OMFG please help, mysterious and persistant vibration in drivetrain

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Masospaghetti - 25 Jul 2005 06:13 GMT

This problem has been lingering for almost 9 months now and nobody seems
to know the answer, or they just tell me "its a 20 year old car, what do
you expect?"

I'm aware its 20 years old. I'm just trying to make it right again.

Its a 1985 Corolla, RWD, SR5. I just had the driveshaft rebuilt. Here ar
e the symptoms I'm getting:

1. Rumbling noise and vibration from about 30 MPH to 65 MPH -
independant of gear or engine speed. Just as bad in neutral as in any gear
2. Had a stethescope hooked up to it, very little vibration coming from
the support bearing itself, and a significant amount coming from the
rear end and transmission.
3. The rumbling and vibration ONLY STARTED when the driveshaft was replaced.

My question is this - could the tranny or driveshaft been ruined by the
installation? Could the driveshaft still be out of balance, even though
the reading is low on the support bearing? My mechanic said he was sure
that the shafts were in phase with each other. How can I check this?

Maybe I just have a shitty driveshaft?

Any responses are appreciated. I'm sick of getting a headache whereever
I drive.

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Shep - 27 Jul 2005 17:50 GMT

"Google" drivshaft phasing, this may be your problem, you will see where the
yokes/joints must be aligned, 2 piece is different than one piece shaft.

> This problem has been lingering for almost 9 months now and nobody seems
> to know the answer, or they just tell me "its a 20 year old car, what do
[quoted text clipped - 22 lines]
> Any responses are appreciated. I'm sick of getting a headache whereever I
> drive.

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Mike Romain - 28 Jul 2005 14:33 GMT

To be in phase the u-joints need to be at the same place on both ends of
the driveshaft. So if you put the shaft on the ground and have the
u-joint at one end flat with the ground, the other one has to be the
same. On some driveshafts, there is a slip joint so the u-joints can be
off a spline or even off 90 degrees so when one end is flat with the
ground, the other joint is pointing to the sky.

Even if the joints are lined up and the driveshaft has the spline split,
they could be 180 off. That means you pull the driveshaft apart and
rotate one end half around and put it back on.

The shop was 'supposed' to mark this before it came apart so they could
put it back together the right way.

Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

> This problem has been lingering for almost 9 months now and nobody seems
> to know the answer, or they just tell me "its a 20 year old car, what do
[quoted text clipped - 21 lines]
> Any responses are appreciated. I'm sick of getting a headache whereever
> I drive.

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Masospaghetti - 01 Aug 2005 00:41 GMT

> To be in phase the u-joints need to be at the same place on both ends of
> the driveshaft. So if you put the shaft on the ground and have the
[quoted text clipped - 39 lines]
>>Any responses are appreciated. I'm sick of getting a headache whereever
>>I drive.

Thanks for the responses. The problem is fixed!

The culprit? OUT OF BALANCE, after all that. The shop we had brought it
to must have lied or done it wrong, because I went to another shop, got
a hose clamp slapped on, and ta-da!

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