Hey everyone,
After I did my diff, my car developed a slight vibration, very slight but you could tell, i just figured it was an engine mount.
Any way, a couple months on, my car has turned into a dildo on wheels, at any speed from 30 - 110 (and probably beyond:ninja:) it has a nocking noise accompanied with a shaking feeling. and occasionally it will become really bad and seem as if the wheels are falling off. This feeling does not come through the steering wheel or brake pedal. Also, no matter what speed you are doing, it will shake at the same frequency, the only difference is the magnitude of the thud.....

So i thought, well i had better get a new mount, so i replaced the mount on the front of the motor (drivers side one) and is made no difference.

I have inspected all the bushes on the control arms, and checked for play in the strut tops, and all this is good. This leaves me with the conclusion that is must be the CV shafts, as the internal DOJ joints are original and mags just turned 200,000 yesterday.

SO:
1; Any thoughts on what else it could be?
2; Can you replace just the internal DOJ joints because my CV's are pretty much new?
Cheers

replace the drive shafts mine had the same problem as one was slightly warped had around 1 cm of movement when it was spining

I just jacked the car up, put it in 5th and let the wheels spin at 100kmh, there is SFA wobble in the shaft at all?
cheers.

you dont evan need to do that. put it in drive and let it move slow. get someone to hold the other wheel to see if theres much vibration in the shaft. does it have any movement when it spins? oh and make sure you take the wheels off so theres no weight on it and have a look

yep, did all that, and it doesnt seem to be moving around, though there is still a vibration.
cheers
and btw mattgreen, 96 TE exec REPRESENT! haha

Did you set the lash for the diff and input shaft correctly as per the manual when you installed the diff, this is vital and could explain your vibration and noise

hahaha. so your sure its not your wheel balance? so theres no vibration with the wheels off?

i should have said in op, its only under load, an with it on stands and no wheel on, it has a vibration, but it doesnt shake.

hmmm sounds exactly what mine was. exactly the same

Since it started after the diff installation, You'd put it down to being the diff. (ala what Mal said) If his shafts were fine seems a bit strange they'd do this after 220K RIGHT after he changed the diff.

Did you set the lash for the diff and input shaft correctly as per the manual when you installed the diff, this is vital and could explain your vibration and noise

Nope, didnt do that, are you talking about re shimming the diff bearing housing? and would this really cause the car to shake as if there is 4 people standing outside it and shaking it?

i think if it was the diff something would have gone really wrong by now, because it is really shaking.
But i guess there is no way to check without taking the box out aye FML, god i wish i wasnt so lazy the first time haha:beer::beer:

and it is hardly a vibration, under load it will shake the car violently, like i am going over corigations, and it is enough to make the cd skip. the noise is only there 5-10% of the time.

i also just noticed that when i turned left and right, the left axel wont spin, it is binding up somewhere. could this be because this would be due to the outer cv though.

ANOTHER thing, It gets worse when the car is hot,
it shakes really badly (in or out of gear) when i turn hard right.

it is also intermittant, sometimes it does it when using the engine to brake the car, and sometimes it only does it under acceleration, other times it does it both, but sometimes it doesnt do it at all.

okay, its the diff, due to the engine and gb shaking, and the cv shafts mot moving. so my question is, how do i go about re shiming my housing?
thanks

Mate, have merged your posts, we do have the edit feature there for a reason you know bud

now, back to your diff, if you have not shimmed it, this can cause all sorts of issues, binding, vibrations etc etc. The diff HAS to be shimmed, if it is not then all hell can go on.

Even I do not do my own diffs for this reason, I do not have enough shims thus I take it to a gearbox place locally for fittment

soz about the posts
what will it cost for a diff to be reshimed?
cheers

also, is there anyway i can tell it is definitely the diff before i pull it all out again?
i was thinking that if i put the cv shaft into the dif sline and shake it,i will be able to see the diff shaking around in the housing. is this right?

I have had the same problem on a tf sports around 45 - 100 k slight load, it would shake the shit out of the car, swapped driveshafts, problem solved. Maybe get hold of some driveshafts, try that 1st.

Also if you didn't do the shims it probably be that, but its easier to change driveshafts and eliminate that. Because you will be spewing if you re-do your diff and it isnt that!

yeah, i highly doubt it is the dif making all the fuss, i dont think it would be able to shake like this and still work.
is there any other way i can rule out the driveshafts?
and over about 5000k's it went from barely noticeable to shocking, and now when it is smooth, there is no whine.
tom

The sports i had the problem with, you couldn't tell by eye, running or feel for movement. Just get a set, at least then you have a spare set, when you split boots etc

mmm, i wish i could, i cant really afford it atm,

shouldn't be 2 expensive for a diff reshim all they have to do once box is removed is separated the housing and measure it up as the diff is sitting right there.... i spose and dont quote this as gospel if u wanted to rule out the drive shafts just remove them while on stands (dont lower the car down onto wheels without the shafts) and run the car... that will at least isolate the problem.

yeah, i have the money to do one or the other, but i would rather it be the shafts because i really cbf lying under the car for another day. haha, thats why i wanted to know whether or not shaking the the shaft when its only in the diff (not the hub) would rattle the diff around if its loose. that would then tell me for sure. you would think it would but i really need someone who is sure.
cheers

ok no it wont tell u.... the shim thickness will only be a max of 2mm or so, so u wont be able to tell....
besides shaking the drive shafts will only really give u the backlash in the diff centre not the bearing preload that is potentially causing u dramas

ok, so the next question, will the preload not being right make it get progressively worse over about 1000kms? and if its the diff, is it possible for it to be intermittant, not constant.

yes with the case being alloy and the diff and bearings steel there is a chance it will get worse (if it is the diff) as the steel will wear into the alloy.... i wouldn't think it would be intermittent but maybe if the diff bearings a spinning slightly in the case????

thats wierd, because i can get in it in the morning and it feels great, then after about 6 kms of easy driving it starts, and then it will stop and start, the wierdest thing is that is is made worse by going around right hand corners. i can also start (just today) to feel it getting worse as the suspension compresses over long gradual lumps and dips. This could be because the shafts are straightening out.
and sometimes it shakes when puting forward pressure on, and sometime when reverse pressure. and the gearbox is as quiet as ever, no whineing and easy as to shift. all this says shafts.

the other thing i noticed today is that the inner (green) joints have a milky brow lube in them, and it didnt feel very nice.
AND another thing, i just remembered it started to do tis But only once every 10 starts in second gear after i first lowered it, the same feeling, but not as bad.
thought?

the fact its made worse going around tight corners could again point to the diff as the spider gears are walking around and putting more pressure on the diff... it could also be that as the oil warms up it thins out so the tolerances will be increasing oil can take up 2 (i think its about) 0.020" about .5mm so again could be related

not even tight corners, just corners. i am going to check now

ok, so i just drove 10-15 kms, the first 5 k's was slow, being cautious of it, then i gave it a good walping, and not One vibration or shake, wtf? the only thing i have done is jack it up, and rev the car in 5th, and drive through floodwater, and this happened 2 days ago, and i havent touched it since?
so lesson learned, if your car shakes, drive it through some flood water haha.
the only thing i can think is that the water may have gotten into the shafts and done something and made the issue disapear, until i give it a real good drive.
the only thing is it might be tasmanian water to fix it that well, hhaaha

ok, i finally got a new lhs cv shaft today because it became really bad when turning right hand corners. new cv shaft and its all better.

good 2 hear....