Carrying over from my thread on detonation issue.blown head gasket (#3 and #4 cylinder in communication with each other); when I drove it home running on 4 cylinders, it was shaking pretty badly. There is a possibility that I've fixed the detonation issue but have a leftover vibration; I may have damaged the drive line.

I checked my slip yoke and it's sticking 2.5" out of the tail of the A904. It has about 1/8" of lateral wiggle when I push and pull on the universal joint. I loosened the end caps and can push the yoke well into the tranny, and the lateral play is way less when it's in most of the way (about 1/2" of yoke sticking out).

I pulled the driveshaft, and there are no signs of wear or damage to the tail shaft or the yolk splines.

The tail shaft has some end play, similar amount. Nut on rear end yoke is tight, no play on that end.

I'm not familiar with tranny's; is there a tail shaft bushing and/or bearing I can change while I'm changing the tail shaft seal? Maybe I don't need to, maybe I do, but while I'm in there...

Regardless, I should get a longer drive shaft, as the yoke was sticking out too far. That is, it may have been OK (though not properly inserted enough) with the yoke sticking out as far as it was, but during my bad vibration due to head gasket blown/driving, maybe I ruined the bushing or at least wore it to where the drive shaft should now be put in properly to avoid the excessive lateral play (which could be the source of my vibration)?

Thoughts on this?

NOTES:

I also checked the motor mounts, there was some visible damage to the rubber from the aforementioned shaking episode. Can I change motor mounts without pulling the engine, can I jack it up a bit?

I have not checked the brakes yet for a sticky caliper, will do on the weekend.

Brian

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The universal joints are about a year old, they don't have any play in them at all...I could not get them to wiggle laterally, but they rotate easily.


brian

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Thanks guys, I have the FSM, it shows how to do the bearing and the bushing. Funny, they show the rear seal with the rubber boot outwards, mine is installed with the rubber inwards, in the tail shaft housing...rebuilder must have done that.

brian

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Some rear seals don't have the dust boot at all. Is that what you are seeing? Or was something assembled wrong?

Rick

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12.70 @ 104.6

Hi Rick,

Yes, this was installed OK, it didn't have the boot.

As I said there was no visible damage to the slip yoke, it just wasn't in far enough. I pulled the seal, the bushing has some obvious marks of uneven wear, funny I didn't see that on the yoke shaft.

Anyway, here's something interesting...I said there was some damage to the motor mount rubber (these were new when I installed the engine), obvious signs of torqing abnormal movement, see here, the tranny shifted to the driver side quite a bit as well, see how the rubber is sticking out of the mount's casing, I guess that huge misalignment could have something to do with my shuddering....duh

http://s785.photobucket.com/user/67dart ... k.jpg.html

I'll change the tranny mount; the motor mount bolts (spool type) look a bit off as well. Has anyone changed motor mounts without a cherry picker? Any tips? I'd like to pull those as well, see if they're bent or anything.

Brian

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The drive line angles were all good when the 8.75 was installed, but that cockeyed sideways tranny sure might have something to do with the shuddering...

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It's not real fun, but I have changed them with a floor jack and wood block. One side at a time, driver's side is the easy one.

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This thread contains a procedure by D. Idiot.

http://www.slantsix.org/forum/viewtopic ... 1e46ef69d5

Thanks guys.

Brian

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OK, I changed the motor mounts today, D. Idiot's procedure worked fine. Didn't have to remove or loosen the alternator though, just unhooked the battery, took out the motor mount bolts, took out the tranny mount bolt (the transverse bolt) and jacked her up with a screw jack/2x10 on the oil pan. The hard part is the passenger side motor mount bolts, but it's doable. My stock rubber mounts were damaged from the head gasket blown and rough running 50 miles. I removed all the rubber and installed urethane inserts (http://www.polybushings.com/pages/1105.html) I had bought a few years ago (I didn't use them as I was afraid they were too stiff, but they were on my shelf, so...). BTW, to remove the rubber from the factory mount, I used a hack saw to remove the center portion, then a wire brush on my drill removed the rest really easily and cleanly (from the hole, the mess was otherwise atrocious, powdered rubber everywhere). A slight spritz of WD 40 on the urethane and it squeezes right into the factory mounts with my vise.

