250sx clunking sound

[beastybaconman]

I was riding the sx today and when I was going slow I noticed a clunking/popping sound coming from the rear end. My dad's big red makes a similar noise, and has for a long time, but it doesn't sound as bad and he doesn't ride as hard as I do. I tried putting the back end on jacks and spinning the wheels and it didn't make the noise the only time I notice it is when I push it back and forth in neutral and when I'm going slow in 1st 2nd gear and you can feel it pop. I'm thinking it might be a problem with bearings, would bad bearings cause it to make this noise or is it something more serious?

[beastybaconman]

Solved my own problem. The left axle nut wasn't even hand tight. I did take off the left hub and found I do have bad bearings, but I packed it full of grease and torqued down the axle nut and it's better now, so I'll just get new bearings this winter.

[btalling]

I was hearing similar sounds from my rear axle as well, removed the wheels to find my bearing was completely destroyed and had little ball bearings inside the drum. I went with All Balls Racing Bearings ($40 shipped to Canada for me) going to be installing them this week.

[ps2fixer]

Nice find, I was going to say take the fill cap off the diff and inspect the ring gear. I have a 250es big red with 3 or 4 teeth missing, and it don't even make any noises, and I run it pretty hard. I have a spare diff ready to go once it does go out, and I removed the missing teeth from the housing already when I changed the fluid.