Vibes

xj-grin · May 21, 2004

Need some input, cause the obvious things aren't fixing it. I have a 99, 4.5 RE lift. Was running w/o an SYE and had just a bit of vibe @ 75mph, but put in a Tom Woods SYE and shaft anyway, as I figured I was at the limit and didn't want my slip yoke to give up the ghost on the trail.

Anyways, now I have significant vibes throughout the speed range, worse over 65 mph. My pinion is w/i 1-2 degrees of the shaft (per woods' instructions), tires are balanced.

My next check is the driveshaft balance itself, but what else could be the source of the vibes? TIA

Ramsey · May 21, 2004

I have a 99 with 3" wanting to BB to 4.5 or 5, you ever take it off on a trail, if so, any problems.. i dont mind some vibes, would love to save the $300.

xj-grin · May 22, 2004

Yeah, it sees some moderate trail time. I was actually suprised it had as few vibes as it did w/o the SYE, as I had read that an SYE was a must with 4+ inches of lift on 96+ XJs, but I also have a custom D44 rear, and my angles were perfect. I went with the SYE not so much to eliminate vibes, as to take some stress off that long outut shaft with the SYE and offroad twisting...

Anyone have any other suggestions?

ladywolf · May 22, 2004

xj, you didnt have to put a SYE in your 99? I have a 99, and have been debating on lifting it the instant i got back to germany, but was going to hold off because i didnt have a YSE. now that I know that i wont need one, i should be able to mount everything up with my RE 3.5'' and not worry about stuff. kewl. do you find you have any probs with yours, other than some slight vibes?

kristen

Kejtar · May 22, 2004

ladywolf said:
xj, you didnt have to put a SYE in your 99? I have a 99, and have been debating on lifting it the instant i got back to germany, but was going to hold off because i didnt have a YSE. now that I know that i wont need one, i should be able to mount everything up with my RE 3.5'' and not worry about stuff. kewl. do you find you have any probs with yours, other than some slight vibes?

kristen

OK, the deal on SYE is that whether you have vibes or not, it's good to have one. Also the fact that someone doesn't vibe doesn't mean that you will not vibe: Cherokees are "Custom" beasts. Each one coming out of factory felt different and there are some that vibed or are more prone to vibes then others (if you look hard enough on the net, there is an XJ out there that had the dealership install an SYE on it because it vibed so bad STOCK).
Anyways, riding with vibes is a bad idea cause stuff breaks and wears out!

Kejtar
P.S. Someone said something here a while ago that makes sense: if you're broke don't be cheap or you will spend more money fixing it cause it broke from being cheap

old_man · May 22, 2004

check your engine and tranny mounts. You may have worn out your tranny mount and that will cause any amount of out of balance to cause vibes.

xjhm · May 22, 2004

check your front shaft angles as well, mine was the major source of my vibes,
also if your vibes go away some when you let off the gas, or get worse when you get in the throttle...you may need a little less shimming...
and lastly, you said the angle was within 1-2 degrees, but didn't state whether it was pointed 1-2 up or 1-2 down... be sure it is down...
and you may want to try taking it to 3 degrees down...

mine was at 4 1/2 and totally vibe free, now at 6 1/2 it needs a bit more tuning on the caster...

xj-grin · May 22, 2004

Thanks for the replys guys. I agree with Ketjar, and thats why I did the SYE, its a strength thing, not necessarily a vibe thing.

As for my vibes, the motor mounts are new last year with the Stroker build, but I'll take a look at the tranny mount. I didn't change my lift any, so I don't think the front shaft could be the problem, as it didnt vibe before.

Any other ideas?

xj-grin · May 24, 2004

I had to give this a btt to share, again, the incredible customer service at Tow Woods Shafts... After I checked all the potential problems listed in this thread, I emailed Tom to ask for his input and got the quoted response. I felt the need to publicly recognize a vendor of this quality: :yelclap:

xj-grin said:
Chris:

Sorry about the delay in responding. I went out of town last Thursday through Sunday.. I tried to call this AM but got the Verizon message "customer not available" message.

We are giving the Cherokee application a bit more rethinking as among the few problems we do have, The Cherokee seems to be most prevalent. We are looking harder at 1/2 critical speeds based on the diameter of the shaft, length and RPM

For you I would like to build a new drive shaft from 2-1/2" diameter tube and send it out with an authorized return service label (prepaid return freight) for the problem shaft.

I have created a work order for this replacement shaft and we should be able to ship this tomorrow. I would like to hear back form you to find out if this solves the problem.

Thank You,
Tom Wood
Tom Wood's Custom Drive Shafts Inc.
Toll Free US: 1-877-497-4238
World Wide: 1-801-737-0757

Urban Redneck · May 24, 2004

Glad to hear he is working with you to fix the issue. I just put in a RE H&T with a High Angle Driveline DS. My DS is about 2 1/2" in diameter. I have less vibes than I did before, but I haven't put in my 4* shims, yet. I was gong to go with a full SYE, but the h&t works just fine for me.

Vibes

xj-grin

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Ramsey

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xj-grin

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ladywolf

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Kejtar

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old_man

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xjhm

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xj-grin

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xj-grin

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Urban Redneck

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