XJ Mods VSB 14

[Tyvokka]

Looks good mate. Eyes hurty from the shine though

[rustynuts]

Well done with your efforts. I have been watching your posts for a long time. Again well done and good luck to the future.

[alexbrown64]

I am over spending money on this project.. but i really want to get the drive line as smooth as possible. I have taken a lot of measurements, angles and such.
At the moment i am running about 5.5* caster at the front as per Go Jeeps page. Steering feels nice and light, a little bit of wandering at high speed but not too bad, and no vibes.
Rear has the pinion 2.5* down relative to the drive shaft to allow for axle wrap.
I am getting some noise from the drive line somewhere.. not sure yet, but i have some work commitments so i am going to have to chase the noise down in a few weeks.

In the mean time i have ordered a custom SYE drive shaft from Olivers in the US. I have gone for one that is 830mm long that i can use in the front or back. Made of 2" .125 wall DOM tubing, using a Mix of Spicer and Neapco Parts, long travel full spline slip and stub used, and fully speed balanced.

http://www.oliversdriveshaft.com/index.php/products

I will start by putting my Jeep in permanent 4WD. Then remove the front shaft. Then i can concentrate on the rear and swap old/new shafts to see the difference. Then do the same at the front with the rear removed. Hopefully i can chase it down.

Cheers,

[alexbrown64]

Just got my new drive shaft in the mail and its a nice piece of work. I checked the uni joints and all of them are Spicer.

I measured my front and back shaft distances. The front is 820mm and the rear is 840mm. I got this one custom made to suit 830mm so that i could use it in the front and rear.

I am going to trial it in the front and rear to see if it smooths the ride out. Something is just a whisker vibey/noisey under there and i am hoping this helps. If it does, i will get another one so that the Jeep is running on all new shafts.

This Olivers shaft was custom made in the USA to length and then high speed balanced. It has a longer and stronger slip section and uses all Spicer parts. The total cost delivered was $430 AU which i think is pretty good.

Will update on progress once i get this baby fitted...



Cheers

[alexbrown64]

Well, the drive shaft trials did not go according to plan. My methodology took me to trialing only 1 shaft at a time, with the other removed. So i would trial "A" in the front with no rear shaft, then "A" in the back etc..
I only had some slight vibes/noise, but i believe a lot of that is feedback from the engine via the new beefier Brown Dog engine mounts.

Anyway, i fitted the new Olivers shaft in the front and went for a drive. There was a heap of grinding, noise and vibration. The car felt under powered and the whole experience was negative. It was not so bad in the rear.

Time to investigate. The vibes were so great that the rubber boot came loose from the CV..
I noticed that the shaft could not handle much articulation. In fact, even though the CV part number is the same, it could only articulate about 50% of the OEM ones.. Max angle was about 20*



I could only get a 0.2mm feeler gauge in between the CV, so i am wondering if that while driving it touches and causes the vibes.... This also limits the articulation to 20*. I believe my shaft is running at that angle.

While the shaft looks the business, i am not sure while it has caused so many vibes, power loss and grinding noises. The angle here does not look great, but the transfer case pinion points up so the angle to the diff pinion is quite a lot. I calculated about 20* which is about the same as the max articulation of the shaft without binding.

I have emailed Olivers for a solution. Not sure how to refit the boot on the ball, but it looks like the internal ball section is too big for the outer section, which causes binding. They say it is fully speed balanced, and has new weights on it, but who knows yet what the problem is.

Cheers,

[alexbrown64]

I received an email from Olivers asking me to ring them. I rang Dave in the US and we went through a few things. He admitted the shaft should articulate more than it does and believes there must be a fault in the yoke/ball section.
He is going to build me another shaft for free!!
Now that is fantastic service!!

Lets hope that the binding and vibration issues will be solved. The quality of the Olivers shafts is fantastic but something somewhere went wrong. I believe it is faulty or wrong ball section in the yoke.

Anyway, stay tuned for further progress....

Cheers,

[werd]

Originally Posted by alexbrown64

I received an email from Olivers asking me to ring them. I rang Dave in the US and we went through a few things. He admitted the shaft should articulate more than it does and believes there must be a fault in the yoke/ball section.
He is going to build me another shaft for free!!
Now that is fantastic service!!

Lets hope that the binding and vibration issues will be solved. The quality of the Olivers shafts is fantastic but something somewhere went wrong. I believe it is faulty or wrong ball section in the yoke.

Anyway, stay tuned for further progress....

Cheers,

And that's shy you buy from reputable businesses.great customer service and after sales support.☺