90km/hr Vibration - CV Inner/Outer

[BroNZ]

Found vibration while driving at 95km/hr on straights and bends on my recent buy 1993 Bighorn SWB 4X4 6VD1 MTM with Autohubs.
It has 31x10.5's Dynamics on some flashy HRS mags.
Jacked the rear and noticed the rear prop shaft was swinging instead of spinning. Stopped and checked the UJ's and all was solid no play. Removed the rear prop shaft and found both UJ's were locking or binding when checking for smooth movement. Had them replaced using Repco parts GUIS-52's and came with long grease nipples. Gave it to ATL Frankton Hamilton to replace cos it took nearly a whole day just to remove one end and I didn't wanna damage the newbies. Good price $150 incl balance.
Drove around with rear prop off and vibration still present while driving in 4WD....no chance of oil flying out as it was a flange fitting at both ends for the rear prop shaft.
Vibration still there So its from the Front drive train.
Jacked up the FRONT and found the LH wheel spinning and little or no movement on the RH wheel?? I did find it was easier to spin the LH by hand much more than the RH. The LH wheel didn't quite spin nicely it appeared to rotate in an oval way. Inspected balljoints, wheel bearings, steering links, brake components, cv boots and nothing detected. Swapped wheels around on the Front only and vibration noise remained on the LH side. Took off the now LH wheel and really didn't see anything outta place, even the CV axles spun true. There appeared to be some irregular low noise knocking near the hub but the hub spun true as well. Put the wheel back on and spun up the wheel and noticed again the tyre rotated in an oval way.
So had the wheel bearing on LH side replaced by Pitstop cos I don't have any muscle to get those brake calipers off.
Runs much smoother at slow speeds BUT still the vibration kicks in around 95km. LH & RH wheels now spin equally when jacked up.
The front Prop shaft appears to be ok too no swinging but a nice spinning action and no noise in its area.
Can I be looking at replacing the LH CV inner? I don't get the clicking sound when jacked up but when reversing straight back I hear some clicking on my right.
And now I've noticed more grinding noise when decelerating from 95km or more on the LH side.
I think I need to check front diff oil level first and suspect maybe both LH inner and outer CV's?

[slightlydodgy]

Is this latest vibration in 2wd or 4wd bearing in mind they weren't really designed to be doing open road speeds with 4wd engaged. That being said I'm wondering if your auto hub might not be releasing

[geeves]

wheel balence comes to mind but not with the noise. Also mud tyres can do weird things on seal What tyres are you running.
Auto hubs make diagnosing difficult. You have to drive back and forwards to lock and unlock them. The fact that you could drive in fwd suggests they are working fine.
Front driveshaft could be the issue. It has a spline as well as 2 ujoints. Is the vibration there in normal 2wd? Can you verify the hubs have released in 2wd. Only way I can think of checking this is to get a friend to drive the car slowly while you look at the cv joints to see if they are turning. If the vibration is there in 2wd and the cvs are not turning it is not a drive train issue

[BroNZ]

Slightly dodgy - thanks for that, I have considered the auto hubs but now when I think about it more maybe this is happening.
Cheers geeves - wheel alignment and balance was done on all four tyres no issues with an odd profile. Shims were needed for the camber on the RH front tyre. The Tyres are Dynamic AT's 31's x 10.5 on 15" rims. Aha - Thanks for the idea on the CV's - I'll get someone to drive - hopefully I don't get run over! I wasn't sure if the CV's move in 2wd. I had the LH autohub off and the matching pairs of teeth looked fine and nothing looked missing. I'll pull the front prop shaft off and check the UJ's. I'm not sure what your referring to as in splines? My front prop shaft is a 2piece also and at each end its bolted on to flanges (like the rear one). What i have noticed is the alignment marks on each flange are slightly off so its been removed and each half has been separated and not put together aligned - so I'll check those splines?

[geeves]

I think you just found your vibration. The spline between the 2 sections MUST be aligned so the crosses on the ujoints are paralell or it will vibrate

[BroNZ]

i hope so too geeves its priority - so will let you know in a week or so once i'm back in Hams

[turnturn]

Also go for a drive while the front drive shaft is off.

[BroNZ]

Hi turnturn, ok so I've removed the front prop shaft and vibration still exists.
Geeves the UJ's on the front prop are buggard so will get these replaced and balanced too. I pulled the front prop off in the wrong order & was kicking myself for this simple blunder. The prop is not aligned properly so ATL will sort it when i send it in. I haven't checked for CV movement yet.
Forgot to mention I replaced the rear right wheel with the spare and no change. What I will do is swap the front and rear LH wheels and see if I can get the steering to wobble.
Why? well I'm hearing the tyres on our smooth waikato highway making a shimmering sound instead of a nice even sound.

