Driveshaft Scraping?

[cntchds]

I'm new here, and I'm hoping you guys can help me out.

My buddy has a 97 Mountaineer which he brought over last week because it had a scraping/knocking noise while he turned, braked, or accelerated. I automatically thought CV joint or wheel bearing. We just finished replacing the CV joint today, after the wheel bearing didn't help last week. (Both of which needed replacing anyway, just not the reason for the sound that we heard.)

After this attempt also failed at making the sound go away he decided to leave with the car this time, and it was the first time I had heard the car from the outside. It sounded like it came from behind the wheel, closer to the diff. so I waved him back over and asked him to drive in a circle around me so I could see if I could see anything visually wrong with it.

I couldn't see the instant of impact, but everytime it made the scrape sound the driveshaft would expose a part that had been scraped (picture to come.) I really can't figure out the why, though. It got dark, so he left before we could jack it up again to peak around, but I was wondering if anyone has a solution to make the scraping stop. My immediate thought was transmission mount messing with the pinion angle and doing something funky with the driveshaft, but I really don't know.

If you guys have any suggestions I would really appreciate it.

Thanks again!

 

[fishwish3]

the driveshaft looks clean from the pic, did you check to see if it might of been the brakes?

 

[SmoothJimmy]

the ujoints and CV (if a double cardon at the rear like the pic) on those front driveshafts do wear out. Just replaced mine at 155k. How many miles on the rig? Where's that pic?

Here's the rear of the double cardon...

 

[my pos mounty]

You say you repalced A cv axle, what about the other side? Maybe thats it??
The noise is coming from the front? It could also be the front driveshaft as well. Climb under it and grab it, watch near the transfercase coupling for movement that shouldn't be there. Maybe jack this truck up on 4 jackstands and get under it and have a gander at everything.

 

[Dan Whitaker]

the ujoints and CV (if a double cardon at the rear like the pic) on those front driveshafts do wear out. Just replaced mine at 155k. How many miles on the rig? Where's that pic?

Here's the rear of the double cardon...

'97 will have a CV joint at the transfer case. Not the cardone. I'm willing to bet it's the drive shaft CV. The boot will tear and sling all the grease out. It will make one hell of a popping sound when it goes bad.

 

[fishwish3]

that could very well be the problem as well, when a CV goes you KNOW it went, it emits one hell of a nasty sound

 

[cntchds]

He doesn't know exactly when something happened, just that something happened. It makes a very loud popping/scraping sound. I assumed brakes, but the sound really isn't coming from that area. Is replacing the CV on the driveshaft a big job, or should we think about replacing the whole shaft with the joints instead?

I guess what we thought was scraping was just alignment marks from the factory? It looked more like a scratched mess than the normal blob I guess.

I appreciate all of the attention guys, there are very few forums where n00bs get more than a second glance, so thanks a lot.

 

[fishwish3]

were all here to help out, we were noobs at one point too

 

[my pos mounty]

Is replacing the CV on the driveshaft a big job, or should we think about replacing the whole shaft with the joints instead?

I have recently heard of a rebuilding kit for the front driveshaft??? But I dont know of anyone that has used it. Think about replacing the driveshaft as a unit, not a cheap thing by the way. Check with "ericautopart" on this forum or rockauto.com

 

[slammed98z]

My dad's 00 had a bad CV joint on the axle and was making a horrible noise compared to a bad Cv joint on the frontend, it only made it when turning though, but vibrated its ass off when driving in a straight line. It sounds like your buddies problem is similar to what i just described.

 

[cntchds]

He did not let me drive it very long for fear that I would do more damage than I diagnosed, but he said that anytime he touches the gas, accelerating or keeping speed it makes the noise. It seems like the only time it is not making the noise is when the car decelerating without the brakes.

 

[Dan Whitaker]

He did not let me drive it very long for fear that I would do more damage than I diagnosed, but he said that anytime he touches the gas, accelerating or keeping speed it makes the noise. It seems like the only time it is not making the noise is when the car decelerating without the brakes.

