Ha…well you get bonus points for getting back to us and staying on top of the problem! Most people never let us know if our advice even helps. Its good to see a healthy back n forth. Nothing can replace being there in person however where all of our senses come into play.
Sometimes I find out what is causing a problem by smell, or feel…Its hard to advice someone via the net like this. There may be huge clues present that being onsite is the only way to catch.
Keep on top of it man…you’re close ! I still don’t like those u joints… They are so cheap and ez to do… It wouldn’t be a bad thing to revisit them if the bearing doesn’t work for you.
Like I also mentioned…a used shaft is so cheap at a u pull it near me…I’d have yanked one long ago… 20-25 bucks is laughable when we are talking about another shaft ! Anyway…hope you figure this out. You are doing the right thing, bc trying to rebuild your shaft was the goal after all… I think you are about to solve the mystery…and if this does not solve it…the last thing is the joints… I hope you looked for anywhere a weight may have been…or popped off! That would be awful…all this troubleshooting when a weight fell off would make me mad too.
Well, I pulled the front DS section, set it up in the tailgate, removed the metal mounting bracket and rubber housing of the carrier bearing, exposed the outer race. It wiggles… slightly, but it definitely wiggles
Is this normal? Is there play built into the inner and outer races?
Ground the outer race off, pried the ball bearings out of their housing and inspected the inner race. Their is a very shallow trough running acrosse the channel for the ball bearings, plainly visible and can easily be felt when holding a ball bearing in thumb and forefinger and sliding in the race across the trough. Now all I have to do is get the inner race off and the new bearing on.
I watched a couple of YouTube videos I had bookmarked earlier in the whole process one entitled, “Chevy carrier bearing swap in 3 minutes” and the other entitled “Backyard driveshaft center support bearing replacement”.
Chevy carrier bearing swap in 3 minutes"
The only things I did difference was:
No cigarettes were involved
I used a plumbers torch instead of oxy-acetylene
I used a 1 inch cold chisel and a singlejack instead of an air chisel
Now for some hot chicken soup before beating on the new CB and chucking that DS back up in there, and if it still vibrates I’m gonna drive it off a cliff and ride it to the bottom!
Put the new carrier bearing on with little drama, threw the DS back in, put all the tools away, put the rear end back on the ground, washed up, put on some clean clothes, and headed for the freeway.
After ten miles of driving between 55 and 75, there was no more vibration. Tomorrow I will post a pic of the defect in the outer race.
Lesson learned? Don’t always go for the cheapest part. The funny thing is I didn’t skimp on the Moog Super Strong u-joints, but went with the cheapest carrier bearing that RockAuto had to offer.
Oh, I think I’m hooked, just as I am hooked on reruns of Car Talk.
As I understand, Ray M. had an 87 Dak. I got the impression from hearing the two of them talk about it that he wasn’t too thrilled with it for some reason. I’ve always wondered why.
I just got an email from Victor Moreiravmoreira@mevotech.com of Mevotech in response to my question: “Could you please tell me where your Driveshaft Center Support HHB88107A is manufactured?” He replied:
Hi Jack,
HHB88107A is manufactured in China.
If you purchase any of our products, the country of origin will always be noted on the part number label.
Thank you,
Victor Moreira
Technical Advisor
I responded:
Thank you for your reply. Are any of your manufacturing facilities
located in the US or Canada?
I will await his reply.
What is prominently displayed on all Mevotech boxes is “Engineered in Canada”.
Good work man… Hey…you basically called it and suspected that bearing a while back… Just took a while to see it through. Surprised I am not… I think we have all come across new parts that don’t live up to expectations. I do all of my own work…except wheel alignments…I think lasers are more accurate than I am… But when you let someone else install something, there is always a chance that they do something wrong and or harm the new parts… Its sucks but it surely does happen.
Do you think the installer caused this issue? Or do you think it was a bad bearing from the get go…there are several ways to damage a brand new bearing when installing.
Well anyway…enjoy your hard earned WIN here… Love it when a plan comes together
I don’t think the installer did anything wrong. I suspected earlier that perhaps the new CB was not pushed back all the way based on photos I took of the old one, but on removing the newly installed CB, this proved not to be the case. The inner race was pushed tight against the stop, which was a larger diameter section of the shaft. Seeing as how the inside of the outer race was where the defects were I don’t see how the shop could have caused it. It was just a cheap part, probably made with cheap seconds from the bearing factory… A company called Westar slapped their name on it. Their is no name etched onto the edge of either the inner or outer race as one might find on a quality bearing. There was also some side-to-side play between the two races. I don’t know if this is normal but I suspect not.
Hmm wow, yeah I would have to agree. What makes me mad these days is that these kinds of parts are out there and available to buy! It seems sometimes the market has been flooded with units made out of “Chineseum”…which is not good. It sure seems true of electrical components a lot these days…there is always a cheapo no name brand ignition coil available…one guess where they come from…and these things really are causing troubles out there…they should NOT be an option. But profit margins make people do silly things I suppose.
I just came back from a 50-60 mile freeway trip to see some friends. The good news is I have no vibration at freeway speeds where I had them before, 55-80mph. The bad news is I now have vibration starting at about 43mph and falling off completely at about 48-50mph. Perhaps I should have taken db4690’s advice on avoiding the Anchor carrier bearing, but it was immediately gettable and I rolled the dice.
Still I see this as an vast improvement. I can drive freeway speeds with no problem. This site has this to say about vibraions in the range I am experiencing now:
“Universal Joint Angles. Incorrect angles may cause mechanical vibration below 15 mph and mechanical or audible vibration between 30 and 55 mph.” So my next step is to measure the angles using this pdf Driveshaft Installation manual by Spicer: http://www2.dana.com/pdf/J3311-1-HVTSS.PDF
If there is something I can do to bring the driveline angles closer to what this manual suggest I will try that first. If that works, great. If not, I am looking at getting another carrier bearing.
IMO, one of the biggest causes of improper angles is collapsed motor mounts and trans mounts
What shape are yours in?
If any of those mounts I mentioned are not in good shape . . . torn, collapsed, oil-soaked, for example . . . I would replace them first before tearing more of your hair out
I’ll be checking the mounts tomorrow. I have one of those gravity type angle finders, so I am eager to see if I can correct for any collapsed mounts by shimming the carrier bearing. The fact that I had absolutely no vibration at any speed, however, before changing any parts makes me think I put in another bad bearing. If the mounts are OK and I can’t correct the problem by shimming I will be going with an SKF bearing.
I find it strange that a drive-line shop that has a machine to balance shafts & all couldn’t determine that the carrier bearing they installed was defective if indeed it was . Surely with 3 generations of the same family running this shop , your shaft couldn’t have been the one & only problem they ever experienced . I would have thought that by now they’d seen it all , multiple times .
