Vibration At Speed

[horrace]

Hi everybody i have an interesting problem for ya,

I have had a vibration problem when cruising since i bought my car a month ago, since then i read the thread about the front drive shaft uni joints and other people descriptions of the symptoms seamed the same as mine.....

so today i pulled my front drive shaft out and went for a drive and what do you know the vibration has gone completely yay!

but looking at my uni joints they look pretty OK, im wondering wether i should try another shaft of if i can have mine rebuilt and balanced here in W.A. What should i do?

any help would be great

Cheers fellas.

[KiwiRS4T]

Well where i live (not in WA) there are people who put new universals in driveshafts and balance them. Some universals are allegedly "not serviceable" i.e. they do not have circlips holding them together but these can be machined out by a competent shop and new ones put in. I am sure you can find someone like that not too far away.

Also do not drive too long (or hard) with the driveshaft out - you will damage the transfer box.

[horrace]

yeah i only drove about 20 k's just to check without the rear loosing traction, but then there are mixed opinions weather it does damage or not, but anyway i think the stagea shaft is the non servicable i cant see any circlips so i might take it to VEEM they are a well know shop here in W.A.

[M I K E]

i think people worry about running without driveshafts far too much. it is what every 2 wheel dyno place will do to dyno these cars

what wheels are you running horrace? could it be the attessa kicking up a fuss at a certain speed if front and rear rolling diameter isn't close enough? would explain why it has gone away with the front shafts removed

[KiwiRS4T]

Not too many 2wd dyno shops are experts on the Atessa system. I won't put my car on a 2wd dyno.

[M I K E]

this is true

[horrace]

I'm running shitty roh wheels ATM all with the same profile Tyres so Im guissing it's not that.

[Stinky Rooster]

any R33 gtr shaft will fit, as will the GT4 jobbie. I went through this here in WA with my S1 and like you said, the shaft isnt serviceable (by anyone we could find) so we just slapped a GTR shaft in there. If VEEM can help you out, post up some details, but when I asked them about 3 years ago all I got was a disbeliving snort (they didnt know anything at all about nissans, let alone stageas. Too many nissans are FWD for a tailshaft place I think)

[horrace]

ah ok ill see how i go with them tomorrow otherwise i guess its second hand ey, the thing that gets me is the fact the unis look ok, btw it only had the vibration once its warmed up and it was bad at 80k's and 100k's, so i think it must take time for the uni's to heat up and loosen what do you reakon Rooster?

[horrace]

BTW, any recomendations on wreakers to try? i only ever went to 1 when i had my s13 because it was pretty trouble free.

[horrace]

Updates!

ok, after running around this morning this is the info i have come up with.

1. A wrecker has a second hand on for $330 but who's to say its any better than the one i have so i wont be taking this option unless its a last resot.

2. I went to VEEM and john (very helpful) there confirmed 100% both the uni's on my shaft are well rooted and hes getting back to me with a quote tomorrow he thinks around the $600 mark, hes not sure weather we can reuse and of the old shaft or housings so ill have to wait and see.

3. Went to magic nissan and a new shaft is 1300 shipped! (oh snap) i expected as much though, so yeah im waiting to hear from VEEM i'll let yall know how i go!

[bubba]

$600?!

Try Final Drive, I got them to build my tailshaft after VEEM quoted an exorbitant price.

[horrace]

final drive ey ill give em a try, thanks for that. what did it cost you through them, and was it your front shat because that is the hard one to do be cause of the small size of the uni's.

Edited August 17, 2009 by horrace

[KiwiRS4T]

$600 ??!! I am sure if you posted it to me in Auckland I could get them done and posted back to you for less than that! I sold my old front shaft for $60 - could possibly find you another if you get stuck. Hope "Final Drive" come through for you.

[lilcrash]

sorry to interupt but i have a simlar problem, the faster i go the more i wobble. interested to see how you go.

[horrace]

i rang final drive and they gave me a similar quote over the phone, as he said he does GTR ones a fair bit and these are very similar so he said 600 plus as well (this is for new bearings which will be servicable, which is what VEEM are doing), so im just getting VEEM to do it and i should get it back by the end of the week as they have to order in the small size uni joints. What cost the money is the machining at $120/h, its at leat 3 hours of machine work they reakon. also at half the cost of a new one (i wouldnt bother with second had only to end up with the same problem down the track) i think its a reasonable price but others may disagree.

[Stinky Rooster]

sorry dude, I have been away from my pooter

OK, I got a second hand one fitted and had NO problems (remember that the front shft doesnt actually "do" that much work most of the time) As for the vibration, mine started out as an annoying clicking sound that I spent a week trying to figure out. When I finally got around to getting it looked at, one of the bearings had already collapsed and the uni was half hanging out. This was way out of proportion to the sound it made, so if you do have this problem get on to it ASAP. I was damn lucky mine hadn't snapped. The resulting damage doesn't bear thinking about.

While $600 sounds damn expensive on the face of it (mine was replaced under warranty so I have NFI how much it cost) the fact that you will have servicable uni's makes it a very worthwhile excersize IMO, and if I was doing it myself, that is probably the path I would tread, but for the busted ass broke amongst us, there is also the option of looking up Maytech here in Perth. They bring in a few stags now and again for the engines, and I have seen them sell stuff like transfer cases, autos etc out of his half cuts for next to nothing...

[pyro-ns]

quick question, is this a shaking through the wheel?

i thought ours just needed an alignment i hope that's all it needs

[horrace]

sorry dude, I have been away from my pooter

OK, I got a second hand one fitted and had NO problems (remember that the front shft doesnt actually "do" that much work most of the time) As for the vibration, mine started out as an annoying clicking sound that I spent a week trying to figure out. When I finally got around to getting it looked at, one of the bearings had already collapsed and the uni was half hanging out. This was way out of proportion to the sound it made, so if you do have this problem get on to it ASAP. I was damn lucky mine hadn't snapped. The resulting damage doesn't bear thinking about.

While $600 sounds damn expensive on the face of it (mine was replaced under warranty so I have NFI how much it cost) the fact that you will have servicable uni's makes it a very worthwhile excersize IMO, and if I was doing it myself, that is probably the path I would tread, but for the busted ass broke amongst us, there is also the option of looking up Maytech here in Perth. They bring in a few stags now and again for the engines, and I have seen them sell stuff like transfer cases, autos etc out of his half cuts for next to nothing...

yeah that's why I don't mind spending the money cause it can be serviced and I'm broke too don't worry about that lol.

[horrace]

quick question, is this a shaking through the wheel?

i thought ours just needed an alignment i hope that's all it needs

I'd get an alignment first to be sure aswell as a wheel balance but my vibration was sort of through the car it's kind of hard to describe it. I just hope this fixes it I'll post up the results, but either way the unis were rooted and needed doing.