rheltzel
Senior Member
This thread is related to: http://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=158319&highlight=driveline+ticking
Weighing all the good advice I got on this forum, I went ahead and replaced the worn pin referenced in the above thread with a No. 8 hardened bolt and nut. This repair occurred as I was also installing a new engine. I also replaced the bearing bushing (although not the bearing) at the front of the torque tube as it seemed there was a lot of sideways slop in the drive shaft.
First drive with the new engine and repaired drive pin indicated a roughness under throttle at 50-55mph which was never present with old engine and drive pin. At first, I attributed the rough spot to a very tight engine, although there was no rough spot when revving the engine in neutral and listening with an engine stethoscope did not produce a similar roughness or any abnormal engine noises. As the engine wore in, it became obvious that the roughness wasn't the engine, but somewhere in the driveline.
The next suspect was the rear end. Putting the car on jacks and working the rear end indicated a great deal of slack and ratcheting differential action, suggesting the rear end was in need of repair. I located and purchased a newly rebuilt rear end from a fellow Ford Barner, and completed the installation a few days ago. During the change-over, I noticed the pinion splines on the old rear end were completely shot (I missed that when the pin was fixed). The No 8 bolt with less than 2,000 miles on it already showed excessive wear on the shank, suggesting it was taking the torque load caused by the worn splines. There was no evidence of wear on the bolt head or nut.
There is no slack in the new rear end and the differential action is smooth as you would expect. The rear end seems perfect. The new bushing installed previously showed no abnormal wear patterns, in fact, no wear at all.
When first driven and everything is cool, there is no vibration, but as the car warms up, the vibration, is still there, in other words, heat has some effect. And it's getting much worse -- it first shows up at about 30 mph and progressively gets worse until about 60mph and then seems to fade a little.
I'm confident it's not the rear end, the rear transmission bearing, nor the u-joint, as nothing was done to them during the work described and the noise was not present before the work was started. I'm also confident it's not a wheel bearing, as again, they weren't touched during the work. I've put two different distributors on the engine and swapped out the condenser with no effect, so I don't think it's retarded engine timing causing the engine to run rough. It seems to run perfectly.
Sorry for the length of this, but I wanted to set the stage by fully describing the circumstances and symptoms.
Now my question: other than the bushing that was replaced, what could possibly be the cause of the vibration? I'm stumped, as I can think of no other cause.
My theory is the clearance between the bushing and bearing is too tight and they are partially seizing when heat builds up between them. Can anyone think of something I'm missing here, before I tear into it a third time?
Weighing all the good advice I got on this forum, I went ahead and replaced the worn pin referenced in the above thread with a No. 8 hardened bolt and nut. This repair occurred as I was also installing a new engine. I also replaced the bearing bushing (although not the bearing) at the front of the torque tube as it seemed there was a lot of sideways slop in the drive shaft.
First drive with the new engine and repaired drive pin indicated a roughness under throttle at 50-55mph which was never present with old engine and drive pin. At first, I attributed the rough spot to a very tight engine, although there was no rough spot when revving the engine in neutral and listening with an engine stethoscope did not produce a similar roughness or any abnormal engine noises. As the engine wore in, it became obvious that the roughness wasn't the engine, but somewhere in the driveline.
The next suspect was the rear end. Putting the car on jacks and working the rear end indicated a great deal of slack and ratcheting differential action, suggesting the rear end was in need of repair. I located and purchased a newly rebuilt rear end from a fellow Ford Barner, and completed the installation a few days ago. During the change-over, I noticed the pinion splines on the old rear end were completely shot (I missed that when the pin was fixed). The No 8 bolt with less than 2,000 miles on it already showed excessive wear on the shank, suggesting it was taking the torque load caused by the worn splines. There was no evidence of wear on the bolt head or nut.
There is no slack in the new rear end and the differential action is smooth as you would expect. The rear end seems perfect. The new bushing installed previously showed no abnormal wear patterns, in fact, no wear at all.
When first driven and everything is cool, there is no vibration, but as the car warms up, the vibration, is still there, in other words, heat has some effect. And it's getting much worse -- it first shows up at about 30 mph and progressively gets worse until about 60mph and then seems to fade a little.
I'm confident it's not the rear end, the rear transmission bearing, nor the u-joint, as nothing was done to them during the work described and the noise was not present before the work was started. I'm also confident it's not a wheel bearing, as again, they weren't touched during the work. I've put two different distributors on the engine and swapped out the condenser with no effect, so I don't think it's retarded engine timing causing the engine to run rough. It seems to run perfectly.
Sorry for the length of this, but I wanted to set the stage by fully describing the circumstances and symptoms.
Now my question: other than the bushing that was replaced, what could possibly be the cause of the vibration? I'm stumped, as I can think of no other cause.
My theory is the clearance between the bushing and bearing is too tight and they are partially seizing when heat builds up between them. Can anyone think of something I'm missing here, before I tear into it a third time?
