Annoying Rattle - Update

dlfrisch

dlfrisch

Senior Member
A few threads ago, I mentioned a vehicle rattle, that I could not locate. I received a few suggestions, as to some maybes. Door / window assembly, hood support arms, hood pianno hindges, exhaust hanger unit, throttle (firewall arm) linkage unit, windshield extender arms, windshield hindge and maybe a lose baffle in the fuel tank. Nothing solves the problem. I have checked the brake rods and all areas under the car. Everything is tight and secure. Nothing in the engine compartment seems to be loose or a possible rattle. At this point in time - My wife and I can not fine the annoying rattle. It is mostly on the throttle let off position (de-accelerating). While traveling and on straight and level travel and at a certain speed or RPM the rattle will appear. Maybe the drive train harmonicing (synchronizing) with something and creating a rattle. Sounds like the rattle is coming from the passenger side - like the dash area. We have held on to areas, pushed on areas and even used a strong magnet to locate this rattle. It is live-able and drive-able, but it is a situation that we would like to locate.

Does anyone have an idea, as to what it may be ????
 
So you are pretty sure it seems to be coming from the passenger side of the dash ?
Do you have vacuum wipers ? If so have you check the tube routing ?
Do you have a heater ? If so have you checked that ?
Have you tried disconnecting the speedometer ?
Have you checked everything in the instrument cluster ?
 
Hi.
Try tapping the radiator brace rods with your hand. This solved an annoying rattle a friend of mine had in his 30 Phaeton. This rattle had been there he thought for at least 10 years and he could just not find it and just lived with the noise. In his case it was a washer behind a firewall to radiator stay nut. I have never see a man so grateful. I feel it was simply a good guess on my part, rather than forehand knowledge. The rattle was amplified by the firewall.
Worth a try.
Les.
 
I had a tudor that the door hinge was hitting the door panel and making a noise. I checked all the hinge screws and found some were loose. I did find one that I had to file a little off the hinge or door panel so they didn't touch each other. Some are hard to find .
There is also something in the Service Bulletin book that required that a hole be drilled in the cowl? I think that they had to move a little metal to stop some metal to metal contact.
 
running board against the apron

assuming you can reproduce it by revving / derevving engine in driveway, have someone stand on running board and it will go away
 
Its the sleeve on the Gav rod down at the carb.or it is the metal door check ******** passenger side especially if the rubber is old and hard.
 
Not to be a pessimist, but I had a rattle I could not find, much like you describe. I have poor hearing so had several friends listening with me. Nothing. One guy told me all of us need to step back and let my wife do the listening, as she isn't predisposed to a certain source. She could hear the rattle. We undid the plug leads one at a time and ran the engine on the other three. Number four was disconnected and the rattle quit. Not what I wanted, but when I pulled the piston and rod, there was about a half dollar sized spot of missing babbitt. There was no other evidence of a problem and the car ran fine.
 
What about the choke rod?? When I bought my coupe over 50 years ago it would rattle. I later got a rubber gromett to put in the bracket hole under the gas tank. Doesn't rattle now.
 
Could it be the windshield hitting it's frame either at the bottom or on the sides? One way to check this would be to run with the windshield open and if the rattle goes away then you found it. Also I had a brake rod hitting the brake return thing. It was not tight on the ring that goes around the rod.
 
Sometimes a stethoscope can help identify the source of a noise. Maybe a passenger could listen, moving the stethoscope around while you drive.
 
A few others have mentioned it above........
i had a similar rattle and mine was caused by a hard brittle gromet on the choke rod. A new grommet fixed mine.
 
The latest noise I had to track down turned out to be the front engine mount. The bolt that runs down through the front crossmember was rubbing on the flat spring that sits on the top of the crossmember. I had to inlarge the hole in the flat spring.
 
I had a rattle in my A years ago. It turned out to be the rivet that holds the hood rod bracket to the body.
 
This is a long shot, but I had a serious noise problem a few years ago, and Tom Endy diagnosed it for me. When the A was restored, the previous owner had installed new repro engine pans, and a couple of the mounting flanges had cracked and broken. At certain rpms, a serious, noisy clatter was heard, and that turned out to be the source. Tom showed me how to make some "bridging" strips out of scrap metal, and the noise promptly went away.
 
Thanks to all.....I or we shall continue our search. My wife is a nurse and she has a stethoscope and that sounds like a unique way to proceed. I was joking with her and said, "I think I'll take the coupe to our local Ford dealer and see if there is a current shop repair notice ".
 
I had a similar situation. Have you added a "Hood Prop Kit"? That was the cause of our annoying rattle. It was the flop out ends that were loose in the channel and took a couple of months to figure out what it was. As soon as I tightened the flop out ends on each side the noise stopped. Just a sugestion
 
I have never,never,never had a model A ford that did not rattle! Just saying I think Henry was deaf. I have owned over a dozen A's over the years. JMHO
 
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