Newby Question: Severe Vibration

[neelix6555]

Hello Everyone, I am new to this forum and to Explorers as well. I just bought a 1996 Eddie Bauer with 5.0 V8 and AWD. It had very worn out front wheel bearings which I replaced with the help of the write up posted here. When I completed the job today and took it for a test drive I realized she is vibrating very bad above 50mph. I mean scary bad. Drop speed back to 45mph it is gone. Where would I start checking to find my problem? I did look to see if it was bent or dented driveshafts. No signs of damage. Also both driveshafts are installed,but it still will creep backwards in park. Any ideas about this? My wife wanted this truck really bad and if I cant fix it she will kill me ,lol. Any Help or advice would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[robertoa1a]

Congradulations and welcome to the forum.

It sounds like an out-of-ballanced drive shaft but I wouldn't be so quick to blame it first. You could check for a bad u-joint Your tires could be unballanced. I had a missing lug nut one time making mine shake. Maybe double check the handy work on the wheel bearing for loosness. I had a tire that was out of ballance so bad one time that I thought the truck was shaking appart.

 

[williams.cory]

I would go through everything you took off and put back on and make sure everything is tight, like the big nut to remove the bearing. I replaced mine to but I didnt get the shaking....

Are you sure this vehicle has a front driveshaft? I know some people take the front drivehsaft out to save on gas mileage, or like me i took mine out because the CV joint end was going out and making popping noises under load. If this front driveshaft is missing, then if you are parked on a hill it will drift away. Thats really the only thing that would cause the drifting.

 

[williams.cory]

If the front driveshaft is missing, then the reason it drifts without it is because the transfer case has a viscous coupling devise that will 'slip' when on a hill. The way viscous coupling works is, there are a packet of clutchs in it, and it has special 'viscous' fluid in it, that when the back wheels lose tration, it turns the back half faster than the front half causing the fluid to heat up and start to become more dense causing the clutch to grip each other more and more. Once this fluid has cooled down and vehcile in park, the clutchs dont grab and it slips.

Hope I explained this well, if anyone can explain it better please join in...

 

[neelix6555]

I am sure the front driveshaft is in place and the trans is engaging park, but it still drifts without the e-brake set. The vibration is like a rear drive car with a big dent in the driveshaft. I once ran over a deer carcass in the road and dented the driveshaft pretty good. This is the same kind of vibration.

 

[eXcali]

sounds like your transfer case is shot. in the AWD models I believe it's 70% rear/30% front power, this will also effect how your vehicle holds in park. I would wager to guess you have some serious damage in your T-case this would explain both your noise and the drift in park issue.

 

[williams.cory]

You say your sure its in place, but have you actually got down and looked? Sound stupid but ive gotton in trouble assuming things before. lol

 

[neelix6555]

I do not have any undue noise, just the bad vibration. The front drive shaft is in place. I was under it today while I was changing the hub bearings.

 

[neelix6555]

I have access to a 1991 4x4 4.0 5 spd explorer that has been converted to manual lever shift for the tc. Will the transfer case interchange with my 5.0 automatic? Does anyone have interchange info for the transfer cases? I would rather have part time 4 wheel drive than awd.

 

[KPT]

No the t-cases are not interchangeable between 4.0 and 5.0. Look at the 4406 swap threads.

 

[neelix6555]

Well, I found my problem I think. The front diff has a 1 inch hole busted in it. You can see the ring gear. There are no signs it has been drug over anything. It looks like someone tried to jack it up under the front diff and busted a hole in it. How hard are these to replace?