Hey all. It's been a while since I started a new thread. I have spent the entire month of January trying to fix the front end vibration on the 82. I have had it to Dobbs (similar to Les Schwab's) 4 times. Tonight I picked it up and I was told they have pretty much done everything they can. Buuuuuuut......

 

After 3 alignments and re-balances I still have the same driveline vibration under accelleration and deceleration on hills, then also during straight-a-ways between 53-64 MPH. It comes and goes. I am convinced it is due to axle or rotor out of balance.

 

During the 3rd re-balance at Dobbs I replaced the 13" rally alloys with Toyo 185/75/R13's and put on the Pugeot 15" snowflake's with Cobra GT 195/60/R15's. (BTW Ed, these are the rims I have been draggin' around for 4 years just waiting to put on!). So we know all rims and rubber are perfect. Which leaves only axle, rotor, or dragging brake. I rulled out motor mounts and clutch by hitting neutral at 60 and still had the vibrations.

 

There is no lift.

 

The axles are relatively new, Advanced auto re-mans. I am tempted to buy a set from the guy at CCR, but it might be cheaper to just have them done here at a Sub dealer $$$$$$. :-(

 

Rotor are moded to vented disks and the calipers are both new rebuilts. all the hardware is under 1 year old.

 

Any thoughts on the matter? By driving on the vibration for a while I have begun to ruin the inner right DOJ, you can here it begining to pop. (or is it the begining of the pop that is causing the vibrations...)

 

If a tree falls in the forest... anyway..

 

I have already sunk 400.00 into parts and labor yet still have the issue. although it isn't as bad as it was now, that the steering is not sloppy.

 

I welcome any suggestions!

Kurt

sounds like drive shaft/u joint issues to me. is it 4WD? i would look nowhere else until you carefully inspect all of your ujoints.

I hadn't thought about the rear driveline...hmmm.

you have rear drive line. okay, now i'll go ahead and say that i'm feeling very confident that you have a bad ujoint. wasn't sure if this thing could have been FWD or not.

 

rear diff - maybe, but don't even think about that until you inspect those ujoints like nobody's business. the driveshaft on most soobs comes off REALLY easy so pull it and check if this vibration is really eating you up. the bad ujoint will feel lumpy as you move it and if it's bad enough it will be seized or have obvious signs of failure and breakage on it.

if youre getting it on acceleration and decelleration, i would have to second the driveline notion, even if oyure not in 4WD the driveline still has to be moved, maybe the rear driveline stabilizer thingy is loose or your u-joints are bad, have you checked the rear-end for loose bolts or unusual toe-in, oyu said you had it aligned, did they do the back ? I had a similar problem, but it was just a torn CV boot that lost all its grease.

 

 

 

 

~Josh~

I will check it out. The amazing thing is I never once suspected the rear end. I'll take a look at it this weekend.

check your motor mounts, transmission mounts, and pitch stopper too just to be sure.

don't get caught up thinking about 10 other items, you'll find what you're looking for if you inspect all your ujoints. one thing at a time - check it and let us know how it turns out.

have you checked your inner cv joints to see if you have movement up and down at the transaxle, you could have bearing failure in your transaxle at the driveshaft.

I say U joints Then trans/motor mounts. My hatch did this just as I would reach 2700 rpms and up I did the trans/ mount rebuild using the 3M widow goop( dicussed in forum trans mount search) now its solid If you donT want to make them Anchor has them for 20.00 thats the chaepest I have found. I hate to sat it but I recently went thru the same headach before getting to the source hope this helps LThttp://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=235898#

As far as I know I can remove the rear driveline and drive with out it can't I?

 

That will isolate the disturbance. If it dissapears ethen u joints are the way to go, if it doesn't tehn back to the front end.

 

Kurt

NO!

 

The driveline is one piece in the Brat. If you remove it and try to drive you will lose fluid out the rear. If the joints are failing you will notice one will be hard to rotate or will not rotate at all. To check for slop you should check them in the car by placing sideways pressure at the joint and looking for movement. Axles are harder to tell though.

Thanks Ken,

 

I thought both the front and rear were individually sealed. Good thing I didn't try! :-)

 

The snow should be gone by tomorrow so I'll crawl up underneath there and look.

 

Kurt

Ditto the U-joints, and they feel like a front end vibration too. Let us know what you find out Kurt. Later, Tim

I said screw it and went out anyway. The joints seem ok, no movement to speak of. Although when I pulled back and forth you can hear a metallic "rattle" inside the shaft. I know the shafts are hollow, but what else is inside that would make that sound?

I said screw it and went out anyway. The joints seem ok, no movement to speak of. Although when I pulled back and forth you can hear a metallic "rattle" inside the shaft. I know the shafts are hollow, but what else is inside that would make that sound?

Take a big screwdiver and insert between the u-joint and rack it back and forth. If you have any movement at all the u-joint is bad.

Is there mud inside there? You know why I am asking.

Doh!

 

I dont' know of any way it could...

 

You'd love these new pugs and rubber Shawn. I'll post pics soon after I finally wash the car! Mideast winter road scum...

i don't think you can properly diagnose the ujoints without removing the driveshaft, if you're really good and have seen enough of them, maybe. looking for play works sometimes, looking for visible signs of wear or ujoint failure sometimes work, but i've also seen ujoints that are entirely locked up...won't move at all, completely seized. they would not have any play in them and appeared good when installed, but are equally bad. at the point in rotation where the ujoint needs to *give* it doesnt and that causes vibration.