Axle rebuild - now vibration

[simonusa0]

Problem: Drumming from rear end.
My 2003 XLT Explorer now has only 46,000 miles. The rear axle was rebuilt at 31,00 miles under warranty (whine) then again recently at 46,000 miles after winning a HUGE battle with Ford and the dealer. Got it back....whine gone but now it had a drumming vibration at 65mph plus. Took it back. Dealer, agreed, tightened axle mounts, noted an improvement then finally stated tires were out of balance (I know that was a cover up because tires had only 1,000miles on them, I'd also had them checked again day before I took the truck back. 58 miles put on truck and empty tank!). Dealer stated all uj's, cv joints and wheel bearings are ok. There is an improvement .... but I can still feel a drumming from rear end at 75mph and up.

So I checked the rear end myself (on axle stands) and looked for movement in the CV joints and couldn't find any. What I found is that I can move the inner CV joint assy up and down (with associated noise) where it enters the axle/diff on the driver side . The other shaft entry to the differential on pasenger side is ok. (Do not confuse with side-to-side movement of the cv joint/ shaft assembly which is normal).

Can anyone comment if any play with spline/cv assy's fit into the axle is acceptable? I think this is the vibration root cause. Comments most welcome. I haven't gone back to the dealer yet....I just hate the grief and confrontation!

 

[charbojoseph]

same problem here!!!

Wow! I have the same exact problem! Rear differential was rebuilt to take care of three problems. 1) whine from about 45 yo 55 mph. 2)limited slip axel chatter and 3)leaking axel shaft seal. When I got it back these three things were taken care of but now I had a vibration at speed of 65 mph and up. Took it back to the dealer and took it for a test ride with the mechanic. He confirmed there was a vibration and took it right in and on the lift to see if he could find anything loose. Nothing obvious. I made an appointment and they say they looked at it with a stethescope (sp) and some kind of machine that measures the tone or harmonics of a component that is suspected of vibrating. They told me I need to replace the rear driveshaft. All u joints are OK but the driveshaft is out of balance. They said the problems with the differential may have been masking this problem. They gave me a price of $600 to do this work. I said no thanks! I believe there was a tsb for driveshaft vibration above 65 mph. Does anybody know the tsb number for this?

 

[simonusa0]

Charbojoseph, Ok, on your issue when you say 'driveshaft' I am guessing you mean the one fron the transmission rearwards to the axle. I had a problem with mine in the past. One day when driving on the freeway I suddenly got REALLY bad vibration (not what sue is currently). It felt like a wheel weight had fallen off or the wheel was buckled. Turns out the center sliding splined joint on the driveshaft had failed, was sloppy all of a sudden and the shaft was 'whipping'(we used to call it the 'propshaft' when I grew up in England!). A new shaft is about $420 and labor should be no more than an hour to swap and test drive. It says 'failed driveshaft cc39 on the work order. Hope this helps

 

[aspitaletto]

i wonder ir my current issue can be this failing center drive shaft, i DO get a thud when i brake moderately, the dealer said that you cant really 'just lube' the shaft, that replacing it is the only option. now the seal is leaking on it. possibly from extensive vibration. i did notice that ford has a TSB out for this issue on the 03-05 rangers.

 

[rrgone]

There's lots of good reading and ideas about this condition here:
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums//showthread.php?t=199857

Here's a link to TSB 05-16-4 about the driveline out of balance issue for the 4X4 models:
http://www.fcsdchemicalsandlubricants.com/fad/tsb/05164.pdf

Good luck.