Help! Vibration Problem.

[Scorpion]

Hi guys, after yesterdays major service it appears the Surf has developed a problem.

It's one of those that's hard to describe so please bear with me. The prop was removed to facilitate the fitting of the new front and rear seals. While the prop was off the UV joints were greased and the sliding spline section was packed with grease as it was bone dry.

The problem is since this was done the Surf has developed what can only be described as a cross between a vibration and a judder when accelerating, but only between 10 to 30 mph. Once it hits 30 it's gone. The judder occurs on normal acceleration but if you push it hard it isn't noticable. If you take your foot off the pedal while accelerating and 'coast' it goes away.

My mechanic mate thinks that either the prop has gone back on the wrong way, which has caused imbalance, or the grease in the sliding spline section is so compressed it isn't allowing the spline to slide.

So, any other theories gents and can the prop go back on the wrong way? Surely the holes are offset to prevent this happening. As usual any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks all. Jim.

[blakarm]

Hello mate. Before you start pulling owt apart again, you could try removing the grease nipple that feeds the splines, and see if the grease squirts out under its own pressure, but then, if it was overly packed with the shaft out, you may have had bother trying to get it back in? Worth trying the "sounds daft, but it could work" stuff first.

[stormforce]

You'll normally find the vibration starts and stops at low speed but as the uj gets worse the vibration will get a hell of alot worse.I would alomost gaurentee its the rear prop shaft uj on its way out.When mine went recently it started the same as yours and i couldn't see any probs but it just got worse and then let go.
I have a 3.0l auto rear prop here if needed and a 2.4auto but they are the same size.The manual surfs props are different sizes so be carefull if you do buy 2nd hand tho

[BioHazard]

If they have had the prop off have they put it back correctly



Do the yolks line up??

[yoshie]

Jim props should always be marked before being removed split, if they have failed to do this it may just need moved. Trial and error am afraid mate.
If the hard spicer joint is feced their a bit of a gitter to do, just done two on our Alans truck.

I would seperate the prop and move it round one notch and try again.(then repeat}
As it's a low speed problem that's just appeared I would bet that's the problem mate.

[sv1000spilot]

As above, very easy to get shaft out by one spline, I know as I've done it

Easy enough to drop shaft and make sure that the joints are at 90 to each other and put back, less than an hour.

[TonyN]

I would seperate the prop and move it round one notch and try again.(then repeat}
As it's a low speed problem that's just appeared I would bet that's the problem mate.

the yokes on the prop should be on the same plane both ends, sounds like the the splined bit is 90 deg out, or not anywhere near

[Scorpion]

Thanks guys. My initial thought was that the prop didn't go back on the same way. I had my mate do the prop as my days of lying under a car on the drive are long gone!

As a fitter I always mark up anything I take apart and assumed he did the same, after talking to him he informed me that he didn't mark it up as he thought the holes would be aligned so that it would only go back on one way.

Richard, both uv joints were checked when they were off mate and no undue movement was detected. My mate also got under the truck while I shifted it between drive, neutral and reverse and he said there was no undue take up in the uv's.

I guess your theory is right Alan, it looks like a trial and error senario of moving it one hole forward at a time. What a p!sser!

[EDIT] Thanks also to SV and Tony, your replies must have been posted while I was typing this out!

[Scorpion]

Okay, had a look under the truck tonight and the yolks are off by about 60 degrees.

I'll get it straightened out as soon as it stops raining! Hopefully all will be well.

Thanks again for some great pointers to the possible cause of the problem.

BTW who moved my post? I thought I was losing it when I couldn't find it in the General section.

(I know it should have been here in the first place, but I'm an impatient barsteward!)