Vibration

[tea18]

Gday guys,

I've got a '79 te72 t18 that is 100% stock. I have developed a severe vibration. I think its in the drivetrain as there is no vibration through the steering wheel. Another symptom is that it eases if I throttle on slightly, taking up freeplay I guess you could say. It also seems to get better and pretty much go away over about 40kph and its there regardless of being in or out of gear.

So I jumped under the car to check it out and the center bearing had a crapload of play in it. I have replaced that and it has made no difference to the vibration at all.

The gearbox, tailshaft and diff all seem to spin normally and everything 'looks' normal.

Any ideas as I'm lost as to where to look now?

Cheers

[Sam-Q]

tailshaft balance

[tea18]

This happened all of a sudden so wouldn't be suss on the tailshaft.

[Sam-Q]

the above point is a good one. I said tailshaft because one of the counterweights could of been knocked off with a rock or something. Admittedly I am don't know much about this subject

[ToddW]

When you replaced the centre bearing were the uni joints free and not binding?

[tea18]

The unis were fine from memory but worth having a look at.

[assassin10000]

There should be some slop/play in the center bearing mounting holes when the bolts are loose. Try and move it so the driveshaft looks almost inline from directly below.

Also check the pinion flange for play, bad pinion bearings could cause this too.

Andrew

[tea18]

I was thinking something with the pinion as the vibe goes through the whole car ie something connected to the body.

So pinion flange, just check the big nut is torqued correctly?

[assassin10000]

Not just that, check the flange itself for play up/down, left/right and in/out. As play like that is a sign of failed pinion bearings.

Although, now that I think about it more, you would also have horrible rear end noise if it was bad. So it's probably not.

Andrew

[tea18]

There is a horrible vibration noise but its hard to tell where its coming from while in the car, I'll check the flange.