[geeves]

whith the front driveshaft out lift each front wheel turn it back and forwards at least 3 turns then look at the cv while turning the wheel It should be stationary. If so it is not the cv.
My money is still on a wheel bearing but remember sounds in these bodys dont always sound like they come from where they do. Also check rear wheel bearings

[BroNZ]

Ok so it aint the front - the CV's aint moving in 2WD. I jacked up the back and had the rear diff on stands and pulled the wheels off. Found that the hubs would make a rattle and realised that with the wheels fitted they don't rattle. The hubs though do have some small movements up n down and in n out - and vibrates more when the speed picks up to 80-95km/hr.Found one rear wheel would wobble more than others so thats now the spare. With the good rear wheels fitted the vibration is still there and more so on the LH side. So yes Geeves I'm gonna go for both rear wheel bearings. I don't hear anything suspicious and I can't tell if there is any play cos its solid and tight. The diff oil level is good just on the filler hole and nice and brown like golden syrup but not as thick. Nothing looks like its been smacked or hit a massive rock.

[geeves]

best way to do it if you can would be grab a couple of good axles complete from a wrecker. The bearing is a sealed bearing whick is pressed on then held in place by a pressed on collar. You have to cut the old bearing and retainer with a cold chisel to gert them off and use a hydrolic press to put them back on.

[BroNZ]

holy heck - i recall elsewhere the bearings take abit to get off like a 20ton press and some. okay cheers geeves - i can't tell if axles have got good bearings or not so looks like its going in to get done - dunno what i could get at the wreckers or trademe.

Seems I had vibration and noises in a variety of places.
1. Front and rear prop shafts - Universal joints and alignment - replaces UJ's and got them balanced
2. Front LH wheel bearing - replaced and no noise

What still exists
1. Vibration at 80-95km/hr - suspect rear wheel bearings - Initially misdiagnosed earlier on jacked up the rear and didn't notice the shimmer on the rear tyres
2. Noise on/in front diff LH side when decelerating in 4WD/FWD only - while driving around with rear prop shaft off - suspect LH inner CV or front diff - need to check oil level too.

Things are looking hopeful - thanks for your guidance geeves

[slightlydodgy]

The noise on the front left in 4x4 could be your front drive shaft When the splines on my front shaft got worn that's where the sound came from. Weird I know but as Geeves says sound does strange things in an Isuzu

[BroNZ]

We'll see ay slightlydodgy - the splines were in good order when i pulled it apart. So just waitin on it being ready for pickup and i'll go for a drive in 4wd and see if the noise up front is still there. Got a quote from Isuzu to replace rear wheel bearings for $500, the wheel bearings themselves were much cheaper from isuzu here in h-town at $100 each than repco & bts taranaki(link via trademe).

[geeves]

did isuzu also price the retainer? Did repco etc?

[BroNZ]

Huh - didn't save my last reply to geeves - anyway good question don't think so - will enquire.
Found those long hills south of Waiouru were good to roll down in neutral ....... and it was still there.
I may have to get the rims checked out too

[geeves]

you dont by any chance have dunlop tyres fitted? They have been known to go out of round

[BroNZ]

Nah geeves - I have Dynamics AT's. I've been told these too can be out of round but appear to be ok - 'cept for one that wobbled more than the others - so thats my spare.

[BroNZ]

Geeves - nah neither repco or Isuzu incl the retainer.... so that must be extra. Picked up both rear wheel bearings from isuzu for $230 all up. I'm chucking my suzy in for a WOF tomorrow and will get the boy racer pipe taken off so I can hear any vibration. I've noticed on smooth roads that the vibration starts at 50k and gets more noticeable round 80k. The front prop got its UJ's replaced and balanced by ATL in Hams fitted last weekend no funny noises up front anymore - that I can tell with the big pipe on the back but vibration still present. How much effort is needed to get those rear brake calipers off? I had a crack at the front and almost followed thru Do I need to remove a circlip in the diff to pull the axles out? its a 93 ubs25. Cheers.

[geeves]

wheel off, cables, off 2 22mm i think bolts hold the complete calliper assembly to the plate on the diff slide calliper off and let hang on pipe remove disk Think handbrake has to be off for this. 4 bolts hold axle assembly in diff.
easy