This past day I started noticing a weird wiggle or loose vibration coming from the rear when taking off from a stop. It goes till maybe 5-10mph, and it feels like something is squirming around.

The next is a problem I have always seen since I did my transmission swap. If you are going slowly, and in a higher gear, pressing the throttle jerks the car. Press into it, you feel the driveshaft and stuff kinda slap into position, lift off and it kinda does the opposite.

All of the rear bushings are new except the front trailing arm ones which are not worn. Ujoints are all fresh (this winter), and all the connecting pieces like panhard rod and torque rods have poly bushings. The "slap" from the driveshaft, or jerking motion has stayed the same even after swapping out and replacing the horribly worn torque rod bushings. I am not really sure what the heck is causing this. This weekend I was in there and replaced the center mount rubber support, along with the center bearing. No improvement.

My 1986 240 did something similar. It turned out to be the rear tailshaft bushing on the trans. It was so worn (previous owner) that I it had egged out the tailshaft housing. I had to have a new housing and a new bushing installed.

Only did it under accelleration like you are desribing. It would seem a little worse when the car warmed up, but Not really very much more. It was also leaking trans fluid when it warmed up. Just a thought.

Hope that helps.

Steve W.

All those new parts.... something needs an extra 1/2 turn like yama says.

Rear trailing arm bushings caused exactly what you describe in my 245 once.
Cured with new rear trailing arm bushings, or so the shop said.

You did write that you replaced all rear bushings, but we're all asking you to look at rear bushings of one kind or another. The rear TABs are a bit of a pain to replace, and about $200 if a shop does it.

The RTA bushings I did myself with the special tool this summer. This problem has never gotten better over all the items that I have replaced. First thing I did was the ujoints 1 winter ago, never fixed it. Then I replaced engine mounts and stuff, no fix, and clunk was almost idectical. Then came the RTA bushing as those were ripped to shreds, and nothing changed.

Same goes with the torque rod bushings and panhard rod bushings. They all showed noticeable wear, but when replaced, this elusive clunk never even changed one bit.

Boy, it's a puzzlement.

Take it to a muffler/brake shop, you might get lucky and get a guy who can recognize something amiss. A lift is a good thing to have. You can always "decide to to the job in a couple weeks" after the fault is found.

I had a similiar "clunk" a few months after installing poly bushings. Re-torquing everything elminated the problem.

Sounds like you have some play in your rear end (ahem). The differential is connected to the chassis by way of an arm with two "doughnut" shaped bushings. If the bottom bushing is sagging, this will change the driveshaft geometry and could well be the source of your vibration. Also check your tranny and engine mounts.

Wiggling? Possibly the "doughnut bushing" as well, but first ensure that the rear trailing arm bushings are installed correctly.