Grinding / Bad Bearing...

[Spidermonkey]

When you say two piece shafts...you are thinking 4 door..correct? I am under the impression that one piece shafts were used on the 2 door models. The shaft I took off is a one piece and I am assuming its the original. Mine is a 2 door.

[Max]

When you say two piece shafts...you are thinking 4 door..correct?

Yep. With the center carrier bearing.

[Spidermonkey]

ok...little update.
I can't find any driveshafts for a 2 door anywhere. I took my driveshaft in after removing the u-joints as carefully as I could and inspected them. U-Joints seemed ok other then the sopt welds all overthem.
I took the old driveshaft pieces into a couple driveshaft repair / builder shops and they both tell me that the yokes cant be prurchased, its a metric "goofy" size, so unless I want to pay for a custom built, machined from scratch yokes and shaft..i'm out of luck.
I mentioned to them that I can find 4 door driveshafts as the wrecker yards have a few of those. He tells me If I can get him decent yokes/flanges he can just make up a tube to fit between them and i'll be good for much less cost.
DOes this sound like a feasable idea? Or maybe there is a driveshaft from a 4 door 2wd or something else that will fit??

[Wren]

Can't tell you about model trade-offs on parts but long time ago I worked in a machine shop and we did make or cut down and modify quite a few driveshafts there. It was just a part of daily business.

I did have a small battle with my Tracker on getting the correct tranny tailshaft seal. The frustrating part is that I don't know if the parts store was screwing it up or if there actually are different diameter yokes. Somebody else is going to have to chime in on that.

Wren

[Max]

I took the old driveshaft pieces into a couple driveshaft repair / builder shops and they both tell me that the yokes cant be purchased, its a metric "goofy" size, so unless I want to pay for a custom built, machined from scratch yokes and shaft..i'm out of luck.

So did either establishment actually run / check the shaft (or it's components) on a balancing machine (or similarly set-up lathe) and definitively point to the problem BEING the drive shaft, yoke, "U", or spline?

Or maybe a visual inspection was enough to obviously condemn it?

[Spidermonkey]

ok...I talked to a couple palces. The first place wouldn't touch it. He said he cant get the components, so he said i'm out of luck. I went to a second place who make custom driveshafts , repairs and are also a decent engine builder / machine shop. They looked at it and with reservation quoted me a price to fix it. It involved welding up all the yokes and re-machining the U-joint holes and snap ring grooves. Was expensive, however it was the problem. He said the shaft had runout of around 0.045, which is way to much. He also had to add some weights for balance. He put new u-joints in as well, as I was unsure of reusing the old ones after they had been welded on. It wasn't a cheap fix as I had to pay machine shop rate for a few hours of work and a couple new U-joints, but I just installed it and its runing smooth as silk (on the jack stands). Ill be taking it out for a spin tomorrow, but I dont expect any issues. Its been cold in the garage and it seemed to be worse the warmer the temps, but lets see what happens when I go for a drive tomorrow...

It appears as PROBLEM SOLVED! Who would have thought that much noise would come from a driveshaft....I have had them shake and make a helicopter sound, or squeek from being dry in other vehicals, but never a grinding / high speed bearing failure noise.

[Max]

Who would have thought that much noise would come from a driveshaft

Aquanaut and I both, early on in posting.

[Spidermonkey]

yes..I believe you did!
And I thank you for that insight!
I have worked on muscle cars mostly and had a few u-joints go in a 4wd truck, but never noises like this. Know I know what a bent driveline sounds like. Add one notch to my experience belt...

[Max]

I'm glad that you got it sorted, and enjoyed being part of the discussion group. It pleases me to know and still learn from such experiences. Thanks for sharing.

[aquanaut20]

Thanks for the feedback,

Glad you have it sorted out (seen a lot in my 65yrs), happy motoring.... Philip