Then replaced the tranny mount; it was way off kilter, the rubber had pulled loose and the tranny was 1/2" or so toward the driver side. The metal on that tranny mount is pretty thin, it was bent as well (it was running pretty darn rough with that head gasket blown). I replaced the tranny mount with this one: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/ptp- ... make/dodge. It is way heavy duty, the metal is probably 3x as thick as the cheapy stock replacement one and its bushing is polyurethane. Doesn't look like this one would ever bend or the urethane move out of it's body. I just hope it's not too stiff, that's why I hadn't installed it or the polybushing motor mount inserts previously. The motor mount inserts seemed soft enough, I think they're OK.

Now I have to find a longer drive shaft to complete the job. I found this site, it seems like the best I can do short of someone having a drive shaft on Craigslist that matches my needs: http://www.ebay.com/itm/CUSTOM-BUILT-MO ... rX&vxp=mtr

Brian

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I suppose I could use my drive shaft, but the yoke does stick out of the tail at least 2.5", which seems excessive. i should use one that is 2" longer; take the lateral play out of the system.

b

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On the later spool type mounts, on the passenger side, if you're planning on changing them out...if you don't have a 5/8" offset box wrench, then get one...with a flat wrench you can't work the upper bolt with the lower bolt in place, it's a tight space even with the engine lifted up, but it's hard to align the lower holes to install the lower bolt with the upper bolt already tightened...I suppose one could make the lower hole oblong, but this is a text book example of why the offset box wrench was invented.

FYI,

Brian

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I measured the O.D. of the yoke and the I.D. of the new bushing, the difference is 0.020" seems like a big gap to me.

Anyway, I took a closer look at the yoke, there is some wear on it, but I'm not sure that aligns with where the bushing is (this is not from the car originally though).

I was looking at yokes, it's amazing the variation in price, some are charging $200-300 for a yoke (new or old), others have new ones for $50-95. I guess it pays to shop around.

Brian

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Well, the slip yoke did have some wear, but I couldn't tell if it was old or not, it didn't seem like fresh wear, like metal being rough or whatnot, it was a depression but very smooth...but, the tail shaft bushing sure did show signs of wear, see:

http://s785.photobucket.com/user/67dart ... h.jpg.html

In sum, I changed the motor mounts, tranny mount, tail shaft bushing and seal. I will install a longer (proper length) drive shaft and a new slip yoke. My rear yoke seal was leaking, so I changed that as well (marked the nut and returned to same spot for bearing load). My rear yoke had some pitting, I sanded it with progressively finer sand paper down to 2000 grit to a fine polish and replaced the seal. The seal is leather? I installed it, but I found an elastomeric one afterwards. If it leaks, I'll put the elastomeric one in, maybe install a redi-sleeve since the yoke has been sanded down some.

I'm hoping my drive line repairs will be the end of my shuddering issue and i can start driving this thing again. If so, I may bump the timing back up where it was and redo the valve lash so it's not so loose. One thing at a time...

brian

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I took a look into the tail section to the tail shaft bearing; I didn't see any obvious signs of wear on the bearings. I didn't change that out.

brian

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OK so I changed to a new drive shaft after changing out the tail bushing and seal, motor mounts and tranny mount (all looks nice and straight now). It drives much better but i still have a slight vibration at around 60-65 mph. How does one check to see if their tail shaft is bent? I read somewhere (famous last words) that you can put the car in gear without a drive shaft and see if the tail shaft is rotating cleanly on an axis. Question: wouldn't tranny fluid gush out of the tail without the yoke and seal in place?

brian

P.S. my rear yoke with that leather seal leaked. I pulled that, installed a redi-sleeve and a new elastomeric seal - no leaks so far.

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