GM-GMC: 1996 Chevrolet S10 pickup, chevrolet s10 pickup, s10 pickup

Question
I have a 96 s10 standard transmission, 4 cylinder pickup. lately it has been riding rougher and shakes as I am accelerating. It is also alot louder than it used to be. Not sure if this is related to the transmision or if this could be I need to get an alignment. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Answer
The shaking may be anything from poor tire balance (or a balancing weight that fell off the rim), alignment (or loose steering parts), a bent wheel, out of round or defective tires, or even mud that dried on the inside of one wheel.

Shaking can also be caused by a driveshaft u-joint, but the u-joint will usually fail shortly after the shaking starts.  In rare cases, a bad clutch can cause a shake, but usually only when engaging it to start the vehicle moving.

Excess noise is usually an exhaust leak.  The muffler may have a hole in it, the pipe leading to the muffler may have a hole in it, or the exhaust manifold on the engine may have a bad gasket or could have cracked.