willyson
trollin'
Alright so as many of you guys know I've been having a front end vibration at higher speeds (above 60mph). I've repeated had to tighten bolts and have the seals replaced on both the
transfer case and front differential. At first I thought we had missed tightening a bolt or two, but bolts came loose and/or turned up missing out of the blue (yeah wtf?). Well, the underlying problem that gave rise to the vibration ended up being the driveshaft. We put the truck up on jackstands and secured it, slid it into gear to see if we could see something with the axles or wheels, low and behold the driveshaft had a bow in the middle and a u-joint had bulged. Evidently the driveshaft being warped put a strain on the drivetrain, loosening the bolts and popping the seals in both the transfer case and front differential. (2hour trips up and down I-85 didnt help much as I probably lost all the fluid in one trip). So, gears + no fluid = bad. The transfer case ended up being the culprit for the shake, but I'm sure that the front differential being in pieces didnt help the ride quality. The front differential was toast, and when the tcase was pulled and opened, one of the gears just fell out :squint: . The funniest thing about the whole experience is the truck ran smooth up to 60mph :dunno:
Now I know where the grease that was caked an inch thick on my undercarriage came from :roll:
Although I didnt get pics, the front diff looked just like the one seen here: http://www.syty.net/forums/showthread.php?p=466840
Hopefully the transmission didnt take any damage from the warped driveshaft - it seems fine, we changed the fluid and mount, runs smooth, but you never know.
Looking at the bright side (and away from the bill for the parts), I have a new drivetrain to beat up on
and my truck is back on the road (with no leaks ) I would have never noticed the driveshaft if we woulda just tossed a transfer case at it - The dilemma would have happened all over again and destroyed another tcase and front diff. Hopefully someone will get something good out of my problem and this post, as all of this strangely originated at the driveshaft.
transfer case and front differential. At first I thought we had missed tightening a bolt or two, but bolts came loose and/or turned up missing out of the blue (yeah wtf?). Well, the underlying problem that gave rise to the vibration ended up being the driveshaft. We put the truck up on jackstands and secured it, slid it into gear to see if we could see something with the axles or wheels, low and behold the driveshaft had a bow in the middle and a u-joint had bulged. Evidently the driveshaft being warped put a strain on the drivetrain, loosening the bolts and popping the seals in both the transfer case and front differential. (2hour trips up and down I-85 didnt help much as I probably lost all the fluid in one trip). So, gears + no fluid = bad. The transfer case ended up being the culprit for the shake, but I'm sure that the front differential being in pieces didnt help the ride quality. The front differential was toast, and when the tcase was pulled and opened, one of the gears just fell out :squint: . The funniest thing about the whole experience is the truck ran smooth up to 60mph :dunno:
Now I know where the grease that was caked an inch thick on my undercarriage came from :roll:
Although I didnt get pics, the front diff looked just like the one seen here: http://www.syty.net/forums/showthread.php?p=466840
Hopefully the transmission didnt take any damage from the warped driveshaft - it seems fine, we changed the fluid and mount, runs smooth, but you never know.
Looking at the bright side (and away from the bill for the parts), I have a new drivetrain to beat up on
and my truck is back on the road (with no leaks ) I would have never noticed the driveshaft if we woulda just tossed a transfer case at it - The dilemma would have happened all over again and destroyed another tcase and front diff. Hopefully someone will get something good out of my problem and this post, as all of this strangely originated at the driveshaft.
