03 Cobra Drive-Train Clanking

Low RPM, any gear, if I go on and off throttle the clanging in the drive train sounds like bad u-joints on a '64 rambler. Makes it very difficult to heal/toe without clanking. Had a '98 cobra and several mustangs prior with nothing like this happening. Sounds like occuring in clutch/plate area.

Dealer says "normal" and we test drove other 03's with same phenomenon. He showed me a ford service bulliten saying this was normal.

Has anyone found a fix. Or is this not a problem on your 03/04 cobra?

Mine does the same, i've heard of it from several others too. My '93 5.0 did the same. My understanding is that it is play in the driveshaft- Unfortunately I'm not aware of a fix

mine does too.. I'm guessing that the tranny is sloppy.. I wonder if the Fbody guys have this problem?

Uuuuumm if an older car is doing it your ring and pinion has to much slop. Now a brand new Cobra will do it because it has 2 times as many universal/CV joints. If you have that many "joints" to take the slop out of, the drive train is going to clunk.

To make the clunk go away>>>> Put a solid rear in the car.

Later
Jason

Sounds like the D/S to me. I know there were some issues with them at the parts plant(which I happen to work at, but have nothing to do with that area anymore-SORRY!). Could be a bad pinion or carrier bearing though too. I know that some times you can get a bad one from the factory. Take it back to the dealer and have them check it out before you damage anything worse than it is!

Mine does it too. Pretty much summed up above, all the connections between the flywheel and the wheels.

Mine too....

The shop told me the same thing everybody else has been told. 2003 SVT

Thanks for the info. I have pretty much learned to drive to avoid the clank, but would have expected more refinement from such a nice car.

I think it is because of our heavy drivetrain parts. Once I swapped to an aluminum flywheel and driveshaft my clunk stopped.

I was also told by Ford it was normal.

It's very normal, IMHO... My 85 GT was like that, 99 GT the same, 2002 with an auto (tired of shifting, so I thought) wasn't as noticable due to the torque converter... and the 03 cobra has it too... not as noticable.

Again, I don't claim to be an engineer, just giving my experiences.