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drive shaft vibration

m78

m78

15,319
667
Virginia Beach Va.
My father fowarded this email to me,I don't know where it came from.Thouht I'd share it with you all.



Driveline Vibration Issue - Possible NTF Root Cause

This guy ran over a mattress and decided to keep going. The ensuing jumble finally whipped around enough to put a tear in the gas tank, the subsequent lack of fuel is what finally brought this vehicle to its knees.

It had still managed to drive 30 more miles decently with a 60lb tangle wrapped around the driveshaft.

This genius complained that the vehicle had a "shimmy" when driving it high speeds.

This is what the dealership found..............
mattressgif3.gif

mattress.gif
 
1985 Ford F-150

1985 Ford F-150

Country Boys Can Survive
7,816
307
Tooele, Utah
I can believe that theyre that stupid ive seen people hit recaps and chunks of wood on the freeway and not even slow down to see if it hurt anything.
 
LEB Ben

LEB Ben

Arrogant A-hole At-Large
34,919
1,124
outside your house
Personally I just don't see how someone wouldn't realize that. It's not like they didn't have debris flying off the mattress, and how the heck does a mattress pop up and wrap around your d-shaft like that anyways? As far as dumb driver's, I drive probably 30-40,000 miles a year, and I can't believe some of the things I've seen people try to drive through or over. Once driving home from Charlotte, I witnessed a honda civic take on a 2'x2'x2' box. Now keep in mind, that's about as big as the civic's front end. The car hit the box, and clothes exploded all over...it was pretty funny. But a box that size, Lord knows what coulda been in it and caused all sorts of damage. I vowed to never hit anything when I there was a an abandoned baby left in a box that had found it's way on the street. A guy hit the box, and smashed the baby. That was about 12 years ago before I could even drive, but the thought of something like that happening still haunts me. I've also seen too many of my buddies get body damage, punctured gas tanks, etc. by running stuff over. I figure there is just no positives that could come from running something over, so why do it.
 
lenny1carl

lenny1carl

7,086
459
upst ny
holy crap!!!!!!!!!
 
Skandocious

Skandocious

Post Whores Make Me Sick
19,076
655
California
UTfball68 said:
Personally I just don't see how someone wouldn't realize that. It's not like they didn't have debris flying off the mattress, and how the heck does a mattress pop up and wrap around your d-shaft like that anyways? As far as dumb driver's, I drive probably 30-40,000 miles a year, and I can't believe some of the things I've seen people try to drive through or over. Once driving home from Charlotte, I witnessed a honda civic take on a 2'x2'x2' box. Now keep in mind, that's about as big as the civic's front end. The car hit the box, and clothes exploded all over...it was pretty funny. But a box that size, Lord knows what coulda been in it and caused all sorts of damage. I vowed to never hit anything when I there was a an abandoned baby left in a box that had found it's way on the street. A guy hit the box, and smashed the baby. That was about 12 years ago before I could even drive, but the thought of something like that happening still haunts me. I've also seen too many of my buddies get body damage, punctured gas tanks, etc. by running stuff over. I figure there is just no positives that could come from running something over, so why do it.
Click to expand...
Good advice Ben. On the other hand-- if the item is small enough and safe enough to drive over-- DRIVE OVER IT! My dad gave me a good piece of advice a long time ago-- You're much better off driving over something small than you are to swerve around it at the last minute. You're much more likely to lose control from swerving at high speed than you are from hitting something small in the road. I think we can all agree that damage to your truck (suspension, gas tank, etc) is a lot less severe than damage to your body or losing your life.

Now if you've got ample time to SAFELY avoid a road hazzard-- of course that's the best course of action.
 
LEB Ben

LEB Ben

Arrogant A-hole At-Large
34,919
1,124
outside your house
Oh yes Chris...you are right. It's not like I'm a fanatic about dodging stuff and constantly putting myself in danger. I simply assess the situations and if I have time to avoid it, I do, if not then I don't. So I guess my statement was a little exagerrated...I don't miss stuff at all costs.
 
Skandocious

Skandocious

Post Whores Make Me Sick
19,076
655
California
UTfball68 said:
Oh yes Chris...you are right. It's not like I'm a fanatic about dodging stuff and constantly putting myself in danger. I simply assess the situations and if I have time to avoid it, I do, if not then I don't. So I guess my statement was a little exagerrated...I don't miss stuff at all costs.
Click to expand...
Absolutely. I wasn't trying to correct you-- just adding onto your post YelloThumbUp
 
dakonthemountain

dakonthemountain

California Chapter member
562
21
Crestline, California
Thats' one of the many beauties of our trucks. They have pretty high ground clearance and you can "straddle" pretty big objects. In the mountains where I live there are often mini rock slides and when you come around a blind curve on a cliff you DON'T want to swerve to go around them. You could end up traveling down a 5,000 foot + embankment! Oh, and to keep this on Ford trucks, I assume that driver with the mattress was not driving one?..:hehehm:
Dak
 
LEB Ben

LEB Ben

Arrogant A-hole At-Large
34,919
1,124
outside your house
I wanna know how you'd go about fixing something like that. Do you try and cut away the mattress, or do you clear away enough to just pull the shaft out and start fresh? I'd imagine the shaft would have to be somewhat bent even if they did get the mattress off of it. I'd also imagine it would be more expensive trying to save that shaft due to man hours of cutting and rebalancing, right?
 
TexasRho83

TexasRho83

2,652
141
Carrollton, TX
UTfball68 said:
I wanna know how you'd go about fixing something like that. Do you try and cut away the mattress, or do you clear away enough to just pull the shaft out and start fresh? I'd imagine the shaft would have to be somewhat bent even if they did get the mattress off of it. I'd also imagine it would be more expensive trying to save that shaft due to man hours of cutting and rebalancing, right?
Click to expand...

I'd have to agree...that shaft is probably warped, the pinion bearing is probably out of whack and the seals are gonna definitely have to be replaced judging by the 90w oil spattered all over the diff...

I'd say they should probably remove the tank, tuck the fuel lines outta the way, and cut all that crap outta there with a torch
 
broke as a joke

broke as a joke

25
0
northern mn
I work at a shop, I think if that were to come in the door, I would bust out the torch, and order them a new drive shaft. with labor at $72 an hour it would be the cheapest route for the customer. as to the pinion bearing being fubar, yep probably is, but I wouldn't consider it a problem until it it goes bang.
 
TexasRho83

TexasRho83

2,652
141
Carrollton, TX
Me being the safety stickler, I'd replace everything that was affected by that mattress so I dont get stranded in BFE when the other things go out
 

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