vibration help

[kbecker3]

As the title says, i have a 2002 ranger 3.0, automatic, 3.75 open diff with 61,000 miles. gets a bad vibration from the rear around 50, and gets worse up near 70. I have ruled out tires (rotated them around, and even took them off), and the drums. I have replaced both front and rear u-joints. Tires are fairly new, as with drums, and shoes. Its been doing it for a while, so i took rear end cover off and noticed spider gears had some wear/play in them, so replaced them along with the pin. pin still seems like it is a little loose like the carrier has some wear on it. I have tried taking tires off and drums, and running it on jack stands, axle flanges apear to be straight, vibration is still there when i have all that off and on running it up to 45 on jack stands. checked transmission mount, looks good, no vibration from there. any thoughts?

 

[rangerguy1996]

It could be a loose pinion bearing or maybe a bent or out of balance driveshaft.

 

[kbecker3]

Drive shaft looks good, no dents, straight truck is 2wd so never goes off roading, all the weights are still there. Didn't think about a pinion bearing. To test that you just pull on that flange where the driveshaft connects to the rear end, and try to shake it?

 

[rangerguy1996]

Prity much see if there is any movement. only other thing I can think of is the slip in the driveshaft but 60000 should not have worn that out yet. But 60000 nothing should b worn out.

 

[kbecker3]

I didn't see any movement on flange where pinion goes in. there is some play with the slip joint on the drive shaft, but i would have expected some, not sure how much there should be. Yea, I'm really starting to hate this thing, i would have never thought at 60,000 i would have already had bad spider gears, and a vibration above 45. Neighbor has a ranger, maybe i will check out how much play is on the slip joint of the driveshaft on that, and compare to how much mine has. I have had it since basicly new (14,000) and from what i can remember, when it was cold, it has always clunked into reverse when cold. not sure if that would help, but since doing the spider gears the clunk into reverse has gotten / almost gone away. I attribute whats left to the little bit of play the pin has in the carrier.

 

[rangerguy1996]

Mine has always had a clunk when going into reverse. I couldent see it being Ur rear but if u have any good junkyards around I'd go grab a drive shaft and throw it in. Did u replace the ujoints uitself I know if had problems doing them with the flanged drive shafts.

 

[rangerguy1996]

I have had drive shafts blow apart at 80 that's not fun at all 2 weeks after new u joints.

 

[kbecker3]

yes, i did the u-joints my self. But then again it was doing this before i did those too. They were actually what i did first, it was still vibrating, so loooked at rear end, noticed the spider gears were worn, so put those in.. still vibrating.

u-joints were not difficult, got moog ones and one cap didn't have any needles in it, so took it back and had to get a new one. But other than that no problems.

 

[rangerguy1996]

Something with the drive shaft is what I would think. the spiders being worn is weird but I wouldent think it would cause a vibration. Where do u feel the vibration when driving

 

[kbecker3]

well, not sure exactly where its coming from, just know the rear. feel it mostly around 50, then when you get above that, almost feels like it goes away until the seats start shacking back and forth around 60-70. Had about 1,000 lbs. in the bed yesterday and could still feel it. So you may be right, maybe one of these day's i may pull the driveshaft and get it balanced. There isn't much left that i haven't checked back there besides the driveshaft.

 

[kbecker3]

I have been still in search of whats causing this vibration. My neighbor just bought a ranger, so i looked at his which has almost 200,000 on an 02. If i pop them both in neutral and move each of the driveshafts back and forth with the wheels on the ground. His you can feel more resistance like the feel of gears moving. with mine it feels much looser with more of a hollow clunk noise like there is some play in the carrier. Would this cause a vibration? Still having a hard time believing that the rear end is that worn at 61,000.

 

[kbecker3]

if it comes down to it, I think i would rather put an 8.8 rear end in than have to replace anything in the 7.5 that I have. would one say from an 05 ranger be a direct bolt in change?

 

[kbecker3]

Just wanted to post an update, took driveshaft in to get it balanced. They said when they threw it on to spin it, they noticed the rear u-joint (both were brand new Duralast U-joints) they said that they were pretty low quality, and the rear one had a little play in the caps, which is weird since i shook that thing every which way and didn't feel anything. So they were going to replace them with some spicer u joints. After they did this it spun good. Going to pick it up tonight, and will post again if that cured the vibration problem.

 

[Tedybear]

yes, i did the u-joints my self. But then again it was doing this before i did those too. They were actually what i did first, it was still vibrating, so loooked at rear end, noticed the spider gears were worn, so put those in.. still vibrating.

u-joints were not difficult, got moog ones and one cap didn't have any needles in it, so took it back and had to get a new one. But other than that no problems.

Yer kidding me?



and I thought the spark plugs I bought a few years ago with the missing threads was a mistake.

S-

 

[Jib]

Going to pick it up tonight, and will post again if that cured the vibration problem.

I have the same issue with mine, I am having trouble tracking down what the problem is. I was hoping for an update on this. Since you didn't post again does that mean you still have the issue?