1 piece driveline swap, quick question.

[legoms013]

i pulled my cross member when i put the new drive shaft in a couple years ago, i've never had a problem with it. i didnt trim the skid plate though, i used a couple big crescent wrenches and bent the lip up and away from the drive shaft. i didnt want to pull the skid plate, and i didnt feel like throwing sparks at the trank either....

I dropped the skid and used a torch to trim it, away from the gas tank. pretty easy, only 4 bolts.

 

[lucasruble]

So, I got the driveline in last night FINALLY..steel one piece from a 1998 Ranger. I haven't had any time lately to do anything it seems. Anyway, Got 'er in and the vibration in 1st gear has gone away. Buuuuuut, now I have a vibration at cruising speeds around 45-50 MPH. I loosely checked the u-joints, they seemed to have no play, the line itself has no dents and there isn't any red flags that I could see. Any suggestions other than check the u-joints further?

 

[t0x1k]

Pinion angle? That high of a speed, wrong pinion angle might cause some vibration.

On a second note. I just did mine and said screw the cross member, it was easier to slice it in half then bang out the rivets, and still couldn't get it out after all 6 rivets.
I welded my perches at 6 or 8, i forget, and it's perfectly aligned.

 

[lucasruble]

Yeah, the crossmember was a huge pain in the ass. Luckily, I have access to two full Mac tool boxes and a lift : ) I have the stock 8.8 in there, so the perches haven't moved (unless one is broken and I didn't notice). I'm thinking it's the joints. Like I said, I didn't check them thoroughly; just skimmed 'em over.

 

[4x4junkie]

If it's like a real low-frequency hum vibration, my guess would be u-joints also (or maybe the shaft needs to be balanced).

If it's more of a shaking vibration at that speed, I would be more suspect of the tires.

 

[lucasruble]

It's definately a low frequency hum. I've had the tire vibes for a long time now, and I'm sure of the difference in feel. I was thinking about the balance of the line as well. Know of a ballpark price to balance one of those?