Help with wobbly drive shaft

[2 Dogs John]

After pondering a strange noise emanating from under the car, crawled under to inpsect and found what I would describe as the inner drive shaft, on the drivers side, to move excessively. I presume that it is a case of worn bearings, can anyone tell me if this is a big job and what's involved and does it involve draining oil from, or removing parts from, the diff?

Also if this is a common problem, could anyone let me know what the parts are that are worn, so that I can order them before I start as I live in France and ordering them could take ages!

[laser_jock@work]

This has been talked about before I think.

Assuming you mean the drive shaft to the wheel from the front differential-there seems to be a certain amount of "freeplay" along the axis of this drive shaft (up to 8mm movement) which is nothing to worry about. If the looseness is in another direction e.g. up & down then you might have a problem.

Nevillef

[2 Dogs John]

yes we are talking about exactly the same drive shaft, but unfortunately the movement is up and down in fact in any direction. its easy to tell there is aproblem because the two sides are not the same,the opposite shaft is rock solid with the minimum of movement just rotation.

[marky]

it may have come out of the box, If you remove the complete hub from the caliper end with the driveshaft intact it just pulls out of the box, The shaft may have popped out somehow.

[Rytin80]

what type of noise?

Does your vehicle make the noise under load? or around corners? what exactly are the specific symptoms when it occures?

[2 Dogs John]

Popped out? Could you explain more as the handbook we have here isn't much use in this department.

I think you understand what I'm trying to describe but here's some more details: the passenger side, front drive shaft enters the diff via an extension tube. The other side does not have the tube, this is the side and at the point where the two 6 or 8 bolt flanges meet I can freely move shaft, flanges and all up and down. There are no oil leaks and I presume that this is what causes the faint knocking noise and some shake at speed.

Am I right in thinking the drive shafts rotate all the time, 2 or 4 wheel drive. Your help is much appreciated.

[Rytin80]

The inner drive shaft should be able to plunge in and out. This is normal operation. But if there is vabration at different speeds and under acceleration, it might be an inner drive shaft going bad. A true sign of this will be vibration during medium exceleration from about 25 ot 50 mph.

[sim]

After pondering a strange noise emanating from under the car, crawled under to inpsect and found what I would describe as the inner drive shaft, on the drivers side, to move excessively. I presume that it is a case of worn bearings, can anyone tell me if this is a big job and what's involved and does it involve draining oil from, or removing parts from, the diff?

Also if this is a common problem, could anyone let me know what the parts are that are worn, so that I can order them before I start as I live in France and ordering them could take ages!

Hi, Have you figured out what the cause of this problem is, mine is doing exactly the same, lots of up and down movment in the offside drive shaft. Contemplating pulling things to bits but am a bit worried about doing it.

[AndyLala]

Sounds similar to mine. It could be the brass bushes that align the drive shaft at the hub end. Look at the brass ring close to the splined end at the end of the hub in the first image, inside the wheel bearing bolts.

Bushes, outlined in the second image...


Part numbers taken from EPC for a Nov 1991 LN130W...

90381-30003 8904 - 9708 Bush (for Steering Knuckle RH)
90381-30006 8907 - 9708 Bush (for Steering Knuckle RH)

Of course, that would assume that the bearings are all set to spec and don't need tightening... and also assuming that this is exactly the same as your condition.

HTH, andyL

[sim]

Excellent, thanks for that, will get the wheel off over the weekend and have a butchers.

Thanks again

[andycook]

What was the verdict there?
my truck seems to have similar problem