i'm writing this camped out behind a route 99 in rural Michigan, 2 hours from the Detroit border.

I left Vegas Friday at 6am and made it this far before something gave up the ghost.

On the I94, the Brat started shaking violently and pulling to one side.

Before I left, I put in new axles, bearings, brake pads (and hardware), tie rod ends and ball joints. After rebuilding the deont end I noticed the wheels were a bit out of alignment but drove it anyway (and made it pretty far). It starts shaking violently at about 60, but if I leave it alone for a few minutes, I can limp along without it shaking. Drive it about 20 miles on backroads in 2nd to where I am now (next to a garage that opens at 8). Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts. There's a clicking sound coming from the front passenger wheel (the one that pulls - it's been a bit toed in for 2000 miles). My hope is that it's not the tranny, I'll change the fluid tomorrow morning and look for metal flakes. In the interim, I welcome any advice! Just a few hundred more miles until I'm home in Toronto.

Pardon the spelling, I'm writing from my phone.

Take that axle out and check the ends for play. I think it's the axle. I had one do exactly that to me.

Make sure your axle nut didn't back off as well.

Just looked at it with the shop - the rotor is out of round and there's some play in the tie rod. My hope is when combined - that was the problem. They're machining the rotor now and I'm gonna try to limp home with the (minimal) play in my tie rod. I'll be setting my God to avoid highways and keeping braking to a minimum.

Goal is to get across about 40km's past the Detroit border into Windsor. After that I can call in a 320km tow from CAA/AAA.

I'll keep folks posted.

*GPS, not God (though any help right now is appreciated).

Sounds more like axle or brakes than transmission.

Inspect tires.   Bubble or tread separated?

  Sounds like you re-did the front end ... so I'm sure you know where to check fastener torques.

Hub stripped?

What brand axles? I just had a very similar sounding issue and the axle and it finally separated. Did you have troubles installing the axle?

 

I bought another set of new axles and have not had issues with one (surtrack), been having issues with the other (empi)... replacing the one I am having troubles with this weekend.

did you remove the bearing housing completely to do all that work? 

 

did you replace both bearings on each side, as well as the spacer between them?

 

did you torque the axle nut?  if so to what poundage (is that a word?)?

 

did you get new cone washers and spring washers?  was there a ridge on the cone washer you put on?

 

my thoughts are something wrong in the axle assembly; worn or damaged washers, low torque or backed off nut, bad axle.  I had the same thing happen to me, going 60 mph, and the nut came completely off.  I found all the parts in the hub cap when I got home.

 

did you loosen or remove control arm bolts, or radius rod parts to get the job done, and forget to tighten them back up?

 

id look to tires normally, but if it didnt do it before then I would guess its something you messed with recently

Made it home I hope, check and make sure the CV's are actually greased a few on here have had new replacement axles and some goose forgot to grease the CV's that's what it sounds like it could be if it's shaking and pulling to one side dry CV joints.