Just crawl under it and feel around the rubber boot for a tear in the boot. This will be the tell tail sign if the CV is toast.

 

[sne43]

Might be the rear differential or stuck 4 wheel drive??

I had the same problem and it was in the rear differential. I had them inspect it and they had to replace the fluid and axle seals. They also put in an additive (dont know what kind). This did not totally fix the problem. Then a few weeks ago, I took it out in the deep snow off road and put it in Low 4 wheel drive mode to get unstuck and out of field I was in. After getting it back onto the road, I put it back in normal drive mode and the sound went away. Strange and not sure this will help, but maybe he needs to go out and give it a try before tearing into it too much and spending money.

 

[Dan Whitaker]

I had the same problem and it was in the rear differential. I had them inspect it and they had to replace the fluid and axle seals. They also put in an additive (dont know what kind). This did not totally fix the problem. Then a few weeks ago, I took it out in the deep snow off road and put it in Low 4 wheel drive mode to get unstuck and out of field I was in. After getting it back onto the road, I put it back in normal drive mode and the sound went away. Strange and not sure this will help, but maybe he needs to go out and give it a try before tearing into it too much and spending money.

We're talking 5.0 AWD here. Non selectable t-case.

 

[cntchds]

So my buddy(the owner) climbed under and could not see any visible tears in the CV joint boot. I looked up prices for new driveshafts and they were not very pretty. Is it possible to replace just the joint?

I think the plan of attack is to remove the driveshaft, and see if the sound goes away. If it does, then it must be from the shaft or the diff. If it doesn't go away, then it must be something else.

 

[jchopo01]

He did not let me drive it very long for fear that I would do more damage than I diagnosed, but he said that anytime he touches the gas, accelerating or keeping speed it makes the noise. It seems like the only time it is not making the noise is when the car decelerating without the brakes.

I had the same problem. Turned out to be my CV joint on the prop shaft. Turning it would make some seriously bad clunking/binding sound if it was 4wd. Huge vibration driving, almost impossible to hear myself think but I had to get it home. This was my first one to go bad, torn boot. My second one to go bad sounds like your problem. Under acceleration there was no vibration. Coasting and decel was vibrating due to the cv joint relaxing and everything just flying around in it. As soon as you brake or accel it locks it back up and everything is fine. Vibes started at 70mph and worked its way slower as it got worse. Boot was torn also on my 2 month old reman CV joint. I ended up ripping my front diff and everything out becuase of the bad cv propshaft and my front pinion bearing also was bad --- blaming it on the propshaft. And now its 2wd until I SAS.


Edit: You should be able to just wiggle the shaft near the CV joint. There should be little to no play.

 

[pricetag2]

Probably the front driveshaft. I had a similar vibration problem after a transfer case replacement. I was glad it was "just" the driveshaft. Ericautopart was very helpful, lowest price, free shipping, quick delivery.

 

[SmoothJimmy]

Pull the front driveshaft and if the sound goes away, then it's either the driveshaft, transfer case, front axle or some combo of above. The front is probably connected via 4x small Torx bolts and the rear by 4x 12mm 12-point bolts that are loctitied in so will seem hard as hell to remove.

Keep in mind that the car will slowly ROLL while in Park if the front shaft is removed. Also keep in mind that the parking brakes on these rigs SUCK, so chock both rears on both sides if you wanna play safe.

 

[Dan Whitaker]

Pull the front driveshaft and if the sound goes away, then it's either the driveshaft, transfer case, front axle or some combo of above. The front is probably connected via 4x small Torx bolts and the rear by 4x 12mm 12-point bolts that are loctitied in so will seem hard as hell to remove.

Keep in mind that the car will slowly ROLL while in Park if the front shaft is removed. Also keep in mind that the parking brakes on these rigs SUCK, so chock both rears on both sides if you wanna play safe.

You beat me to the punch.

 

[Aricjm15]

Chain skipping inside the T-Case