QuestionQUESTION: I have a vibration in my rear drive shaft of my 2004 Ranger. I removed the shaft and drove it in 4 wheel drive high to confirm the source of the vibration. My question is, how long can I safely drive the vehicle without the rear drive shaft? Am I over stressing anything? I need to send the shaft out to be repaired.
Thanks for your help?
ANSWER: Rich,
This does place some stress on the front end, as the front end of a 4-wheel drive vehicle is not designed for full time operation. If you don't run a locking differential and you take it easy, you should be able to run it until the rear drive shaft is repaired. Normally this problem is nothing more than a bad universal joint and can be repaired quite fast.
I would double check and make sure you are not leaking any fluids out of your transfer case before you drive it too much.
Carl
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Carl,
Thank you so much for the quick response. A little follow up information and then another question.
The vibration I have started quite a while ago and progressively got worse. I did check the U-joint a while ago and found it ok. Finally it got so bad I went to pull the drive shaft and low and behold the U-joint in the rear was bad. I replaced, and the vibration went back to what is was like when I first started noticing the vibration. So my thought is, a sort of chicken and the egg thing. I have never had a U-joint go bad at 45K miles, and I was thinking that the vibration is putting undue stress on the U-joint making it go bad. Hence the thinking that I have to get the drive shaft balanced. I don't have any oil leaking from any where in the drive train.
The question I have is could there be another source of the vibration? Could the rear end be causing this somehow? It seems like there might be an excessive amount of backlash in the gears in the differential, but not really sure. If the rear end was causing it, would it not vibrate if there was no drive shaft hooked up? It seems to me it still would?
Thanks for your help.....
AnswerRich,
Normally the u-joint should take care of the vibration problem.
Make sure that you replace the u-joints at both ends of the drive line.
It is possible that some of the vibration could be coming from a bad bearing at the output shaft in the transfer case, or a bad pinion bearing in the differential. An out of balance drive line is possible, but this usually doesn't cause a very harsh vibration. Another item could be the yokes at either end of the drive line may be bent and out of round.
Also, if you put in the new u-joint yourself, make sure that the u-joints are in time. The u-joints at each end must be aligned with each other, or they tend to get in a bind when the drive line spins.
Carl
