My '87 NA, manual transmission Supra is vibrating. Feels like it is coming from the whole car, not just one location. I have replaced the front wheel bearings and the right rear (the wheel was wobbly). The left rear shows no need so I did not. The car vibrates as you pick up speed. The vibration is related to speed alone; does not change as you corner in either direction. Last time I had this issue was with a '61 Cutlass. It had a driveshaft from a Buick in it so the carrier bearing was smaller than the housing. We packed it with Duct Tape, but that only helped a little. This vibration reminds me a little of that...
In everyone's experience, What cuplrits should I be looking at? I assumed the bearing and not the U-joints as there is no charicteristic clunk from a worn joint. Also, in the past I have not had a bad U-joint vibrate like this. Is there a rubber seat or something that could go bad? I have not flipped the car up yet to look at it - hoped I could get some guideance first..
My '87 NA, manual transmission Supra is vibrating. Feels like it is coming from the whole car, not just one location. I have replaced the front wheel bearings and the right rear (the wheel was wobbly). The left rear shows no need so I did not. The car vibrates as you pick up speed. The vibration is related to speed alone; does not change as you corner in either direction. Last time I had this issue was with a '61 Cutlass. It had a driveshaft from a Buick in it so the carrier bearing was smaller than the housing. We packed it with Duct Tape, but that only helped a little. This vibration reminds me a little of that...
In everyone's experience, What cuplrits should I be looking at? I assumed the bearing and not the U-joints as there is no charicteristic clunk from a worn joint. Also, in the past I have not had a bad U-joint vibrate like this. Is there a rubber seat or something that could go bad? I have not flipped the car up yet to look at it - hoped I could get some guideance first..
did you mark the shaft before you removed it? you could try moving rotating it to a new position and check the result
I havenot actually pulled the shaft. I am doing pre-car-flip research to determine what to buy. I can't find any posts about the carrier bearing on this site - do they fail much? What is involved in replacing it? If the joints don't clunk, can I assume they are not the culprit?
does it gets worse as you accelerate and lessen when let off the gas?
if so, that's a sign of U-joint problem
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almost all carrier bearings go...they are 20+ years old now though. The rubber housing cracks and separates from the metal housing and bearing. You typically hear a single clunk when letting out the clutch in either 1st or reverse.
Replacement is pretty simple...change the bearing (separate the shaft and swap) or install a one piece shaft. I recall the bearing being in the low to mid $200 range.
The vibration is non-existent at low speed. It gets worse as you speed up and caps at some point. It is not always consistent, day -to -day; some days it si very bad, others it is not such a big deal.
response to second reply:
Is the bearing pressed on? On my old Cutlass it was pressed and was a Bi#$% to replace. From your reply I am thinking I can visually insopect it to determine if it si bad? I will listen for clunk, although I would have though a clunk was a sign of U-Joint failure...
There is no pressing involved. You do have some c-clips however to remove, and have to be careful about the shaft alignment on reassembly. The U joints and bearing tend to fool people as you get the same symptoms on the supra...the bearing spins freely, but the rubber splits allows it to hit the housing when you change direction.
Got a great deal on an almost new bearing on Ebay. However I have still got vibration - think it was there before, just did not know it was not carrier related. Can u-joints cause a similar vibration? The vib. is definitely drivetrain related - gets worse when I am coasting. The u-joints did not seem at all bad when I had the shaft out....
Yes, U-joints can cause that. However, as suggested, if you haven't pulled one end of the shaft loose and turned it 180, that would be the next thing to try.
I plan on messing with the driveshaft this weekend. I want to know all I can before I jump into this.
I will try rotating the flange for the front section of the shaft - the rear I marked well and it is not vibrating back there, anyway. The vibration is no-existant until about 45mph. Important to note is that it is not alway at that speed. Eevery so often it does not vibrate much, if at all. My sone has some mechanics training and stated that his notes indicate that the most common cause of speed specific vibration is a bad u-joint. I plan on replacing that because it is cheap and easy (relatively). My concern is this: I read on a Ford muscle car site that a bad vibration that starts at a specific speed can be a worn output bushing. Does the Supra have one of those? Could that be a problem? Can it be replaced without puplling the transmission?
Remember, I believe that this vibration was there before I changed the carrier bearing, and it is not totally consistent from drive to drive. And it is getting a little worse - now I feel it in the front edge of the seat.
I have taken the driveshaft off again. I made sure the yokes are aligned as in the factory manual. I will note that the front shaft was the only part in question as I had marked the rear at the diff. When I replaced the carrier bearing I did not mark and so had a slight misalignment.
I found that the rear u-joint had a flat spot of sorts. I replaced the joint.
Now the vibration I felt at 40mph (bad) has migrated to 50-55 mph. It gets rough and then goes away around 60+ mph. I noticed when I got back from my test run that the rear end of the car smelled like real hot oil - not engine oil eigher.
Is my rear bad? How do I tell? Can I put new gear oil in that could help? Even for a while until I find a new dif? The driveshaft can be rotated back and forth a good bit prior to the rear wheels rotating.......
You need to remove the diff and crack it open for most inspections. The slop in engaging could be a sign something is out of spec, be it the ring gear or another component. My fresh rebuilt LSD has virtually no slop when the shaft is rotated at all as a point of reference.
Drain the diff and smell the oil. Gear oil has a nasty smell, but should not smell or appear burnt.
Well, I guess the million dollar question is can I figure out where this vibration is coming from without cracking the diff? I have replaced all but the left rear wheel bearing. The vibration is the same no matter what direction I am turning (or not turning). It does not change with accel or decel, other than to fade away when I drop below 50mph. Without cracking the dif, what is left for me to try? Note - rear half of driveshaft; the yokes do not line up as seen in the manual. they are off from each other by over an inch. How would this happen? Could this be part of my problem?
Yes it can. The rear half of the shaft is two pieces (picture a pipe inside a pipe with a layer of rubber that holds them in alignment and together. It's not unknown to see the shafts rotate out of alignment with one another as the rubber shrinks or cracks inside.
Have you looked at the carrier bearing as well to see if it is still intact? the rubber isolation mount can also tear and let the bearing flop around in there, but that is more normally a clunk when you let out the clutch from a stop...
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