what causes wheel hop?

[ky 2stroker]

I dont know if thats what its called, but when ever I try to spin tires in my truck the rear end just starts hopping and shaking very violently. my truck is a 96 gmc sonoma. its just a little single cab short bed 4 cyl 5 speed with aluminum wheels and fairly slick tires.

I mean I just cant get it to spin tires at all hardly. even when its raining and I just dump the clutch in first gear the damn thing starts hopping so bad you'd think the world is coming to an end. does anyone know what causes it to do this on a small truck? what could I do to fix it? sometimes it even does it when im not even trying, like on gravel especially when I just goose it a little and it throws a fit then.

[bobeaser]

no weight and no power. I had a Nova SS that I built up to about 420 hp. I had to put ladder bars on it to put the power to the ground. It would hop and just smokem up till I put them on. Then hold on. Oh and broken universals.........

[holtzer1]

sonomas are bad for wheel hop, even thr 4.3's do it bad. i have installed many traction bars on alot of these trucks...fixes em every time. install t-bars and it will stop hopping 100%, or stop doing it...the hop you feel is the tires leaving the ground..increasing rpm very fast and slamming back onto the pavement and stopping for a fraction of a second...rear differentials tend to scatter when they hop

[ElDiablo52]

I think it also has to do with it being a 5 speed, seriously Ive owned a 4wd 4.3 S-10 and a 2wd 4.3 S10 and never had a problem with wheel hop. My friend had a 4wd S-10 with a 4.3 and it was a 5 spd and it hopped like crazy, he also had a 2wd 2.8 S10 with a 5 speed and it hopped aswell. Anyway your suffering from axle wrap and with a light ass its causing it to be even more violent, if you want to fix it either get a set of bolt on "slapper" or traction bars, or you could 4 link or ladder bar it. Me personally I wouldnt waste my time doing any of that to a S series with a 4 banger. Its not made to be a burnout king.

[ky 2stroker]

Originally Posted by ElDiablo52

I think it also has to do with it being a 5 speed, seriously Ive owned a 4wd 4.3 S-10 and a 2wd 4.3 S10 and never had a problem with wheel hop. My friend had a 4wd S-10 with a 4.3 and it was a 5 spd and it hopped like crazy, he also had a 2wd 2.8 S10 with a 5 speed and it hopped aswell. Anyway your suffering from axle wrap and with a light ass its causing it to be even more violent, if you want to fix it either get a set of bolt on "slapper" or traction bars, or you could 4 link or ladder bar it. Me personally I wouldnt waste my time doing any of that to a S series with a 4 banger. Its not made to be a burnout king.

yea I know, its just that sometimes I get the erge to spin a little rubber sometimes, or at least try. but i guess I dont need to or risk tearing shit up.

but while we're on the subject of 5 speed transmissions, I got a couple questions. How can you tell when you might need to have your transmission serviced or rebuilt? like a couple of months ago, when I was gearing down coming up to a light, when I tried going from 2nd to first, it just started grinding and wouldnt go into gear until I got down almost to a crawl. I never had any trouble at all before and it just started that all at once and it still does it now. no matter how hard you clutch it, if your going over 10 mph its gonna grind and wont go into first untill you slow down.

and how can you tell when your clutch might be going out? on mine, the clutch doesnt engage untill you let the petal almost all the way out. but I've drove trucks before where the clutch would engage almost as soon as you let the petal out.

[bobeaser]

Sounds like sycronizers are shot. I would say clutch is gone too. You doing burnout is going to toast the clutch. Burn it off or break the rivets and your disc comes loose. I would say you are ragging on a machine that can not handle it.

[ElDiablo52]

Yup synchros, you can have them replaced. And ya usually that means the clutch is worn or out of adjustment. S series trucks can take abuse, but eventually your gonna have to replace something, all parts wear out.

[ky 2stroker]

ok thanks guys, Im gonna have it checked out some time when I get a chance. I guess you can tell I dont know hardly anything about vehicles and engines and transmissions and stuff.

but now if it was anything to do with a two stroke fourwheeler or dirt bike or anything I'd have it already figured out since I've worked with em so much.

[erik6767]

how about.... get a old mustang or somethin if thats what u wana do hahaha. i dont think a 4cyl conoma is the ride machine for u if ur into doin burnouts hahaha, i could probably do a better one on my 12hp simplicity :-)

[holtzer1]

a worn clutch will cause the grinding...simply because its not fully releasing the flywheel to trans mesh. dont do anything with the syncros, theyre fine...i have never seen the 5 speeds in them trucks screw up...ever. basicaly its like trying to downshift without ever releasing the clutch. its obvious that the clutch is the problem, simply because of the poor pedal release height. you may also want to install a new slave cylinder when doing the clutch job...a little bit of security. 9 out of 10 times after you install a new clutch, the old slave cylinder cant handle the pressure of the new pressure plate and ends up blowing out, leaving you essentialy without a clutch again...because you cant release it.