Last year I bought an 87 syncro Westy. It had a vibration at highway speed, but I got it at a good price and thought I could diagnose the problem eventually. Well, I was right-I was, and it only took a little over a year.
At first, I thought I could just get the driveshaft rebuilt. The vibration would disappear completely with the driveshaft out. With Budd Premack's help I got the driveshaft rebuilt at Proven Force, which has received many accolades on the list. New U-joints, balanced, etc. Vibration, however, was just as bad when I reinstalled the shaft in the van. I decided the problem must be some other component of the 4wd system. Since I had bought a couple of junk syncro vans, I had a plentiful parts supply, which turned out to be fortunate. I swapped in another VC/front diff and a better set of front axles and CV's. Improvement now, but still quite a bit of vibration. Finally I tried swapping in a driveshaft from another van and the vibration magically disappeared. I don't have a really good explanation yet for what is going on here, but clearly one can replace the u-joints on a syncro driveshaft and balance it in a shop and still not have it perform well in the vehicle. I'd be interested in hearing wisdom from the list on what is going on here.
Bill St. Louis, MO www.geocities.com/yosemite/gorge/1706 |
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