- Joined
- Mar 7, 2010
- Messages
- 954
- Country Flag
A few months ago I replaced my Old Man Emu suspension thats been on the truck for 9 years now, and served me very well, with a new EFS setup with a 3" lift, and caster correction dropboxes and new bushes in the front arms instead of the OME caster correction bushes, which again did fine & wern't worn out.
Also extended the ARB droplinks & new extended brake pipes etc
all was fine until after a month or so I was driving up the motorway & noticed a slight vibration when easing off the power and was only very slightly accelerating & under load that appeared to come from the front part of the truck.
I had also replaced all the other bushes with a full set of Superpro ones I had had in the garage for several years, I know I know OEM is best!
So first changed all the UJs, & greased splines etc etc....... no different,
still there when under very slight load at 55-60 mph.
Now, as this had only started after fitting the new suspension, I thought it must be something to do with the prop angle into the front diff as this was obviously slightly different than the previous setup.
At the Stratton arms club meet, checked the phasing of the front prop under the supervision of Chris which was 1 or 2 splines out (& had been for years, as the matchmarks I put on were aligned).
Rephased it .......no different
Chris did comment that there was some slight play in the front diff
Had a spare front diff in need of a rebuild at home, so duly posted it off to our diff Guru ( wont name him in case he gets inundated with diffs to rebuild......unless he wants me to!)
Fitted the rebuilt diff which felt lovely.............no different,
By now I was tearing my hair out in clumps as Ive got a months trip away planned & dont want problems in remote foreign places.
Also had a spare transfer box in the garage with worn input shaft & bearings etc, so had that rebuilt with lots of new internals, and swapped it over........... youve guessed it, no bloody different!
In desperation I swapped the front arms over with Sams, as these had OEM bushes in, as I figured as I hadnt had the vibration before it must have been something that I had done that was causing it, triple checked everything else was tight & couldnt find any play anywhere............No different
thinking, was it worn splines in the prop, prop out of balance? so removed front & rear props to check the splines etc double checked the match marks were aligned, then it dawned on me, was the rear prop in phase....No, it was 90 degrees out, but its been like this for the 10 years ive had the truck, so refitted it in phase and BINGO, the vibration has gone.
So after spending a fortune on diff, transfer box rebuilds & loads of other stuff, and now having a monk like haircut (or a crop circle on my head) the truck is as smooth as a babys bum!
The moral of this story is, dont take it as correct how things have been fitted / assembled by others, even if been working fine, check, check & check, and check the cheap / simple things first, and that strange noises may not actually be coming from the area they appear to be coming from!
Andy
Also extended the ARB droplinks & new extended brake pipes etc
all was fine until after a month or so I was driving up the motorway & noticed a slight vibration when easing off the power and was only very slightly accelerating & under load that appeared to come from the front part of the truck.
I had also replaced all the other bushes with a full set of Superpro ones I had had in the garage for several years, I know I know OEM is best!
So first changed all the UJs, & greased splines etc etc....... no different,
still there when under very slight load at 55-60 mph.
Now, as this had only started after fitting the new suspension, I thought it must be something to do with the prop angle into the front diff as this was obviously slightly different than the previous setup.
At the Stratton arms club meet, checked the phasing of the front prop under the supervision of Chris which was 1 or 2 splines out (& had been for years, as the matchmarks I put on were aligned).
Rephased it .......no different
Chris did comment that there was some slight play in the front diff
Had a spare front diff in need of a rebuild at home, so duly posted it off to our diff Guru ( wont name him in case he gets inundated with diffs to rebuild......unless he wants me to!)
Fitted the rebuilt diff which felt lovely.............no different,
By now I was tearing my hair out in clumps as Ive got a months trip away planned & dont want problems in remote foreign places.
Also had a spare transfer box in the garage with worn input shaft & bearings etc, so had that rebuilt with lots of new internals, and swapped it over........... youve guessed it, no bloody different!
In desperation I swapped the front arms over with Sams, as these had OEM bushes in, as I figured as I hadnt had the vibration before it must have been something that I had done that was causing it, triple checked everything else was tight & couldnt find any play anywhere............No different
thinking, was it worn splines in the prop, prop out of balance? so removed front & rear props to check the splines etc double checked the match marks were aligned, then it dawned on me, was the rear prop in phase....No, it was 90 degrees out, but its been like this for the 10 years ive had the truck, so refitted it in phase and BINGO, the vibration has gone.
So after spending a fortune on diff, transfer box rebuilds & loads of other stuff, and now having a monk like haircut (or a crop circle on my head) the truck is as smooth as a babys bum!
The moral of this story is, dont take it as correct how things have been fitted / assembled by others, even if been working fine, check, check & check, and check the cheap / simple things first, and that strange noises may not actually be coming from the area they appear to be coming from!
Andy
