JR HAWK 9

iTrader: (3)

I have a '00 Firehawk with a 6-speed and a PST carbon fiber driveshaft with 1310 joints. When my driveshaft is fully installed and I grab the front ujoint and move it up and down on the tranny output shaft, am I supposed to feel any kind of play?? I do have some. I always thought that the tailshaft bushing was supposed to keep the slip yoke free of slop and to essentially sandwich the slip yoke in between the bushing and output shaft resulting in no play at all.....? I don't have any abnormal vibrations or anything, but I -did- have some before I adjusted my pinion angle correctly and replaced my factory driveshaft with a carbon fiber one.

Is it normal to feel some play?


thanks!!
Paul

calhoon

iTrader: (6)

Play there is not good. If you replaced the yoke and shaft because of vibe and pinion angle anomolies, you may have worn the rear bushing. They generally never wear .They do wear with the concerns you've stated.

JR HAWK 9

iTrader: (3)

yeah, that's what I was afraid of....lol

I don't have much play, but I do have some. From what I have been reading you really can't replace the bushing with the tranny still in the car, can ya? Is there anyway to determine by inspection if the rear bushing is wore? The bushing/seal is cheap, too bad the install requires the tranny to be removed

calhoon

iTrader: (6)

You may be OK. If you get a vibe or the seal starts leaking you'll have to address it. The bushing is service as part of an extension casting only. Thats because the bushing is machined after its installed.

JR HAWK 9

iTrader: (3)

yeah, I guess I will just keep an eye on it and see. I am just trying to figure out why all of a sudden there was some fresh tranny fluid around the area (on the TQ arm and on the ujoint), but at the same time the seal itself, the area around the seal and the tail housing looked to be completely clean and dry. I had previously checked it all out after I put some miles on my new driveshaft to make sure everything was sealing correctly and everything was the couple times I looked.

Only thing I can think of is that I recently banged a 1-2 shift at WOT (letting up briefly between gears, so not powershifting) pretty hard for the first time this year, something I HARDLY ever do and maybe this somehow forced some past the seal..? But if this is the case, I would think I would see some signs of this on the seal itself or at least on the housing around the area of the seal.

Another scenario would be if the O.D. of my new slip yoke (1310 joints) is a bit smaller than the O.D. of my stock slip yoke (3R/S44), this would show up as play in between the bushing and output shaft which wouldn't have been there with my stock driveshaft.

what are your thoughts?

JR HAWK 9

iTrader: (3)

ok, I used a caliper to measure the OD's of both the stock slip yoke and the new one on my new CF shaft. They both measure the same as close as I can tell w/o having a digital caliper. I then bought a new Timkin bushing/seal kit and placed the new bushing over my stock slip yoke that's not installed. The play between the bushing/slip yoke on the car and the new bushing/stock slip yoke is not really any different at all. I thought the new bushing would fit rather snuggly on the stock slip yoke but it doesn't at all. As long as this new bushing is the correct ID (don't know why it wouldn't be seeing it's the correct part number for our 6 speed), it's pretty safe to assume that the little bit of play I have is completely normal and wouldn't change even if I went through the work of replacing the current bushing with the one I bought new.

any comments??

calhoon

iTrader: (6)

Just keep an eye on it and look out for vibration. As far as locating the leak, use a whole can of brake clean and really clean up the back of the casting. Let it dry( it will quickly) and then spray( Calhoon trick of the day) Desenex foot powder around suspect areas: torque arm mount bosses , shifret tower, and the output seal. Drive it a bit and check for tell-tale leaks. The oil will stick to the white powder( for awhile) and let you know where the leak is. Otherwise it is nearly impossible to locate a leak as all oil runs downward and to the back.Good luck.

JR HAWK 9

iTrader: (3)

yeah, I plan on it. I took it for a little ride last night driving it hard and banging the 1-2 shift and then drove it on ramps. Still looks dry and clean. I still have it on ramps to see if the seal seeps at all while at an incline.....having the majority of the seal under the little bit of fluid pressure.

I know I don't have any vibes anymore, not that -I- can feel anyway, as I have done 130+ and it was still vibe free. The vibrations I had before I adjusted my TQ arm was not all -that- bad, it was just more annoying than anything....not like I had stuff rattling or anything...lol

As far as the TQ arm mount bosses, there has never been any dampness found that far forward. That area as always been clean and dry. The shifter area could be a possibility, as I know that looks like it may seep a bit, as it looks like some dirt may have collected on the dampness around the seep, which is up by where the shifter bolts up.

Good idea with the foot powder, I planned on using brake cleaner to fully clean the area.

thanks....

JR HAWK 9

iTrader: (3)

update.....

had a chance to clean it up good and drive it up on ramps to have all the fluid sit in the back of the tranny to see if it would leak. I left it sit a week or so and when I came out to look at it I saw a dime sized puddle of tranny fluid on the floor of the garage. I -thought- for sure it would be the seal and then proceeded to put the rear of the car up on jack stands higher than the front in order to move the fluid to the front so I could remove the driveshaft w/o having all the fluid dumping out the back. What I found was very interesting. The area around the seal was COMPLETELY dry while the lowest part of the u joint had oil on it as was were it was dripping from. To me it looks like it is leaking at the slip yoke, specifically were the "tube" of it is connected to the knuckle, as it is wet on the inside of the knuckle. It then runs down and collects on the lowest part of the knuckle and then drips onto my y pipe and then on to the floor. Keep i mind that the car just SAT and was never driven after I cleaned everything up.

Looks to me that I got a bad slip yoke from PST I will be calling them today to see what they can do, as they better not give me the run around because I have never even came close to abusing this shaft in the ~1,000 miles I have on it.

here are some pics I took while laying on my back:

JR HAWK 9

iTrader: (3)

well, just got off the phone with PST and they are taking care of it! They are sending a call tag so I don't even have to pay to send it back

MeentSS02

iTrader: (11)

O RLY...mine has a small leak back there somewhere...methinks I should go do some inspecting.

JR HAWK 9

iTrader: (3)

yep, they told me that there are caps on the end and sometimes they can leak if not sealed 100%, especially with our type of slip yoke. I just got mine off and that looks to be the problem. I was very impressed with how they handled it on the phone with me and they said that they would "make it right".

MeentSS02

iTrader: (11)

Looks like I'll be crawling under my car in the near future...thanks for the heads up. Hopefully it is something simple (relatively) like that...