Bad vibration at 45mph
I have a pretty bad vibration through the chassis at 45mph onwards, on a downhill run I managed to drive through it at 70mph, not for the faint hearted.
I have greased all the shafts, including the removal of bolt type grease nipples. Also checked for play in the ends.
So guess I need to get the shafts balanced, anyone recommend somewhere, I am just north of Brighton in Sussex.
I suppose start with the long shaft to the rear axle first.
Cheers
Joe
Try Bailey Morris - http://www.baileymorris.co.uk
Check tyres wear, wheel bearing play, steering joints play, transfer box mountings.
Prop. shafts do not go out out of balance without any phyical damage or wear in the uj. If there is wear this can be checked at shaking the joints.
Usually, it is the front prop. shaft - front uj, that is likely to wear first. Obviously you need to check all joints. More difficult to diagnose is the transfer box, these can cause vibrations. Best left as a last resort iem o investiate.
Regards,
it could also be your steering damper
Hi Joe the prop shafts have greaseable splined slides.if one of these is seized you get all sorts of vibration phenomena.... I looked at one the other day after complaints of vibration and the front shaft was seized solid..the only way to check is remove the propshaft......you can also have similar problems if the splines are worn allowing the shaft to whip in the middle......Note' the speedo will not read with the front shaft removed unless you select High 4 wheel drive.....
It did take ages to get grease coming out the splines on the long shafts, just as an aside when the judder starts the speedo goes mental endstopping and going all over the place etc, is this significant to a particular shaft?
If you drop one end down should you be able to move it in and out?
Hi Joe it is possible..and you should.. but if it is siezed the flange interface locator ring will not let you get it off without shortening the length overall....a mil or two is all you need to be able to drop it.....
Thinking 'out of the box', have you got any caked-on mud on the wheels? Especially, the inside of wheels.
This can have cause vibrations too, as I have experienced in my early days of off roading, going onto road immediately after going off road, just a little caked-on mud can throw balance out a lot.
Regards,
Found time to pull the front prop off today, gave it a quick run round the block with the prop off, vibration gone...
Hi Joe unless you can see obvious signs of damage to the shaft tube soak the whole thing in petrol for a couple of hours to flush out the dead grease and repack (until the crosses ooze clean grease) with multipurpose grease... check the crosses and slide spline for wear and function... put back on and see how it performs......
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I have had a good look at the shafts for wear, did this prior to greasing, greasing made absolutley no difference to the the fault at all, even though I used a tub of grease on all the shafts, also checked all the bolts, I can see that the rear one has touched on something.
This vibration is so bad it will hold the G back when coasting down hill, would a faulty transfer box allow you to drive through the fault? Most gearbox type faults I have seen in the past just get progressively worse.
Ruled out wheel wobble or steering box as the steering wheel does not vibrate in comparison to the tranfer box lever, the gear box lever vibrates slightly less than the transfer box lever.
All wheelbearings and tyres are ok, transfer box mounts have a bit of movement in them, the fault is entirely speed dependant not load based.
Interesting that the front shaft goes first, as that is likely to do less work based on the 2wd to rear setup in standard use.
Cheers
Joe