My '76 just recently developed a noise in the left rear. I accelerated away from a stop sign, turning left, and it started making a loud "clack-clack-clack" noise! It's done it a couple of times now but it only seems to do it when the car is really hot (like when I come off the highway after an hour or so of high-speed cruising) and it's definitely more noticable when I'm turning (although it does still do it pulling away straight from a stop, just not as loud).

The first time it happened I thought maybe the exhaust had shifted and was rubbing on the axle but that's definitely not it. Since it happened the first time I have also swapped diff's so that's not it.

What's the most likely culprit, the CV joint? The boots are in perfect condition and have no tears/leaks in them anywhere. I've owned 2002's ever since my first one in 1978 (I think I'm on my 4th one now...at least parts of it) but I've never heard this noise before??

Any guesses?

does it happen under braking? Mebbe somethin broke up in there.

Nope, definitely not under braking, only when I load the back end down by accelerating. That's what made me think it was the exhaust originally.

It's really tough to track down since it only happens under very specific conditions so I can't re-create the sound when I'm under the car.

had a similiar noise recently, well eventually i narrowed it down to the rear, i pulled the cover off thinking the worse, turns out the bolts that hold the ring gear on had droped out clunkity clunk clunk clunk damn, locktight n a trip 2 the hardware store done

I would also check the axle CV joints.

I would also check the axle CV joints.

This is the direction I'm leaning right now. I'm going to swap them out for some different ones off a parts car and see if the problem goes away. If not, I'll pull the cover off and check the internals like morfiya did.

Thanks for the input!!