Vibration is driving me nuts! I need some feedback.

[capeche]

Guys and Gals,

I have been living with a vibration for some time. It was getting worst. Would feel the vibration on the floor (not on the steering wheel) starting around 50KM (30mph) and would become loud. Would still vibrate if placed in neutral regardless of RPM. Assumed it was coming from the drive train. Lifted all four wheels and after a few checks I found a small play on the rear u joint on the rear drive shaft. Replaced both u joints on the rear drive shaft. HOWEVER after assembled I noticed that I reversed the rear yoke (did not align) during the reassembly. Decided to take the risk and not align it. Did not want to risk damaging the new u joint.

Vibration has reduced quite a bit with the new u joints BUT it is still there, not as severe and starts around the same speed as before.

Questions:

1: Would reversing the rear yoke (or any other component) during reassembly cause so much vibration?
2: I am thinking that the rear drive shaft might need some balancing (more than just the "reversed" yoke). I am not sure how the balancing weights look like. The drive shaft had two light circular marks on it. Either was some labels that came off or "weights" that fell off?
3: Can an "unbalanced" drive shaft damage u joint(s)?
3: Any other ideas?

My tires are worn but still have thread left. I do not feel any vibration on the steering wheel. I rotated the tires some time ago with no noticeable changes on the vibration.

Thanks for the help.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! I've moved your thread into the stock 2002-2005 section. I had this problem on my 88 a couple of times. Something on the road hit my driveshaft, and made a small indentation. The kink put pressure on the U joint until it finally broke. The vibration was pretty bad.

 

[Elwood]

Wheel Bearings......????
I just had all 4 replaced on my Explorer.

 

[jakedrew]

^ how many miles on your explorer and how much it cost?

How did all 4 go bad?

 

[capeche]

Thanks BrooklynBay and Elwood.

BrooklynBay, what did you end up doing? Got the drive shaft replaced or balanced? I am assuming you got rid of the vibration.

Elwood, I am considering the bearings as well however I need to have the piece of mind that the drive shaft is properly balanced and is not the cause of the vibration. I will certainly consider the wheel bearings. Did yours drive smooth with no noise/vibration with the new bearings?

 

[BrooklynBay]

I bought a different driveshaft in a junkyard, and used new U joints.

 

[EasyRhino]

First, an out of balance drive shaft can cause very rapid bearing failure.

If all that is wrong is that the shaft was reassembled 180 degrees out, you have a simple fix before you, so I would definitely go for that first.

The drive shaft balancing weights can be very small metal tabs. You could have trown a weight as well. Driveshaft shops can easily and quickly rebalance a driveshaft assembly - takes specialized equipment - cannot be done at home. Or as the esteemed (and extremely knowledable) Brooklyn Bay points out, you can put new U-joints on a drriveshaft from the auto recyclers.

 

[Elwood]

It is much better after replacing all 4 wheel bearings. I did not do them all at once. I did them one at a time over a 5 month period. They were noisey and caused vibration on the highway. I do still have a very slight vibration at 80 mph. This drives me nuts. I am thinking of selling my Explorer.

 

[capeche]

Hi Guys, finally an update!

Have been driving with the noise/vibration for a while and one thing that helped is that it started to get worst. At lower speeds I could feel the vibration and started to be very characteristic of a bad bearing. I could also notice that the noise was coming from the front left wheel.
So as was suggested by Elwood I changed the front left wheel hub assembly. Wasn't too bad to get it replaced. There is a very good post about it and the tip to use the 15mm box end offset wrench to get to the three bolts helped a lot. I had a hard time getting the hub off. Ford used a sort of sealer/glue. What a pain! Also, the tool that I rented had a stripped screw as well.

Back to the vibration. The BIG noise is gone. Drives smooth. Now I can hear tire noise, some noise from the rear end and maybe some noise from another bearing that is starting to wear out. Nothing too bad. At least now I can have a conversation in the car and not worry that some thing bad would happen while driving, specially on the highway.

Oh, also bought a new u-joint and as soon as I have a chance I will reverse back and change the rear u joint on the rear drive shaft. I have been hearing a "light click" at very low speed that looks like it is coming from the drive shaft. The u joints that I used looked a little cheap. Got one much better that can be greased.

Thanks guys for the help.

 

[clarks2001]

i got some loud clicking in my front end when i turn left. And when i put it in 4 Low, and let the truck go at idle speed, after like 10 feet there is a thud, like a gear is trying to catch or something. Could that be something to do with the U-Joints?