[diehardg]

Hi,
I found those scratches on rear drive shaft. This is from last weekend's Off-roading in Snow. No, snow didn't do this. Rocks under the snow did this.

I visually checked the shaft and didn't find any big dent or damage. Will those scratches cause the shaft to be out of balance??

Thnaks

Yasu

 

[Thomas.Schumacher]

It looks as though there may be a missing counter weight to the far right (rear), just ahead of the Ujoint. Those scratches appear to be made by a rock as you crossed it. Any chance that had the full or much of the weight of the vehicle was on the drive shaft at any point?
That would do your shaft a great deal of benefit.

 

[AlanMcR]

Thomas.Schumacher - 1/29/2005 11:42 PM

It looks as though there may be a missing counter weight to the far right (rear), just ahead of the Ujoint. Those scratches appear to be made by a rock as you crossed it. Any chance that had the full or much of the weight of the vehicle was on the drive shaft at any point?
That would do your shaft a great deal of benefit.

I'd have to concur that the missing weight alone should trigger a rebalance.

I've been worrying about this a bit on my own truck. It spent 6 salty years on German roads. The shaft balance weights have rust between the individual plates. The rust is pushing them away from the drive shaft. This has got to have an effect on the balance, though I haven't noticed it yet. Should I be worried?

 

[Braingears]

AlanMcR - 1/30/2005 3:14 AM
I'd have to concur that the missing weight alone should trigger a rebalance.

I've been worrying about this a bit on my own truck. It spent 6 salty years on German roads. The shaft balance weights have rust between the individual plates. The rust is pushing them away from the drive shaft. This has got to have an effect on the balance, though I haven't noticed it yet. Should I be worried?

I too agree. I knocked off the same weight on my G320. It instantly created a "humming" vibration. Until I could have the shaft removed and re-balanced, I zip-tied a tire weight to substitute the missing balancing weight.

Chuck

 

[ewalberg]

Yasu (diehardg) the good news is that you might have bent them if you weren't driving a g.

Alan, if you find a good shop, i'd probably have mine balanced there too for good measures... as i move up to about 80mph i get a slight cycling pulsing/humming feeling which is likely related to drive shafts and such. You can't feel it when you let of the throttle, which i think people said makes sense since the powertrain isn't loaded where they're usually more noticeable under load. Nothing the passengers can notice, but something a paraoid driver can.

Custom Alignement in Mountain View does a very good job of balancing tires (and alignment to i suppose). THey say they specialize in difficult to solve vibration issues, (i'm probably being to preventative in my maintenance here) but i'm tempted to bring it there.

 

[diehardg]

Thomas.Schumacher - 1/31/2005 4:42 PM

It looks as though there may be a missing counter weight to the far right (rear), just ahead of the Ujoint.

Any chance that had the full or much of the weight of the vehicle was on the drive shaft at any point?

That's right! Looks like a weight is missing. I will try to put wheel balance weight on it and see if it solves the vibration.

Thanks!!
Yasu

 

[ewalberg]

yasu, did installing the lift help solve the drive line angle issue associated with using the rear axle off a Short Wheel Base truck?

When do you feel the vibration? and how?

 

[diehardg]

ewalberg - 2/1/2005 4:12 PM

yasu, did installing the lift help solve the drive line angle issue associated with using the rear axle off a Short Wheel Base truck?

When do you feel the vibration? and how?

No, Lift did nothing to the vibration. Lifting the car does not change the angle between pinion and drive shaft, since this car only has one trailing arm per side.
I am planning to make a bigger hole on the axle housing braket where the trail arm connects to. And then, weld a big washer on the hole to keep the axle in place. By this way, I can change pinion angle.

Before making scratches on drive shaft, I felt slight vibration at 38mph(about 60kmph). At higher speed, I couldn't feel it maybe due to other vibration. I could feel it when I was accelerating, decelerating and cruising. Now I have little stronger vibration at lower speed. It's very hard to express the sound that I hear with my limited vocabulary.

If you want to diagnose your vibration, there's a good reading regarding gears and noise at this site.
http://www.ring-pinion.com/

Yasu