You can remove the driveshaft without dropping the Savvy skid?
That is impressive. No way I could get mine off with the Nth TT on.
An interesting thing happened on Sunday on my way back home from New Mexico. I heard and felt the front drive shaft failing on the highway.
In the past, I have mentioned that 75mph is doable, though lower speeds are quieter and more pleasant. This was true. However, I was making an assumption that the "harmonics" I was noticing around 75mph and higher were similar to the harmonics that others have described and never thought much about it since those sustained speeds didn't matter much to me.
The earlier drive south was uneventful with speeds in the low 70's. This drive back north was already several hours long. I began to notice the ambient "noise" was more dramatic and was now perceivable in the high 60's. Then there was a very subtle but noticeable sudden change that I can't quite describe, but didn't feel right. At the next exit, I stopped to take a look. I immediately noticed that the front drive shaft was quite hot, especially at the double cardan joint. This seemed odd, since the rear shaft doing the driving was only warm. I removed the hot front driveshaft. The DC joint felt stiffer than I thought it ought to.
Back on the highway, everything was different. Even at 55mph, all of the minor noise I had dismissed as "Jeepiness" was gone. 90mph was incredibly smooth! The problem (that was more severe than I ever believed) was connected to the front driveshaft.
This is the factory driveshaft with about 140k miles. I rebuilt it for the third time recently after the centering ball started to chirp again. What I believe happened is that the centering ball pin was dying. The prolonged driving was generating enough sustained heat to burn away the grease. That subtle change I felt might have been the fast decent to catastrophic failure.
I just ordered a new front drive shaft from Tom Wood with the extended splines and longer travel slip joint. It should arrive early next week. Hopefully this will reset the baseline for what normal really ought to be.
This experience is interesting, because I have been chasing and fixing small vibrations over the last many months. But the biggest one was one of the most obvious, and I wasn't even aware of it. Its a good moment for self reflection, I suppose.
His shafts are pretty darn reasonable in cost if I remember
It's never fun spending fun coupons on maintenance items.
$385 shipped for a front including all new bolts and straps. It hurts no matter what.
Front drive shaft update!
After reading a bunch, I have decided to start from scratch and forget what I think I know.
The front pinion was low. I'm embarrassed to say how much. I brought it up the 0°, straight in line with the pinion. Toe in is right about 1/8". 77mph seems about as smooth as no front drive shaft. Steering feels a bit floaty, but this may be muscle memory. More time is needed.
View attachment 95551
Next I want to pull the springs, move the axle around to double check the steering and track bar and fine tune.
Those who know better, is there caster left to add without trouble? Or is this as good as it gets?