Recently ive been getting an odd rattle/vibration noise at speeds of around 60mph+ which ive become more, and more wary of. It only makes the noise on neutral throttle, i.e there is no noise when the transmission in under load through either acceleration, or deceleration engine braking. So this weekend, i thought id have a good look to see if i can definitively find out where the problem is.

i started by removing my centre tunnel cover so i could check the prop centre bearing was ok, which it was, i then checked both ends of the prop that attach to the diff, and prop adapter, everything seemed fine there

Next i jacked the back end off the floor, and put it on axle stands. i then chocked the front wheels with some rubber wheel chocks ive got to stop it wanting to go back, of forward. I then started up the engine, and went through my gears upto 6th, and then increased the speed upto around 60 when the noise started to appear. It sounded like it was coming from the nearside of the car, which my wife confirmed as she was stood behind the car.

i then stopped the engine, and put in in neutral. i then layed under the car, and slowly spun each wheel by hand to see if i could see anything. what i found was that the offside driveshaft looked fine, rotated nice, and smooth, with no movement, but the nearside shaft was moving in and out. The end that goes into the hub looked fine, and the end that goes into the diff was fine... it was the long cetrepiece that moved about 5mm back and forth

i then started the engine again in 1st gear,a nd let the wheels spin at tickover speed. looking at the shaft it was deffinately moving in and out. as a final check i pushed my foot against the wheel with the dodgy shaft to stop the wheel spinning, the other wheel spun up fine, i then released it, and pushed my foot against the good side so the dodgy side would spin up, and the shaft/diff on that side started making a grating/clattering noise, so there was definately something wrong with just that side.



so we decided to take remove the shaft to see what was going on.

after removing the shaft i removed the cv boot, and had a feel around inside, and it felt like there was something not quite right





so i held the driveshaft up, and gave it a little tap on the floor, and this shard of metal fell out





it is round in profile, and looks like it os off something circular in shape... i can only presume that the rest of it is floating around inside somewhere too. when you rotate the cv joint around mimicking its motion it is very clunky, and notchy, so it is definately fecked in there

Could have been much worse though.. could have been the diff knackered, and id have to try find another 3.38


What is by best option to get back on the road?

buy 1 new shaft?
buy a pair of shafts?
get this shaft repaired?

Are driveshafts normally modified lengthwise to fit in these, or should any sierra push in shaft work?

[Edited on 13/9/09 by Davey D]

Looks like a bit of circlip to me.

There's one that hols the tripode/spider onto the end of the shaft. IIRC there's 3 more that hold the 3 bearings onto each leg of the spider.

Worth checking further to see if it's one of them come off.

see if you can have a new joint fitted why change bothe if only one has failed

If you want to order a reconditioned one, do not get it from Autoparts Warehouse. This is what they sent me, it took lots of phone calls over 3 weeks to have it collected and to get my payment refunded. Item was clearly faulty and customer service was very bad indeed.

linker

I think that may well be part of the spring that has broken, and would explain the backward and forward movement.

Get some new shafts Dave, or change to lobro. The lobro diff bolt on ends will push into the diff no bother and a lobro will fit on the end of your push in shaft (as long as its 36~28mm and not 23~24).

I'm currently changing my diff to a one that uses bolt on shafts and just removing the inner ends off the push in shafts to replace with bolt on lobro's

quote:

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Originally posted by coozer
Get some new shafts Dave, or change to lobro. The lobro diff bolt on ends will push into the diff no bother and a lobro will fit on the end of your push in shaft (as long as its 36~28mm and not 23~24).

I'm currently changing my diff to a one that uses bolt on shafts and just removing the inner ends off the push in shafts to replace with bolt on lobro's

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