80 diagnosis....Grinding (1 Viewer)

[NW-sickboy]

I guess i will introduvce myself at the same time. Jared, orem utah.......23...cruiser nut. I have had my 97 FZJ80 since the 1st of august. I bought it stock in Kansas city with 132k miles. since then i have J springs L shocks...caster correction. 2 1/2 inches of spacer on front springs. factory lockers 35 MTRs...and i recently did pads on all 4 brakes. .....after a couple of especially hard wheeling trips (easily level 4 trials) I have a grinding that is slowly getting worse. the grinding comes about only after i get up to cruising speeds 50 MPH and over. when i let up on the accelerator i have this grinding noise that seems to be coming from the front drivers side. it may be there at lower speeds but i cant hear it. i have inspected brakes and done some crude tests seeing if there was play in the hubs but nothing really.I have also put on roughly 2000 miles on since these trips. thanks in advance for any input.

 

[Chris_Geiger]

Could be ring & pinion or drive shaft U joints

 

[Gumby]

I suspect you may have a bad bearing, especially if your trail riding included water or mud. Pull the drive plate off the front axle and you might be able to see nastyness. Better yet, just schedule a birf repack and expect to buy new bearings. If that's it and you continue to drive on it, you will wipe out your spindle.

 

[NW-sickboy]

i just did a new front driveshaft (double cardan) so i hope thats not it. i have a feeling it is a bearing. if thats the case i will order a rebuild kit and do the whole thing.

if it is a pinion problem should i check the main nut or........?

any other ideas.

 

[Safado]

Mike,

I'm in Springville with my truck torn apart halfway through fixing the same problem. Are your knuckles leaking? Any splatter on the tires? Did you replace your oil seals when you did the front axle? One recomentation you can do quickly is remove the grease plug on the top of the DS knuckle housing and use a hanger as a dip stick to check the grease quality.

 

[NW-sickboy]

since my wheeling trips i have noticed a little more grease on the knuckles but defintly no splatter on the tires. i have not done the front axle yet. glad to know there are some more 80's guys around here. i will have to stop by some time....where did you get your rebuild kit from? the grease that is coming out of the knuckles looks pretty poor quality. polly original. i will crack that open today and see if i can see some carnage. but it sounds like i will be doing a full rebuild. (good excuse to gear pull the 3rd member and do gearing at the same time

 

[sleeoffroad]

Mike, have you pulled the rear driveshaft (with center diff locked) to see if it goes away.

 

[NW-sickboy]

no......do you think the noise would be from bad angles (wich i have) on my rear pinion? also i dont have a center diff lock switch but i can still drive it with out right? as it stands now i am trying to see if the noise is speed related or RPM related then i am going to start pulling drive shaftrs one at a time. did i mention I already did double CV up front from slee. (i hope its not that)

 

[cruiserdan]

Without a CDL you will need to test it in low range otherwise you won't go anywhere. The problem with that is, you won't be able to go fast enough without sending the head thru the bonnet.

 

[landtoy80]

Dan, you can drive without a driveshaft and a switch. Or I should say the 80 will drive but I don't recommend it. THe VC will grab after you rev the motor,thats why Toyota put it in there.When there is a differance in t-case output shafts rotations the VC grabs like a centrifugal clutch. Without the VC you would get stuck in snow,ice, etc. The t-case is really a center diff like the front or rear. Without the VC the center diff would send power to the driveshaft with least resistance.
The yuppies started buying SUV but they keep getting stuck. They first went with auto locking front hubs. That didn't help. They still got stuck. The shift lever was replaced with the dash switch, bad idea. Then came the all wheel drive and there was problems with that so they added the VC. That solved all the porblem except those that wanted to drive their SUV off road. So Toyota added a center diff lock and locking diff's. Now we all are happy except for Junk, he will never be happy.

 

[cruiserdan]

Kurt,

Based on the issues you have had with transfer cases, would you recommend he try that? It sounds to me like it would be hard on the coupler.


D-

 

[landtoy80]

I said it would work, thats it. The stuff should be like the stuff in a clutch fan. If you lose a drive shaft and dont have a switch you will make it home.
And no I don't recommend it.

 

[NW-sickboy]

I have narrowed it down somewhat. I wanted to know if it was RPMs or speed. It seems if i have the tranny in 2 and get it up to 55 and let up i dont have the ginding noise. but if i leave it in drive i do have it. it seems that this would narrow it to at transmission problem right? because i am at the same speed with no problem in a diiferent gear.

 

[IdahoDoug]

Mike,

Welcome to the list. Here's the ol' garden hose trick for locating noises while rolling. Get the shortest piece of garden hose that will go out the window and under the vehicle to the various components you want to listen to while driving. Use duct tape to attach it out the front passenger (drivers causes too much ambient wind noise) window, down the body to the first suspect - tranny in your case. Use duct tape to get the end of the hose pressed against the component as best you can - hose 90 degrees to the component. This is difficult on greasy components, but the better job you do here, the more easily you'll be able to hear things quite clearly. Go for a drive, move the hose to a different component, go for another drive. Let us know how the symphony sounds. For starters, now that you know 2nd gear changed it, see if having the O/D on or off changes it. Obviously, consider moving parts and proximity to exhaust.

Also, could the grinding noise be engine dragging torque rotating a component into contact with the body/frame/exhaust? In 2nd gear dragging from the same speed, there's a lot more reverse torque and it may move the component PAST whatever's touching. Try coasting in 2nd gear at the lower speed where the RPM (and therefore the dragging torque) matches coasting in D at a higher speed.

Doug

 

[scottm]

I prefer to duct tape my brother near various suspect components, perhaps that's why he moved to Idaho?

How about shifting the tranny to N and sliding the t-case carefully to neutral to isolate the tranny? Maybe even kill the engine to hear better? I'm sure you'd have to coast to a stop to get the t-case back in gear. If the sound is happening with a neutral throttle it should happen on jack stands as well.

 

[NW-sickboy]

so lots of different ideas and trying lots of things some better than others ( reluctantly did the hose thing......little embarassing and not sure i could ever hear anything). anyways it was a U-joint on my rear driveline. I think it was premature wear from a bad pinion angle. i figure it could have been alot worse and now i will be getting new rear (adjustable) control arms and new joints for the front and back of the rear drive line. thanks for your help. by the way its pretty good timing because i have my new gears coming this week (can you say 4.88s) and i am pulling my diffs anyways.

 

[cruiserdan]

I prefer OEM u-joints


Kidding aside, they really are better pieces, IMHO.


D-

 

[NW-sickboy]

BTW. it wasnt the rear drive shaft. it help and my rear jionts were toast but i still have the noise BAD.... looking back i find it funny i thought it fixed my problem... hmmmm...