Mike,
The symptoms you describe could be a U joint. How many miles on the Dak?
Losing a driveshaft at the track tends to oil the tarmac well and slow you
down a lot, especially if its the front U joint... Check the Joint itself
real carefully by torquing on the shaft and looking right at the U joint
where the caps in the yoke meet the cross. Any relative motion is
indicative of wear or at the least a severe lack of grease. U joints are
relatively cheap and fairly easy to replace if youve got any doubt. I
usually replace them every 60K miles or so ever since I lost one on the
Highway in the middle of nowhere...
BKB
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Clark [mailto:mike@snakebite.com]
Sent: Friday, September 18, 1998 3:29 PM
To: dakota-truck@buffnet.net
Subject: DML: drivetrain
How can I tell if I have worn or bad U joints?
Is it normal for the shaft coming out of the transmision to have some
lateral play in it? I can physically move the drive shaft just a hair
up and down and side to side, and it's the transmission shaft that
seems to be moving, the rear end connection is rock solid...
Help! The big race is next week and I'd hate to loose a drive shaft
on the track.....
I have just noticed a subtle vibration around 55mph. I thought it was
tires, but I just had them rotated and balanced (they were supposed to
be balanced) and now it seems even worse than before. I can see my
steering wheel vibrate also, so would the drive shaft or tranny cause
that? It also seems to come and go at times...
---Mike, near Houston.---
My sig file=====> http://web.wt.net/~mclark/signature.txt
My Dakota page==> http://web.wt.net/~mclark/dakota.html
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