Severe Shake ??? Not Drivable

[Big MAK]

I'm totally stumped. I've had a fairly pronounced shudder at take off the last few months; I thought the carrier bearing was going out so no big deal I'd replace it when I got around to it.



Now; it's litterally not drivable. -SEVERE- vibration. I'm afraid it's gonna come apart. What the... ? Has my clutch come apart? Ring & Pinion? Transfer Case? How can I tell?



A hint may be it 'gave up' right after going over a pot hole.



Yeah; I make too much power so I'm not blaming anything I just want to fix it -- but I really don't know where to start. I'll take any input and try to sort it out.



What's kinda bugging me as it's winter and the truck has not been driven hard at all this entire time; no towing; no racing; nothing. So I'm very surprised it broke.

 

[jwilliams3]

When does this happen? Be more specific?

Try letting out on the clutch slowly see if it starts then.

 

[Big MAK]

Happens when moving. I don't think the clutch; since happens whether power is applied or not. I'm kinda leaning towards rear diff being toast. Gear set; R&P failure. Rolling it vibrates severely; even w/o power being applied.



Other subject: If I replace the gearset; I'm thinking of going to 4. 10s since I run 35" tires; opinions?

 

[jwilliams3]

unscrew the diff plug stick in a mechanics magnet, see whats up.

 

[JHardwick]

My bet is the rear driveline. The last time I had rear u-joints go out, I literally stopped and got out looking for the rear driveshaft to be hanging there. It was so bad that I was actually getting stared at idling into a parking lot, so I know it wasn't my imagination :-laf

 

[sick_ram]

sounds like u joints

 

[JHardwick]

BTW, grabbing the rear drive shaft trying to find some slop yielded nothing.

 

[JPudenz]

Been there

I had this exact same thing happen to mine... I thought the rear end had come apart, as I checked the u Joints and they seemed new. Ended up being the driveline came out of balance. They replaced the whole unit and do to me driving it with the vibration for a week or so, they replaced my ring and pinion gear as they said there was unusual wear, they showed the gears to me and it was so minor I would not have even thought to replace it. I thought at the time that they were just trying to suck money from DC. Seeing as I got new parts for free I didn;t complain...



It was most noticable taking off and coming to a stop but then it got worse and was happening pretty much all the time.



Hope this helps.



JJ

 

[JCleary]

I'm totally stumped. I've had a fairly pronounced shudder at take off the last few months; I thought the carrier bearing was going out so no big deal I'd replace it when I got around to it.



Now; it's litterally not drivable. -SEVERE- vibration. I'm afraid it's gonna come apart. What the... ? Has my clutch come apart? Ring & Pinion? Transfer Case? How can I tell?



A hint may be it 'gave up' right after going over a pot hole.



Yeah; I make too much power so I'm not blaming anything I just want to fix it -- but I really don't know where to start. I'll take any input and try to sort it out.



What's kinda bugging me as it's winter and the truck has not been driven hard at all this entire time; no towing; no racing; nothing. So I'm very surprised it broke.

I had a '83 Bronco, lifted, 35"s, serious 351, so serious it got 6mpg. Faster than my '86 Mustang 5. 0 up to about 60.



Anyway, I had a C6 in it, but the truck developed a shudder at take-off, and also on deceleration. Since I had no money at the time (it all went into the fuel tank :-laf ) I ignored it.



One day I nailed the throttle to merge onto the freeway, and I ended up shooting some steel chunks through the diff cover.



Upon inspection it turned out that the vibration was caused by the pinion gear rubbing against the carrier for the spider gears (whatever it's called).



Perhaps inspecting with a magnet is a good idea, or pull the cover off altogether. The gasket is reusable.

 

[Big MAK]

Think I will inspect the rear diff to be sure. Got the truck off the ground and went to turn the driveshaft and there was a very noticable bind in the rear driveshaft's front u-joint (just behind carrier bearing). Replaced that u-joint and the rear one while it was apart; solved.



I never would have thought a u-joint could cause that; but live and learn I guess. No play at all; just a bind. The bind caused the driveshaft to wobble inside the carrier bearing making that wear out prematurely. Now the vibration/shudder is almost gone .



I have a new carrier bearing coming from a dealer in Topeka (not available from Dodge Corporate right now; nationwide back-order) and I'm going to replace the front u-joint and carrier when it arrives.

 

[ThomasLawrence]

Glad to hear you found the problem. I was about to suggest (and still will, for future reference ) removing the rear portion of the rear driveshaft (undo the boot over the slip joint, and remove the rear portion), then drive the truck in 4WD. This would have taken all the load off the rear driveshaft (obviously), but would still be turning the rear axle, so if the vibration was still there, it would point to the diff. The front portion of the shaft (from the carrier bearing up to the slip yoke into the transfer case) remains in place, so the transfer case doesn't spit out fluid (this only works with a two-piece driveshaft, obviously)



A buddy's truck lost his rear driveshaft at the axle one time, and I had him do this on the side of the road to get him running again until we could fix it. He drove a front-wheel drive Ram for about a week



-Tom

 

[BRayls]

Think I will inspect the rear diff to be sure. Got the truck off the ground and went to turn the driveshaft and there was a very noticable bind in the rear driveshaft's front u-joint (just behind carrier bearing). Replaced that u-joint and the rear one while it was apart; solved.



I never would have thought a u-joint could cause that; but live and learn I guess. No play at all; just a bind. The bind caused the driveshaft to wobble inside the carrier bearing making that wear out prematurely. Now the vibration/shudder is almost gone .



I have a new carrier bearing coming from a dealer in Topeka (not available from Dodge Corporate right now; nationwide back-order) and I'm going to replace the front u-joint and carrier when it arrives.

you say almost gone? after doing this myself I still have a vibration under power in upper rpm's of 3-4-5 th gears? anyone,? is thast similar to yours ?

 

[Big MAK]

No vibration at all at speed. Some vibration at launch due to sloppy carrier bearing; that'll get fixed next week when the part arrives. There's about a qrtr inch play in the carrier bearing; so when torqued at launch theres some wobble/shake/shudder from it. I'm positive that's from the u-joint beating on it the last few thousand miles.