I need help asap!!

[97ExplorerXLTAWD]

Quick thanks to those taking time to respond.

its 1:15 pm and i really need to head out at 3...

problem

my AWD system is not disengaging when its suppose to.
I had the wheels balanced, washed it.. popped it up to 80mph and all was good, went back and got some gasoline and now its HORRIBLE again.

Guy who balanced tires mention thats the front was locked in, well i guess it disengaged when i test drove it then reingaged later.. i dont know..

any ideas?
quick fixes?
what if i take the front driveshaft off/

etc?

i got 200 miles to drive and i cant do it at 50 lol..

thanks

 

[jremington59]

The front doesn't disengage on an AWD? What are the symptoms?

 

[A Wise Guy]

If you have the 5.0 the front does not disengage it is AWD. I'm with jremington59 on this, what are the symtoms?

 

[97ExplorerXLTAWD]

Ok well thats kinda what i was thinking....
and yes 5.0 and the symptons are, well let me just give u the run down.

It drove fine... went mudding... and well mud on the tires throws off balance.. Well i spent 15 minutes washing it and the wheels... and Still no good, slightly better but i have a bad vibration at 60 plus... well i was like...ill just have the tires balanced...place in town that does it for 5 bucks a wheel so i had him do just the front wheels..

So he done that and i took it down the road, got it to bout 70 and it felt pretty good, not perfect, but definetly Drivable at 70... so i was like well ill wash the axles' and stuff more, so i did that.. and i took it back down the road, got it to 80 and well it wasnt perfect but i could live with driving it 200 miles like that...

So i went back into town, got some gasoline.
And headed back out..now i have my horribles vibes at 60 plus again..

 

[97ExplorerXLTAWD]

Ok well thats kinda what i was thinking....
and yes 5.0 and the symptons are, well let me just give u the run down.

It drove fine... went mudding... and well mud on the tires throws off balance.. Well i spent 15 minutes washing it and the wheels... and Still no good, slightly better but i have a bad vibration at 60 plus... well i was like...ill just have the tires balanced...place in town that does it for 5 bucks a wheel so i had him do just the front wheels..

So he done that and i took it down the road, got it to bout 70 and it felt pretty good, not perfect, but definetly Drivable at 70... so i was like well ill wash the axles' and stuff more, so i did that.. and i took it back down the road, got it to 80 and well it wasnt perfect but i could live with driving it 200 miles like that...

So i went back into town, got some gasoline.
And headed back out..now i have my horribles vibes at 60 plus again..

Also i have some bad ball joints, but they was bad before i went mudding also, never did this.... and it drives great before it starts shaking/vibrating.. engine rpms are fine.

 

[97ExplorerXLTAWD]

Originally Posted by 97ExplorerXLTAWD
Ok well thats kinda what i was thinking....
and yes 5.0 and the symptons are, well let me just give u the run down.

It drove fine... went mudding... and well mud on the tires throws off balance.. Well i spent 15 minutes washing it and the wheels... and Still no good, slightly better but i have a bad vibration at 60 plus... well i was like...ill just have the tires balanced...place in town that does it for 5 bucks a wheel so i had him do just the front wheels..

So he done that and i took it down the road, got it to bout 70 and it felt pretty good, not perfect, but definetly Drivable at 70... so i was like well ill wash the axles' and stuff more, so i did that.. and i took it back down the road, got it to 80 and well it wasnt perfect but i could live with driving it 200 miles like that...

So i went back into town, got some gasoline.
And headed back out..now i have my horribles vibes at 60 plus again..
Also i have some bad ball joints, but they was bad before i went mudding also, never did this.... and it drives great before it starts shaking/vibrating.. engine rpms are fine.

Also i have some bad ball joints, but they was bad before i went mudding also, never did this.... and it drives great before it starts shaking/vibrating.. engine rpms are fine.

it also translates thru the steering wheel. You can feel the shake/vibes in the whole vehicle along with a horrible unbalanced feeling thru the wheels

 

[A Wise Guy]

Good luck chasing this one down. It probably all goes back to mud weighing down on something.

 

[jlsparky7]

I dont see how filling your gas tank would have anything to do with a vibration.

Is the vibration like the vehicle is bouncing up and down? Does the whole vehicle shake? Does the steering wheel shake? Does the brake pedal shake when applied?

 

[Turdle]

A vibration that comes and goes is usually a bad ball joint or tie rod end. I don't think there is a quick fix for this one.

 

[97ExplorerXLTAWD]

Yeah, JlSparky, i agree... it was bad... balanced tires, drove it was fine... went to get gas and now its bad again. I tried everything.. full throttle accel, cruising puttin it in nuetral for a second.. stopping and turning it off and nothing does it... I would agree on the maybe more mud wise guy. Ill back road it to town tomorrow, and try washing it some more.. im on 18 minutes of washing total time now lol..

And my ball joints are terrible, they where before i hit the mud. The tie rods look newer than the ball joints and CV shafts look pretty new (nice looking boots, great looking clean not rusted rods)

i crawled under it..didnt see anything out of the ordinary..

So would people agree on next bet of just replacing the ball joints that already need replaced anyways?

 

[97ExplorerXLTAWD]

Brakes are fine when its doing it. Ive got it up to speed where its doing it...and put it in nuetral to take the load off the engine and it still does it..

It like shakes/vibrates the hole vehicle. It doesnt really shake the steering wheel like its out of balance maybe... now that i think about it, it shakes the steering wheel in a way that infers that whatever is causing this is coming from the front of the vehicle.

 

[Jason c]

It's possible you got some mud or junk in the already bad ball joints or extra forces from off-roading made them worse.

 

[97ExplorerXLTAWD]

well i googled my question, and one of the results was to a post here on this site from before

.. someone said that "the slip yoke, u joints, and pinion bearing all can cause this...an out of balance driveshaft can do this...." and the person before him had practically said the same thing.

And ya Jason, it doesnt help that im like out of money right now.. lol.. im just going to buy some cheapies to put on it, i cant afford anything else and i dont have the stuff to install them..so i gotta save some $

 

[lounge lizard]

well

one thing I can say is that you had the wheels balanced and it was good but you went and got gas and now it's junk.

what type of wheel weights did they use??

if they used stick on wheel weights, did they put them on the rim where the calipers rotate in the rim??
that would knock them right off with in mile of driving and the balance would be gone.

 

[97ExplorerXLTAWD]

they used the ones u just pound into the wheels rim lip, but that did give me a thought to go look at something

 

[97ExplorerXLTAWD]

Well there all still there,,, i hadnt even thought about seeing if they was still on. I know the pound in weights usually dont fall off, but woulda been something to check,,,but they are still there.

 

[jremington59]

I'm betting you've done something to the front shaft. You might have finished off the CV when you went mudding if it were already bad.

 

[97ExplorerXLTAWD]

its the ball joints that are allready bad...the CV's look new.

I didnt go hardcore muddin.. if im honest, it was more like just driving down the road. I didnt hit hitches or potholes, just drove thru mud that was on the roads.

 

[lounge lizard]

the ball joints maybe the culprit,

but if you drove down a muddy road and after that had a bad vibration, either you hit something hard enough to make the ball joints act up more.

or you have a clump of mud some where underneath throwing off the balance on something that spins.

you checked your rear drive shaft U-joints too while you are under there.

you may think it's the front when it may be something in the back.

 

[andre 244]

what u can try is remouving fr shaft if it easy and try it
you can also rotate tire see it streering shake or not
and u-joint shake can come and go away if worn down can get off center and shake
axel bearing play even may sound stupid but you have org wheel or after market one
some after market wheel may
may be off center
hope this help to pinpoint prob