diagnosis? Bad vibrations.....

[SwitchBlade327]

the other day as i was driving the 60 poncho, I started noticing some bad vibrations in teh car on my way to work. On the way home it got pretty damn scary, the steering wheel shakes like mad. It only seems to do it when I've pushing the gas, when i let off it quiets down and it doesn't seem to do it as low speeds (like 10-20mph). I was thinking one of the u-joints might be on the fritz so i picked one up at work.
How do I check the u-joints to see if that's the problem, and if that's not the case, then what else could cause this?

Seems like Everytime I get one problem licked, another one pops up. But eventually I've have everything replaced so It'll be alright...

[ELpolacko]

May be the driveline Ujoints, but more than likely it is the rear springs or bushings. This car have leaf springs on the rear right? If you inspect it and the bushings are in decent shape, no broken spring leafs and the shocks are in good condition,,,,, the bad news may be a bad pinion bearing set. Could be as simple as a rear wheel bearing also. Need to start narrowing down the possibilities.

[BELLM]

If it is shaking that bad, and it's a u-joint, you can feel the slack by inspecting and moving each end of the driveshaft by hand. Shouldn't have any play. Have you tried putting it in neutral and killing the engine while driving? Wheel bearings feel ok? Busted motor mount? http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

[Tony]

BELLM is right on the 'slack' at each joint..if they are bad the joint will move in the caps....
On top of that, one could be tight as well. For that you have to pull the shaft out and move the joints by hand.
If they move very hard, or you can't move them at all by hand, there bad.
Having some 'drag' can be normal, but you shouldn't have to force them to move..

The only thing i second guess is feeling it in the wheel.
Most of the cars i've done at the shop with bad joints have a shake through out the car..
At least in rear wheel drive cars.
I see front axle joints on 4 wheel drives create a nasty shake in the wheel.
Anything is possible though, and it's deffinately worth checking..

Also, as dumb as it may sound, make sure your front brakes arn't adjusted too tight (if there drums still), or if the have been updated with disc's, make sure one of the calipers isn't beginning to hang up.
A brake hanging will heat up the drum/ disc and could give you a pretty good shake in the wheel too..

Even a broken belt in one of the tires could do it..although it would do it the majority of the time, and not just under acceleration..

just another thought to ponder..

[SwitchBlade327]

it has coils in the back, and the fron wheel bearing were replaced not too long ago, and they were expensive little bastards so they better still be ok. gonna crawl under it here shortly and check out the u-joints, I just greased the new one so it's ready to go in if need be. Just waiting on my buddy to get here to help. At least I know what to check on them now. Any other ideas?

[DrJ]

You say the steering wheel was shaking?
My Dad usta tell me, if you can feel it in the steering wheel it's in the front end, if you can fell it in the seat of your pants it's in the rear end, if it's in both, it could be the driveline.
That car has a two piece drive shaft, I believe, check the carrier bearing.

[SwitchBlade327]

it ameks the entire car shake, you can just feel it the worst in the wheel. I thought it was strange that it would die down when you let off the gas...

my buddy said it migth be the carrier bearing, but we don't have a listing for it at the store so I don't know where the hell I'll find one at if that's the case.....

[Crestliner]

Dr's right on the feel. Its in the front if your feeling in the steering wheel.

[Tony]

A good friend of mine just bought one at a local parts joint for his 62 Impala tuesday..
I'm going to assume they would be the same part number..
I can't get a hold of him right now, but if thats what it ends up being, i can get you the part number and brand so you can get one..
Or if you can't find one, i could probably get one here where he got his and send it to you..

Lemme know.

Tony.

[SwitchBlade327]

well we seemed to nailed the problem, but I can't fix it. Gonna have to get some new rims.....
WHen I first got the car the lugs stripped out shortly after and kinda messed up the front rims, but not bad enough to where the wouldn't tighten down. THe same thing happened to the back rim apparently, but the lugs aren't stripped. When the local tire guy was helping me with my brake problems the tire must've not been tightened down quite enough and gradually ate the rim up, so now no matter how much you tighten down the lugs, it just won't seat up. This couldn't have happened at a worst time either......like i always say, if it weren't for bad luck.....

[Fraz]

Shouldn't be too hard to find a rim. 15" 5x5 steelies are aren't that pricey around here, course you ain't here.....

Great time to get a set of Astro's or Radir's.

[SwitchBlade327]

yeah, that's EXACTLY what i want. Moneys tight though, hours cut at work, school tuition, random bullshit. i put up a post in the classifieds section lookin for some used ones. Maybe someone will have something. I'm not gonna waste money on more steelies when it could go towards what I want....