Driveshaft woes

[Safado]

I'm still wating for NYK to post back up.

Nah...my ISP cut me off early last night. So NAK...what is your clunk problem? How much lift do you have? When you drop the drivelines, grab the flanges at the diff and t-case and see ho much slop you have.

So was rotating it as easy as pulling the sleeve yoke and then dropping it back in after rotation? Let me know what you found when trying to do it.

 

[nakman]

I'm running OME 850's up front, with the Mr. Gaskets, and castor correction bushings. 863's in back. the clunk usually occurs when decelerating to a stop, or almost to a stop, like when pulling into my driveway, or pulling up the ramp to the parking lot here at work. Happens more when there's an incline involved, but it also happens on flat surfaces. It feels like a coil spring is shifting.. almost sounds like a "boing" underneath somewhere. It's happened off and on for at least a year, but has been very subtle... like every time I had Christo or Robbie in the truck I could never get it to do it. So I my next POA was to not worry about it, try to wheel more, and maybe it'll get worse. that definitely came to fruition, after a trip a couple weeks ago the clunk got quite a bit worse, to the point where I don't want to wheel tomorrow.

I pulled on the flanges, and really didn't feel any slop... couldn't get them to move in and out, but they'd turn 1/5 of a rotation or so, with the slop in the gears I suspect. Rotating the shaft was very easy, once you remove the grease zirk you lose the vacuum that's holding the shaft together, and the thing just falls apart. In fact, if you don't mind having it apart it was easier for me to remove the driveshaft by first unbolting the diff side, then remove most of the driveshaft and only working with the short end near the t-case. That way I could just leave the truck on the ground, since I didn't have to rotate anything to access all of the bolts & nuts.

More updates tomorrow as I dive back into this...

 

[Safado]

Are you sure yours is even drive shaft related? I'd drop each and drive on it to see if the problem persists. Or maybe try a good hill where you can apply the brakes for a bit and then let it coast to a stop. Does it happen if you put it in Neutral when coming to a stop? How about if you lock the CDL and drive on a straight stip? Just trying to think of ideas that would isolate the drive train. Good luck.

 

[nakman]

Yeah, I'm having all those same thoughts, those ideas are all on the list for tomorrow thanks. It does still clunk when I shift to neutral, but since the axles are still spinning shifting to neutral probably doesnt' tell me anything. The probability for a clunk is higher the faster I'm coming to a stop, so if I gracefully slow down I usually won't get a clunk, but if I slam on the brakes I'll usually get a clunk. Then it'll just happen for no reason throwing off whatever my latest theory is.

 

[Safado]

The Neutral thing was to eliminate the Driveline windup theory that someone else posted in your other thread. Even thogh they're still spinning, it's the wheels that are engaging them...not the t-case or a problem with the VC. I'll have to check, but can you drop the t-case into N when moving? I really don't know the answer to that one...but it might help to eliminate the t-case even more. It pops again when you take off right? To me it's got to be some bushing somewhere. Good luck.

 

[tlcruiserman]

Question on vibration....

I recently got a very bad vibration on my 96 after doing some off-roading I thought it was the tire balance or front end alignment but after doing both of those I still have the vibration.

The Vibration occurs around 70-75mph and then goes away faster or slower than that. I am thinking the driveshaft since while I was off roading I used my slider quite a bit and noticed that I pinstripe my rear shaft pretty good.

I know this sounds like I no brainer but just wanted to know more about your vibration and what everyone thinks about my problem being the driveshaft as well.

thanks,

Michael

FJZ80 96' lifted, supercharged, factory lockers, slee sliders, blah blah blah...

 

[nakman]

Still stumped. neutral, clunk. CDL, clunk. RWD, clunk. Fwd, clunk. I must say though that driving in fwd is a trip. boy that was a fun afternoon..

How is your front drive shaft oriented? Mine was and still is mounted with the splines towards the front diff, away from the T-case. So the splines of both driveshafts are towards the front of the truck. Landtank today said that his front had the splines toward the T-case.. only thing I saw in the FSM was this.

 

[nakman]

In the illustration, the side of the shaft with the splines, is connected to the thing that is not labeled Transfer, so then can we assume that it must be the front diff?

Michael welcome to the big thread... did you already do the easy stuff like check lug nuts, wheel bearings? when you say "doing both" in regards to tire balance does that mean you had them rebalanced? Even if so you could still try swapping one side front to back.. then the other side if nothing changes. I've definitely experienced tires that were just balanced still be off enough to cause shaking. just trying to throw ideas out there...

 

[bad_religion_au]

Show me a guy who graduated college with good grades and I'll show you a guy with very little common sense. Graduating college means you have good retention/recall skills, doesn't mean you understand the matterial and actually applying that matterial in a real world situation is another matter entirely.

Not that all grads fall in this category, but in my experience of working with 50 or more design engineers on different projects from different countries there were only 3 that come to mind that could really hold their own in front of a broken machine that they were part of designing. The rest would argue for hours over some minute point concerning some technical aspect that really didn't matter all. But this of course lead back to who could better recall the info taught in class and not so much the problem at hand.

Sorry for the rant, but you're in front of the truck and nobody here is. If your comfortable replacing the driveshafts then go for it. If nothing else you'll learn something tangable from the practical experience. Whether reading a book or reading a thread on a web site, there's not alot of practical experience gained here, just other peoples views and opinions to draw on.

hey, i graduated university (college i guess to you guys) with awesome grades, and living away from home on a budget also taught me heaps, including wrenching my own s***... how else did i get to drive a 40 the entire time, and put 100 000 k's on it? hey, before uni, any 1 of the many problems i have had with the 40 would lead to tears on my part, but now i overcome most probs i come across...

 

[Safado]

Mike,

Yours I would say is a problem with Tire Balance. A lot, including weights, can be dislodged during a wheeling trip. Drive shaft vibration as I understand it can become apparant at certain speeds, but would only worsen as you go faster.

Nak,

Now I really don't think it's the driveline. Take the truck and pick it up by the sliders or frame and check for movement in the suspension. Once it's up, you can pick up each tire and look as well. Got to be some bushing there IMO. Good luck.