I Just finished the deal with "Bad-Brat No Cookie" for his 85 Brat. I'll be picking it up over the holidays for the journey from VA to KY (I'm only in NM for my job for about another month)

 

The Brat has "Front End Vibration" as he states it. The front axle was replaced about 2000 miles ago.

 

Any ideas of the problem? Axle itself? Front Diff? CV Joint? And what I could do to it when I arrive for the pickup?

 

I should be placing it on a trailer if all goes according to plan...but if I could get a "quick fix" so to speak, I'd just drive it home, if this "death wobble" isn't too bad, considering it was his daily driver for 2 years. The vibration is why he sold it, was just tired of working on it.

 

Thanks for the thoughts ahead of time.

it is possible it could be the axle itself, but i would start by checking the rest of the front end - ball joints, tierods, shocks (yes, they can cause vibrations!), all of the suspension bushings and tire/wheel balance. also check wheel bearings. any of those items can cause a "front end vibration".

wouldnt hurt to check all four corners either - sometimes a problem in the rear (out of balance wheel, wheel bearings, shocks, etc) can cause what feels like a front end vibration.

 

Good luck with the "new" toy.

it could also be somewhere in the wheels nd tires. perhapse a rim might be lightly out of round or bent somewhere, or it could have lost a wheel weight somewhere along its way. ive had all that happen to me:( but yeah, also check the inside of the rim, might have axle grease hanging around, doesnt take much to unbalance a wheel and cause vibation.

I've been trying to track down the cause of a front end, or at least a steering wheel shake on my Hatch for a over year now. New GCK axles, new rotors, just put 4 new snow tires on it today and I watched the man balance them, and it still shakes at speed. New ball joints are next.

 

If you can lift the wheels off of the ground and try to wobble them, it can tell you a lot. Side to side, or front to rear, would be steering play, top to bottom would be ball joints. An inner axle joint(DOJ) causes a shake when it wears out. A worn rack and pinion assembly or inner tie rods will do it too.

There are so many things that can cause it, and so many bad things that can, have, and will happen if it breaks while driving, that I would say put it on a trailer. It's not worth dying over.

The only thing I really worry about "breaking", I mean to the point stuff falls off, is ball joints and tierods. If that's all good, and wheel bearings are good, I'd feel fine driving it.

I would switch tires from front to rear and rear to front. Start simple, then move on to the rest. If it is the DOJ it should be felt with a under the vehicle shake by hand. Everyone that went bad on me vibrated worse around 45 mph. Wheel bearingsare harder to figure but my last one was the left front and it vibrated worse at 50 and would almost disappear at 60mph. That has ben my experience of over 10 years with my Brat and hope it helps you.

My suspision is bad new axle. I've seen it happen on quite a few subaru's personally. If you have a spare set of known good ea81 axles I'd take them with you and swap them in.

 

 

 

What part of KY do you live in?

Thanks for the input so far...I suspected some of the things mentioned...and I agree, there are way too many things that the wobble could be to know for sure...but I hope to be able to check a few things out when I pick it up and go from there...

 

It looks like I will be able to trailer it....but just in case that falls through I wanted some other options...

 

I live very near to Lexington, KY...about 45 minutes away....

One other thing, on my left front wheel bearing it passed the jack the car up and shake the wheel back and forth test two times. Only after many months and a third try did it show any motion when jacked up that would indicate wheel bearing, and that roaring noise that had started up also.

My old 87 Brat had a vibration I could not get rid of. I tried everything and then sold it in that condition. They emailed me a week later saying they had a guy fix it and it was the u joints in the driveshaft. I still dont know how that can be but it would vibrate alot on the highway.

Shawn, funny you mentioned that as I just replaced my U joints a couple of months ago. Mine made an audible clicking noise at low speed, kind of like a rock in a hub cap type thing. Lucky me the driveshaft was about to fall out. Maybe it is good for another 20 years. Oh, my U joints caused no vibration that I felt at all, must have a very balanced driveshaft.

It looks like I am going to have to drive the Brat home...I'll start with rotating the wheels, and go from there...when I finally make it home I'll park the Brat and go through everything you guys listed and whatever else I can come up with!

Good luck and let us know what you find.

Thanks I'll keep you guys posted