Reaching out for a bit of help
Ive rebuilt my 4x4 saff from the ground up. Its had everything replaced / refurbished. from the minute i put it on the road, its had a vibtration / droning noise which comes on pretty much bang on 50mph, gets less but still there 60mph onwards. I at first suspected front bearings, even though they were new, so i got hold of 2 different front knuckles / hubs and fitted with SKF bearings. made no difference.

Ive tried, different wheels (all 4), diffrent propshaft, different rear diff. bearings as above, and nothing has worked.

the only thing i put back on the car that i didnt touch was the gearbox.
Anyone had anything similar on a 4x4 saff ???

 

The prop shaft donut was slight mis aligned on mi e and did that....or it could be that the droning is the wife?

 

What kind of gearbox mount and diff mount do you have?

 

When i first fitted my vibra tech engine mounts there was loads of vibration through the car then they settled down and have been for years.

 

After 15 years of marriage, my ears are now 100% accustomed to that droning. in fact i bearly even notice its there anymore

Standard gearbox mount and collins engine mounts. Now that i think back, the gearbox mount had split a little and i filled it with black window glue to get the car running. forgot about that. wonder if the rear of the gearbox is sitting a little lower if its leaked fluid.

Yeah my next job was going to try some standard mounts and see what that does.

 

Its a strange one this matey.

 

it is and starting think about throwing the towel in someone offered me good money the other week for the car, wishing I took it now

Gonna get it back on the ramp and get it upto speed and see what i can see.

 

Are the front driveshafts ok. Are the spider joints sat in the cup ok.

 

Ive had a look at the shafts while the car is sat flat today, as im getting a vibration on acceleration as well. now then, when i grab my shaft... oo err.. and push it into the inner joint, it only moves aabout 5mm before it stops / hits the back of the joint. i can feel the spring pushing it back, but I can only move it about 5mm. The cars has been lowered but only on 25mm Apex springs. The shafts are sitting up on and an angle when on level ground, but then my mates standard 4x4 on standard spings sit the same.

So im starting to wonder if the previous owner has fitted the longer xr4x4 shafts and the vibration / noise im getting is because the shaft / spider joint is sitting too far into the pot. i bet if the shafts sat level on higher springs, it would probably be resting on the back of the inner CV all the time.

so then, anyone running standard shafts on there 4x4, any chance you could check how much inward movement you have on the front shafts please.

 

That might be it. Standard shafts are easy to come by but I thought the lowered cars were better on xr4x4? Can you raise the ride height to rule it out? Jay said to me recently that a cossie is not happy inverted with the shafts pointing up...mine are now 100%level

What does the donut look like on the prop?

 

if they are nearly touching the joints now heightening it will meake it worse id have thought. Its only on 25mm springs, so dont think its particularly low anyway ??

 

I thought cossies lower than 30 mm needed xr4x4 shafts.

Im sure my shafts are at an angle.

 

not sure mate. think im just gonna kick its head in till something breaks, then ill know for sure what was the matter

 

As far as I know the XR4x4 shafts are about 2 cm longer than the Cosworth shafts. I wouldn't think the XR4x4 shafts would ever be needed, independable on the ride height. Even on standard springs the standard shafts should be OK when the car is on the bump stops. In my opinion the weak rubber engine mounts are the cause of any front drive shaft problem. So I'd fit some stronger engine mounts (like Collins or Vibratechs) and standard drive shafts.

 

Good point, change the drivers, offside engine mount to vibratechnics, the nearside can stay standard. This was the advice of Mark Shead as it helps reduce vibration and the near side is not the one that fails normally.

I have read many posts though on here where lowered cars can pop the driveshaft and the advice is to use the longer xr4x4 ones...also worth checking that xr 4x4 hubs have not found their way on to the car as these are also different.