Has anyone else had a vibration/grounding type noise after they installed a lift on a trakick? this is the second time that it's happened to me. The noise comes in at relatively high to moderate speed and just off the throttle kindof coasting. My kick did this and it's a 5 speed, now my dad's is doing it and his is a auto. I think that the prob is in the u joint angles. has anybody else had this problem?


      Kevin

hmmm.

Now you got me thinking...  I know that not properly reassembling the slipjoints on Samurai driveshafts will exhibit that symptom, but I haven't disassembled my Sidekick driveshafts yet...

Does this problem happen ONLY in two wheel drive (possibly isolates problem to rear driveshaft)?  Or with the hubs locked (isolates problem to front drivetrain)?

Did you refill the difs? (Mr. bonehead here speaks from experience).

Finally when I took the engine out of the 'Kick, the GM FSM (not some weenie Haynes manual) instructed me to mark both flanges before separating the driveshaft from the front dif.  Maybe it's a simple matter of disconnecting the driveshaft at the  flange, rotating it 90 degrees, reinstalling it and road testing for vibration symptoms.  Repeat until the problem disappears or you are back to where you started.

I got more poking around to do on my '93 so I'll slide underneath and see what's happening.

Both of the kicks have been on the road for at least 1yr since the lift. I don't know if they make the noise in 4x4 because I never get to that speed while in 4x4. At first the noise didn't bother me but it seems to be getting worse and my dad says his is real bad. So I'm calling on the Zuki gods here at Zukiworld.



  Kevin

Check/re-adjust the drive line angle with the heim joint and check your U-Joints. I would bet that it is a slowly failing U-joint resinating through the driveshaft.

Zig

Did you rotate the rear axle
It will go away if you rotate the axle
or put a spacer in there, about 1" would do

Wild

Mine does the same thing at 80 - 90 klms.
On and off the throttle.
Seems worse with the standard tyres on.

it's not the u-joints. it's the driveline angle, being different on either end. when i installed my lift, i tried to get the rear axle tilted as close as i could to the transfer case to have as straight as possible driveline. this was the wrong approach, cause when i let the gas off at higher speeds in 5th gear, man i thought something was gonna fall off it vibrated pretty bad. the solution is to drop the axle angle so that both ends of the drive shaft have the same angle. i've had my lift for two years now, and as the suspension has settled the vibration is almost non existant now.

Actually it's not the driveline angle, it's the
slipyoke hanging out too far, the farther and
faster you drive the worse it will get, one more
reason to build a slip yoke eliminator

Wild

Well after a three foot lift what rig would not have a few weird vibs? 

Oops, I wanted to say 3" lift Oh well thanks for the info.


    Kevin

I had this problem after installing the Calmini 3" lift. I haven't completely fixed it yet, but it's better. Yes, it seems to be caused by the angles of the U-joints at either end of the rear driveshaft not being equal. It's very hard to "eyeball" the angles. After messing around with trial and error adjustments, I decided to get serious.

I purchased an angle finder (a whopping $8 at Harbor Freight Tools) and pulled the driveshaft (easy). I used the angle finder to measure the angle of the output flange at the back of the transfer case- in my case, it points down about 6.5 degrees. I adjusted the heim joint until the flange on the differential pointed up by 6.5 degrees- at this position, the threaded rod on the heim joint was backed out about 10 threads. I still need to do a bit of trial and error to optimize the position, but at least I know I'm close, and things are a lot better than they were before. Calmini's recommendation is to start with the rod screwed in all the way, which on my vehicle was way off.

i ahve the same prob but i ahve 8" lift how do u build a slip yoke illeminator? oha nd i also ahve a 1" spacer