Front drivetrain Vibration Problem

[98formulaLS1]

Before I completely cancelled out any other possibilities, I just wanted to get your opinions.

When the vehicle accelerates in gear, it gets to about 3000rpm, and vibration noises start.

When I get to about 3500rpm, the vibrations are awfully loud, and beginning to make popping noises.

I think its my u-joint on the front driveshaft. It could also possibly be the CV joint in the driveshaft.

I am going to start by just removing the front drive shaft all together and taking it for a test drive.

Agreed?

 

[98formulaLS1]

sorry, wrong section. Please move or delete

 

[MustangP51]

How many miles do you have on the Explorer?

 

[gavin]

not only that...
is it dependent on RPMs or speed?
because it would be a different issue depending on which one it is.
if that made sense

 

[IZwack]

Yep, remove the fornt driveshaft and do a series of tests

 

[gavin]

well... if it's only dependent on RPMs, then I wouldn't suspect the driveshaft.

If it's dependent on speed, then yes, I would suspect the cv-joint at the t-case on the shaft.

 

[98formulaLS1]

well you guys should keep up with this thread in the STOCK forums

BUT to answer your questions, I removed the front drive shaft and about 95% of the vibrations went away.

With that being said, we can logically deduct that YES, the driveshaft vibrations can also be affected by RPMs, and not only SPEED.

This is because the driveshaft will vibrate MORE when MORE of a load is put on it from the engine. For this to happen, I suspect that the CV joint is bad, and not so much the U-joint. As the RPMs increase, there is more force put on the driveshaft to spin faster, thus offsetting the CV joint, and increasing the vibrations.