Baystate Jeepers

On the way home from the toy run Sunday I began getting obvious wheel vibrations felt in the steering wheel once I got to approximately 35mph. It was worse at about 50-55mph. Road hum was noticeable as well. Total guess on my part, but I'm thinking I may have lost a wheel weight or two which caused the tires to become unbalanced. I planned on getting a wheel alignment anyway now that the wheeling season is over. Should I get the wheels rebalanced or wait to see if it's an alignment issue? Anything else I should be suspecting?

sounds like you tossed a weight.... try to get the shop to mount weights inside the rim and not on the lip of the rim as the lip mounted weights get torn off easily rubbing on the trail.

Jeff is saying stick on weights not the clamp on the edge of the rim kind. Especially with aluminum wheels it not only messes up the finish , but dissimilar metals tend to corrode the aluminum. A vibration is probably a weight , a side to side motion of the wheel could be a bent rim. Sometimes a rock or mud can get trapped inside the wheel causing this also. FjR68

I got around to having the wheels balanced and alignment and there is no change. I still get an obvious vibration most noticeable at 45mph and above. Did some online research and there seems to be many things it could be. Is there anyone who is willing to help me locate and remedy the culprit?

Did they retorque the spacers? Steering wheel vibes or seat of pants vibes?

Does it feel like a vibe or something out of round. Isolated to front of vehicle?

MDSRACING398 wrote:Did they retorque the spacers? Steering wheel vibes or seat of pants vibes?

I didn't think to ask them to retorque the spacers. I doubt they checked it on their own.

It's definitely steering wheel vibe, but at higher speeds, the whole Jeep vibrates.

RandyCarol wrote:Does it feel like a vibe or something out of round. Isolated to front of vehicle?

Definitely a vibration that feels like it's coming from the front.

Stepping outside the box a little, could an unbalanced or bent driveshaft cause this vibration? Bent axle shaft? Maybe on this last run you had a nasty hit on a driveshaft to bent or knock off a balancing weight of the front driveshaft.

Any bulges in sidewall? One of the fronts could be out of round now? . Most places don't check radial runout when balance tires. Driveshaft you would feel at low speed too and more in seat of pants. I'ld check spacers for sure they should be retorqued anyways if never did. Did they rotate tires when balanced? If not could try moving fronts to rear and eliminate the out of round idea. I have couple hours tmrw your not far down the road if want I could come down and atleast check spacers and move tires around to help you eliminate those ideas.

BlackNBlue-ISH wrote:Stepping outside the box a little, could an unbalanced or bent driveshaft cause this vibration? Bent axle shaft? Maybe on this last run you had a nasty hit on a driveshaft to bent or knock off a balancing weight of the front driveshaft.

I'll take a look at the drive shafts tomorrow.

MDSRACING398 wrote:Any bulges in sidewall? One of the fronts could be out of round now? . Most places don't check radial runout when balance tires. Driveshaft you would feel at low speed too and more in seat of pants. I'ld check spacers for sure they should be retorqued anyways if never did. Did they rotate tires when balanced? If not could try moving fronts to rear and eliminate the out of round idea. I have couple hours tmrw your not far down the road if want I could come down and atleast check spacers and move tires around to help you eliminate those ideas.

Sidewalls will be checked as well tomorrow, as well as for bulges. Tires were not rotated. Didn't have them do that since there is very little mileage on them since buying them in September. It does make sense to try that idea though.

Mark, I would appreciate getting together tomorrow. Since I don't have any jack stands or floor jack and I live in a condo that frowns on working on vehicles, can I come over to your place? My only time restraint is that I need to be back home NLT 4:30. Let me know what works for you.

Never was able to get together with Mark, so I brought the Jeep to get the wheels/tires rebalanced and alignment and that made no difference.

I then brought it over to Town Fair Tire and asked them to check out the wheels/tires and they said they were fine. They also rebalanced them and checked the nuts on the wheel spacers. All good! It was when they had all the wheels off when they spotted the driveshaft. Dan was right. The driveshaft took a direct hit when at Harris mountain. It certainly looks bad enough to be the problem. They turned the wheels to rotate the driveshaft and it's bent. although it doesn't look like it in the photo, when turned, it's obvious. Had that driveshaft less than a year, too.

Can the driveshaft be repaired?

To avoid the vibration, can the Tom Woods driveshaft and yoke be removed and drive normally as long as I stay in 2WD?

Definitely. Pull the drive shaft and you can run forever in two wheel drive. Obviously you won't have 4x4.

Found a place here in RI called RI Driveshaft & Supply in Warwick. They have been in business 44 years. No complaints at the BBB. I went down to visit them and it's a small shop run by two brothers. He said it would take about 4-5 days with their current workload and run about $195.00. That seem reasonable to you guys? He said he would re-tube it with the same diameter and thickness that Tom Woods built it with and high speed balance it.

Is there any place anyone can recommend?

That price sounds reasonable Ralph. Only other thing I would do is send it back to Tom . FjR68

Frank wrote:That price sounds reasonable Ralph. Only other thing I would do is send it back to Tom . FjR68

Even if you don't send it back, call them and see what they can do, obviously it isn't a warranty issue, but they may still work with you on getting it "straightened" out, pun intended.