But there was also no traffic on the road so I was just taking it easy driving slow and granny shifting everywhere.


I went to YJ lines in the front, and had them oriented in the same way pass and driver for the most clearance and best routing. After 40 miles this is what they look like.

Passenger side is totally unaffected. Everything looks the way I left it and set it up to be.


Driver side the rubber protecting sleeve is torn, and the YJ line itself is frayed past the rubber and showing the metal cords underneath. When I found it was resting up against the tire, in the picture I have it slightly pulled away. I'm not 100% sure if this is the problem, but it is a damn problem for sure.



Very disappointed because now it looks like I have to go back to the stock lines because the YJ line was already routed the best I could get it.

With the Rancho RS5000x 55239, the stock lines were at the point of having no slack at full droop. Full droop and full lock, no way they would work without being at risk of breaking. But I don't wheel the jeep so I dunno. Maybe full droop doesn't even matter. This is annoying as all hell but not the end of the world, maybe....

Idk why YouTube made it a shorts video smh. But I guess it doesn't matter because just need the audio.



This is how the driver line was positioned before I pulled it outward by hand to examine. Maybe it just needs to be flipped. I thought for sure the brake line was well away from making contact with the tire when I first installed. But looking at previous pictures from the build process I think maybe that was not the case.