beoy9

Hey guys like the title says, I'm getting a wicked vibration while accelerating. I've searched quite a bit this morning and come across some good suggestions, but not very many resolutions, so I thought I'd post up and see what you guys think. Also, Cliff notes at the bottom for the hard of reading:

Here's what I've got:

92 hatch with a JDM GSR, B16 LSD. I just pulled the motor out of my rear ended 95 hatch and saw that the passenger side axle was spewing grease all over my tranny, motor and intake pipe. So I replaced both of the axles with remanufactured units from autozone. I've driven the car 100+ miles since the swap, mostly test drives to make sure everything was ok. Local streets and 80+ mph on the freeway. My only issue before yesterday was that I had some nasty toe out on both wheels so I took it to firestone yesterday and got their lifetime alignment.

I took it to the shop that is close to my work which is about 35 miles from my house and let them have it all day. They called me when it was done, and I took it for a spin around town and everything was . Then after work when I was on my way home, I made a lane change and heard/felt some thump and then heard a nasty scraping sound. Kinda like metal on metal rotors, but not so loud. So I pulled out of traffic and looked everything over and all seemed well visually, so I got back in and drove on. The vibration from this point wasn't as bad as it was initially, but still there.

Symptoms as of now:
Vibration only while accelerating.
10 mph to 70 mph
1st gear to 5th gear
2000 rpm to 6500 rpm
rolling along at any speed, in neutral or with the clutch in results in NO vibration
revving the engine in neutral or with the clutch in results in NO vibration

something of note... when I was installing my axles, I accidentally pulled the driver side axle apart. After putting it in the dif, I pulled on it just hard enough to make sure it was clipped in, but I guess it was too hard as the inner joint came apart. Before doing anything else, I went inside to search H-T to see what I should do next, but when I came outside, my brother had it back together and in place. The boot was still intact, but it was stretched out and didn't look right at all. I asked him how he fixed it and he showed me by pulling it apart again and then messing with it till it went back into place...

I took the front wheels off to inspect everything and nothing looked out of place or broken, including the axles.

anyway I'm taking it back into firestone to see if they did anything wrong or something came loose with the alignment, but I'm leaning towards the axles.

Cliffnotes:
Vibration only while accelerating in any gear at any speed. None while rolling along at any speed in neutral. Car ran fine yesterday morning before I got it aligned. It ran fine for 15 miles after I got the alignment. Felt/heard a clunk and then got MAD vibration.

Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to be as thorough as possible.

Zak

PatrickGSR94

iTrader: (1)

Most likely it's the POS rebuilt axles, especially if the vibration goes away immediately when you take your foot off the gas pedal.

Although when I've had vibration problems (like I did with 3 different sets of rebuilt axles) I never heard any kinds of metal scraping noises. Have you gotten underneath the car yet to look around? Try grabbing the inner joint on each axle and see if there's any rotational free play.

beoy9

I haven't tried grabbing the axles just yet, but I have rotated the wheels while it was up in the air and there seemed to be some free play while rolling the wheel back and forth. That's the way you're talking about right? not in an out of the dif?

PatrickGSR94

iTrader: (1)

yeah get underneath the car, hold the tire in place (or have someone else do it) and see if you can turn the inner joint at all. There should be (at least nearly) zero rotational free play.

There shouldn't be any axial free play (in/out) either. The c-clip on the end of the axle should be holding it in there firmly.

beoy9

ok, anyone else?

beoy9

Update:

I got under the car tonight and looked a few things over. The main thing I found was that driver's side inner CV joint was loose and sounded like there were all sorts of bits clanking around in there. That's the one I pulled apart btw.

PatrickGSR94

iTrader: (1)

yep, something didn't get put back together right. Take it up to VatoZone and get a free replacement.

beoy9

So that if someone searches for this, the problem WAS the crappy autozone axle. Replaced, and no more vibration.

For the record, when I got the thing out of the car, there was significant rotational play between the inner cv joint and the shaft itself. The new one felt nice and tight.

Thanks again for your help.