unheard of??

[m8r8j]

2003 2.3d m5od 2wd ranger...

my driveshaft balancer?? (in between the tranny and the front ujoint on the rear driveshaft) fell off... its about a 7lb metal dougnut attached to the driveshaft via rubber. it fell off and clunked around on the driveshaft for about 2 miles... i pulled the driveshaft and slid it off... how important is this?

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

Its a vibration damper, if you don't notice any ill effects its fine. Your drive shaft is balanced with weld on weights on either end of the tube.

 

[m8r8j]

Its a vibration damper, if you don't notice any ill effects its fine. Your drive shaft is balanced with weld on weights on either end of the tube.

alright, as long as theres no major effects i dont care.. theres no vibration while driving...

but why in the HELL would ford mount this on with rubber... thats got failure written alll over it...

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

Its the same principal as a harmonic balancer on an engine, steel outer with a rubber inner.

 

[m8r8j]

oooh

 

[Shran]

Steel doesn't absorb vibration very well. Actually I should say that it does, it just transmits it into other objects. That's why your body mounts, engine and tranny mounts, bump stops, etc are made of rubber or polyurethane.

 

[m8r8j]

as long as my tranny wont blow up 50k down the road....

 

[m8r8j]

alright update:

at 75+mph, when in-gear and decelerating, there is a good amount of new vibration... i think that it is just my bad u-joints, and hoping its not the absence of the vibration damper. when im accelerating it goes away.

 

[m8r8j]

?

 

[JamesC]

I just had an Chevy Astro come into my work with a terrible drive shaft vibration the balance piece that fell off on yours had moved a bit forward on one side so it would wobble as it spun, a good used yoke with a good rubber balancer and new U joints and it was vibration free.

so take your shaft out check the joints, if they are okay then you need another yoke.

 

[m8r8j]

i called ford, they said i needed a whole new driveshaft, 285 dollars from ford.

edit: how bad is this vibration for my truck?

 

[Shran]

If you do have bad u-joints, you should replace those first and see how it is.

You are alright to drive it around for a little while but get it fixed as soon as you can. My buddy had two bad u-joints and a bad carrier bearing in his S10 that wasted his pinion seal.

 

[m8r8j]

ill go check for any twist play and/or up/down play right now... they squeak like a son of a b thoughh....

monsoon outside, will do tomorrow

 

[pocket-rocket]

One of my friends had a mid 90's Dakota that one of the driveshaft weights fell off of. A few months later he had to change his transmission as it ate the output shaft bearings and I don't recall what all else, but now it won't come apart when he tries to disassemble it.

 

[88broncoll]

if the u joints are squeaking, they are gone, and thats probably what took the balancer off in the first place. you might only find 1 out of 4 caps thats bad, but its enough to throw it off balance.