Took it off road (barely) and now there is a crazy shake!!

[Explorer0204]

Hello everyone. So last night I decided that it would be a great idea to drive off a boat launch and onto a solid river bed just so that I could say I have driven in a river. I got out, walked around on the clay/mud and determined that it was plenty hard enough. Well guess what it wasn't. I got my back tires off of the concrete boat launch ramp which was a pretty big bump and I went about 5 more feet and realized I was stuck. So I stopped, didn't panic and threw it in 4x4 low and crawled back then drive forward, then got a little momentum and plowed out of it. Back at the ramp I had to reverse up it and with the mud and sinking in it was a bit tough, but with a little running start I got right up it with no issues.
Keep in mind I never bottomed out, I did not scrape ANYTHING and I didn't even bury it to the frame! No parts ever touched the mud except the tires and the very bottom of the front a arms are dirty.

Here is the deal....


I drove home and at anything above 60 the things shakes like crazy! The shaking goes away a little when you are under power and is the worst when you are decelerating under no power. You can't feel anything crazy in the steering wheel and the truck tracks perfectly fine. No side to side movement or anything. The tires look straight, the rims are fine, all of the suspension components are straight....

It feels like it is the drive shaft to me abased on past experiences that I have had. I don't know if all of the extra torque and the boat launch ramp in 4x4 low somehow spun the drivesahft but on the outside it looks 100% ok. The front one does too. I will probably take it off today and drive the truck with just the front drive shaft and see what happens.

Thanks for any help.


BTW it is an 04 Explorer XLT with 60K miles. No advance trac or all wheel drive, just the 4x4 auto

What driveshaft would you recommend I buy? OEM ones have problems there was a TSB on them for vibration and stuff so I would rather get something else. I have a guy that makes driveline stuff like that I could go to also so I could get a better one than the damn slip joint crap.

 

[2000StreetRod]

hose it off

You may have mud caked on the underside rotating components causing imbalance. I suggest hosing the underside off before doing anything else.

 

[screamintrashcan]

I agree. hose the mud out of the inside of the wheels, there must be mud in them somewhere acting like additional wheel weights.

 

[Explorer0204]

there is very little mud and crap and after getting under it everything is barley even dirty. I did notice that it looks like a driveshaft weight may have rusted off. it is like an inch away from the other and from being under there before doing some stuff I could have sworn it was there. I am going to clean the little bit of stuff that needs to be cleaned and then get it rolling on the jack stands again. If it shakes I will remove the driveshaft and test it on the stands again. If it doesn't shake I will drive it on the ground and if it is good then I will get the driveshaft balanced.

Thanks for the suggestions I will post with my results of the testing to see if I need further help. For driving into a river it is way less muddy than you may think! I have had it in more stressful off road situations before making me think that this is hopefully a coincidence and it is the drive shaft weight.

 

[Explorer0204]

Cleaned everything off and I then fashioned some makeshift driveshaft weights where I think the old one fell off. It made a difference in the shake, not better really but it has confirmed my suspicions I believe. I am going to get the driveshaft looked at by my guy.

I fond out that you can't really drive a third gen with no rear driveshaft. Even in 4x4 high it sends power to the rear driveshaft first and then kicks in the front right after, but it is enough of a delay that it makes for too much clunking and overall not something you would want to drive so unfortunately I didn't get to go down the road with the driveshaft out.

 

[Turdle]

I suspect one, or a few wheel weights were knocked off.

Take the tires and wheels to the place you bought them, they might offer a lifetime balance-check

 

[colintrax]

I highly doubt a weight fell off the driveshaft... get your tires balanced. Common problem from offroading is knocking off wheel weights and getting mud on rotating parts.

 

[Thub]

Have your wheels balanced, that thick mud probably pulled 1 or even more weights off. After messing around in deep snow and getting back onto pavement I've had my vehicle shake pretty bad at high speeds, it eventually all falls or melts off from brake heat and its good to go.

 

[97Mounty97]

Maybe the sway bar links?? I know when my right one went bad if I did anything over 60 the whole thing would shake

 

[Explorer0204]

Ok so here is the deal everyone..Thanks for all of the comments too btw.

I had an epiphany while testing the truck today. I don't know why I didn't remember this yesterday or Friday, but I had been feeling a slight shake for the last few weeks at around 65-67mph and then it went away over 70. What could I have done by taking it off road to exaggerate this? I'm trying to think of a problem that would be NOT CAUSED but exasperated by my little off road adventure...


I ran the truck on 4 jack stands the other day and it still shook. In my mind that eliminated anything suspension related from causing the shake and left only the driveline....but maybe not? Could an unbalanced tire cause a shake even if it is not on the ground?


I still doubt the above because today I flipped the driveshaft so the front is the back and the back is the front and it made the problem better but not perfect. (this was on the advice of a 4x4 expert that has a shop)

So I tried adding weight to where I thought the driveshaft weight fell off and it just made it worse really.

I still think that it is driveline related but I would hate to let my gut feeling cloud my judgement. Sadly I may have to just drive it to his shop and let him fix it, because I don't really have much time to be messing with this. Thanks again everyone I shall try to test all of your theories and I may get the tires and alignment checked too before I do anything else.

 

[97Mounty97]

Dang thats strange hopefully you figure out what's wrong with it

 

[Explorer0204]

Hello everyone good news...and bad news...

Good news is that it is fixed and nothing is broken, the bad news is that that means I am a dumbazz!

What happened was that I was in a mega hurry to figure out the problem and I overlooked the fact that some of the riverbed mud (wicked rocky and sticks on the rim like cement) did not come off of the rim. I don't have a lot of time to be messing with this stuff (college) so I was trying to figure out the problem as quickly as possible. Normally I don't rush anything mechanical as it never leads to a good result and I should have known better. I wasted more time diagnosing a driveline problem that was not there! After driving up to see my 4wd specialist, he said that it was definitely not driveline related because the frequency of the spinning mass was too far apart. He said it was the tires.

My dad actually then took it to our alignment guy for me and he said that they found the mass of rock that I had missed and that threw the left front tire off, and the right front was actually out of balance by 1/2 an ounce I believe so at least it was not a wasted trip totally. The rears were fine.

So in conclusion, even if you don't have time to sleep as it is, don't rush this stuff!! It just takes longer anyway. make sure you take the problem step by step and remember that Explorers are tougher than they look so don't assume you just broke something first!!

Thanks again everyone for the advice and I will be sure to come on here as often as I can to contribute what I can as well. I am always on my Harley forum though so I will have to balance!

 

[Explorer0204]

I suspect one, or a few wheel weights were knocked off.

Take the tires and wheels to the place you bought them, they might offer a lifetime balance-check

For the record he did not charge me for the re balance though I don't know if that is a policy he has at his shop or not...

 

[Turdle]

there is very little mud and crap and after getting under it everything is barley even dirty. I did notice that it looks like a driveshaft weight may have rusted off. it is like an inch away from the other and from being under there before doing some stuff I could have sworn it was there. I am going to clean the little bit of stuff that needs to be cleaned and then get it rolling on the jack stands again. If it shakes I will remove the driveshaft and test it on the stands again. If it doesn't shake I will drive it on the ground and if it is good then I will get the driveshaft balanced.

Thanks for the suggestions I will post with my results of the testing to see if I need further help. For driving into a river it is way less muddy than you may think! I have had it in more stressful off road situations before making me think that this is hopefully a coincidence and it is the drive shaft weight.

:scratch: