I really couldn't say. I've never dealt with a car that had a bad drive shaft or yoke (my DS and yoke were all good). I imagine it could if it was bad enough. I feel like I should add that, while having this problem, I thought for a while that my vibration could be coming from the front end. It shook just as hard as the back end (harmonics, I guess) and the steering wheel had some pretty good vibration. It all went away when I put the old drum back on.

But you say that your problem is just in the front end. I would jack the front end up and check the wheels for play. Grab your tires at the 3 and 9 o'clock positions and try turning the wheel. And again at the 6 and 12 o'clock positions. Feel for any loose play.

If you get play that is the same at both positions, it could be the bearings. A very minute amount is normal, however if it is a lot, you could try tightening the castle nut a bit to remove extra play. When you've removed most of the play, spin your tire and make sure that it spins free without any binding. If it's binding or tight, back the nut off a bit. Worn bearings probably won't contribute to vibration too much unless they're loose, so tightening them up and taking the car for a spin would tell you whether the bearing was at fault (a grinding noise or a hum or squeal would indicate a bearing needing replacement).

If you get play at the 3 and 9 o'clock position, check the joints in your tie rods and centerlink for play.

If you get play at the 6 and 12 o'clock position, make sure the mounting bolts for your strut are tight (they require an imense amount of torque to get completely tight, and some do-it-yourself mechanics might not get them tight enough the first time (whistles)). Also check that your ball-joint is not at fault.

All of this stuff would account for looseness in your steering. If your steering is tight, and you don't find any bad joints, I would move on to checking the drive line for faults before throwing money and parts at the car.

Also, I feel I should ask, have you replaced rotors lately?

 

Rotors are good, maybe a year & half old. Everything is smooth with brakes applied. Think there is a combo of things here. No play in wheel bearings, balljoints seem ok. I raised the rear and took it up to 80 and felt some shaking. Worn u joints and yoke. Maybe time to through an aluminum ds in. also noticed vibration when in park and engine is 2k rpms. Think the harmonic balancer is worn, vibes gone at idle. There are over 178k miles on it.

 

How long has the car been shaking for?

Hey, if you've got a worn balancer, it's a pretty easy job to replace it if you've got the tools. Was the shaking at 80 as bad as the shaking you've experienced on the road?

 

Been shaking since I got the car. I just didn't pay much attention because I mainly used it on the city roads. I new the tires on it were out of balance, figured after the new ones went on it would fix the issue. It did very little. I have no worries about the balancer, I can do that and rent the puller from the parts store. When I had the rear up and at 80, the shaking wasn't as bad, there was very little vibration coming from the steering wheel. What was there, was coming from the rear and could feel in the seat.

 

Could be the DS or yoke from the sounds of it. How does your tranny mount look?

 

The mount is a month old or so. I replaced with a poly mount. I know vibes will still be present with the poly mount, but they didn't get better or worse. I am going to pull the shaft out when I get a chance to inspect everything more.

 

I put the new harmonic balancer on today. The old one had cracked rubber. I was hoping this would solve the vibration in park. I feel it the most reving at 2k rpm, the dash and steering shake. I am thinking the crank may be off internally. Does this sound right?

 

I don't know. I haven't had to rebuild an engine yet.

 

I searched centerlink clicked this page and that gots to be one of the funniest jokes on TGO

 

my formula has been doing the same thing since i had the rear end rebuilt and the trans replaced with a rebuilt t5. before that it was smooth as glass up to 120 mph. now it has a terrible driveline vibration. tried 3 different driveshafts, had my original trued and balanced, and finally an aluminum one with no change. got an adjustable torque arm to adjust pinion angle. no change. Rear end was rebuilt with an auburn lsd and 323 gearing from 308s. I did notice that the passenger side wheel was wobbling when it was on a dyno, and that was the side that a used axle was put in. also has a used pinion yoke. But I dont know if a bent axle can send a vibration through the whole driveline. That or the rebuilt trans I got was rebuilt poorly. To top it all off, the rebuilt trans sounds worse than my original while it is in neutral, and when I put it in reverse I can hear the tail shaft chatter a bit. Any ideas while we are on the subject? as I stated before, was smooth as glass before

 

no i dont believe that will transfer to the steering wheel. check your pitman arm/ steering linkage.

 

Any updates?

 

Oh, yeah, I got it fixed. I thought I already posted that, but maybe it was in a different thread. Me and a buddy got to swapping parts on the rear end after determining that the problem was on the rear passenger side. The tire swap didn't change anything, but the drum swap made the drivers side vibrate. So I hit the junk pile and put the old drum back on and have been using it ever since. Apparently, oreally's sells unbalanced drums. I saw the new one the other day. It has a nice coat of rust on it. I was thinking about making a mini forge out of it since it's worthless otherwise.

 

For those of you who have balanced wheels, messed with your driveshaft, done everything youve been told to do and still no results, i swapped wheels with a car that doesnt shake, and tried other driveshafts, replaced front end parts but swapping wheels was my final straw. I had given up, had my car on a jack with the wheels off and decided to take my rotor off and start the car, put it in drive and my axle shook like hell, especially with some throttle. My drum showed some signs of it as well. Driver side axle, passenger seemed good. Pulled axels from another and driver side seemed ****ed but passenger was good. Theyre interchangeable so i will use the passenger side of the other car.