Problems With New Drive Shaft

[Khonwan]

I replaced the drive shaft on my 6yo Vigo 4x4 yesterday but driving home felt the truck to be unstable similar to having the tyres well over-inflated (which they were not). What could be the problem? I used my usual mechanic (large/busy truck repair shop), not the dealer. I’ll return to the shop in the next couple of days (60km away) but would like some ideas first as to what could have gone wrong to enable a discussion with the mechanic.

[kartman]

Which drive shaft ? presume there must be 6 on a 4x4, if it's the Propshaft gearbox to back axle may be out of balance.

[Khonwan]

Sorry - the one connected to the cv joints, front wheels. I had been loosing power steering oil and was experiencing a noisy clunking sound when turning at full lock.

[transam]

If out of balance the ride will vibrate/shake but will not alter the stability of it. Cab you be more specific with the symptoms. Never heard of replacing a shaft. They are totally fixable.

[Khonwan]

Ok, one picture is better than a thousand words…especially when the wrong words are used! Sorry for my limited mechanical vocabulary...and my slow response due to a poorer than normal EDGE speed at home just now.

[Crossy]

That's a steering rack With a fluid leak

I wonder if they did the alignment correctly, that could be a cause of your symptoms.

A trip to your local CockPit or similar would be wise.

[transam]

Ok, one picture is better than a thousand words…especially when the wrong words are used! Sorry for my limited mechanical vocabulary...and my slow response due to a poorer than normal EDGE speed at home just now.

Thats a steering rack with a leak.

[transam]

That's a steering rack With a fluid leak

I wonder if they did the alignment correctly, that could be a cause of your symptoms.

Yep.

[Khonwan]

Just requires a computerised wheel alignment then?

[transam]

Just requires a computerised wheel alignment then?

Yep.

And soon or your tyres will be ripped to shreds.

[arthurwait]

Erm as others have said maybe it's not been aligned.

Maybe it's just stiff as it's new.

Maybe not greased.

I can't think of anything else.

Perhaps they did pump your tyres up as a service and as usual have done them too high.

[Khonwan]

I checked the tyre pressures after first suspecting that but they were normal. Not at all stiff - quite the opposite: feels like there's no weight in the front of the pickup.

My thanks to you all for your advice - I'll take it back as soon as possible (next couple of days, and I'll refrain from driving it in the meantime).

Cheers

Khonwan

[Khonwan]

I checked the tyre pressures after first suspecting that but they were normal. Not at all stiff - quite the opposite: feels like there's no weight in the front of the pickup.

My thanks to you all for your advice - I'll take it back as soon as possible (next couple of days, and I'll refrain from driving it in the meantime).

Cheers

Khonwan

PS (and a rather important By The Way): I just remembered that I noticed during the past hour using it within a hundred metres of my house that the clunking sound is still there at full lock, this time more noticeable initialising a left reverse. It looks like I've spent 11,550 just to stop the leak. I thought the clunking must be the cv joints and that this steering rack replacement should resolve it. What else could it be? Or could that also be resolved by proper allignment? Whilst you guys are responding to this perhaps you can also advise on a repair to my poor memory - B12 pills just aren't doing it!

[transam]

To be honest I/we must drive and listen to stuff. If 4WD is not engaged then a question mark for me. BUT, really needs a guy to fool around to find stuff.

[arthurwait]

Have they claimed to have replaced the CV joint as well as the steering rack as that would be the first thing to look at if making a noise while turning especially tight turns ?

[Khonwan]

I experience this noise when 4x4 is not engaged. The problem is that when I took it to the shop three days ago, we could not get the truck to make the noise. I told the mechanic that I thought it was probably the cv joint but I could not translate that to Thai and the English wording meant nothing to him. My wife had already taken the Vigo to Toyota a week earlier to ask what would be required to repair the power-steering fluid leak. It was examined and she was told that the steering rack needed replacement and that it would cost 22,000 baht just for the parts, which seemed steep to me especially since the clunking sound had not yet started.

It was a couple of days later when I first heard it as I turned right forward at full lock (a very serious sounding single clunk). That's when I took it to my usual repair shop expecting the job to be done much cheaper.

With my now obvious ignorance of vehicle mechanics, I believed that this steering rack incorporated the cv joint. I don't mind you laughing because I'm still clueless!!!

[transam]

Are you talking about a clunk when engaging or disengaging 4x4. ?

[Khonwan]

No

Edit: I'm already in 2x4 (not 4x4) and I simply move forward from stationary or whilst already in motion and turn right at full lock due to confined space (or reverse left at full lock) when both my wife and I hear the single clunk. I don't think I've tried it in 4x4 as yet.

Edited March 14, 2013 by Khonwan

[transam]

No

Edit: I'm already in 2x4 (not 4x4) and I simply move forward from stationary or whilst already in motion and turn right at full lock due to confined space (or reverse left at full lock) when both my wife and I hear the single clunk. I don't think I've tried it in 4x4 as yet.

Hmmmmmmm, but normal running you have no noise, rumble, knock or whine. ?

[Khonwan]

No problems at all whilst driving normally on straight roads or bends...only U-turns or very tight farm-road T-junctions.

[Khonwan]

I’ve reverted to Google and now have a better understanding of my thread title misnomer, cv joints, and my clunking sound. And now I must apologise yet again for my poor recall leading to so much confusion, especially when Transam was so much on the ball.

Reading that the cv joint is indeed connected to the drive shaft (which is what I original thought but hadn’t joined the dots) and that as the noise is coming from the front I realized that I must have been in 4x4 at the times I heard the clunk and in 4x2 when I visited the repair shop. Therefore, I’ve just taken the truck for a series of sharp turns around my “garden” alternating between 4x4 and 2x4 (or 4x2, however you phrase it; easier in Thai!): the noise only occurs in 4x4. Humble apologies!!!!

I guess that the steering shaft replacement was required to fix that leak and that it was not properly aligned. I further guess that I also need to replace the front drive shaft (which I can translate to Thai as pow na) to fix the clunking that I assume is caused by damaged cv joints (Thai?). I further guess that the damage to both is down to the 22km of hell-roads & tracks leading to my home exacerbated by the speed at which I drive on them (my attempt to fly over the holes!).

Thanks for your time and input, guys.

Khonwan

[roadrunner300]

I experience this noise when 4x4 is not engaged. The problem is that when I took it to the shop three days ago, we could not get the truck to make the noise. I told the mechanic that I thought it was probably the cv joint but I could not translate that to Thai and the English wording meant nothing to him. My wife had already taken the Vigo to Toyota a week earlier to ask what would be required to repair the power-steering fluid leak. It was examined and she was told that the steering rack needed replacement and that it would cost 22,000 baht just for the parts, which seemed steep to me especially since the clunking sound had not yet started.

It was a couple of days later when I first heard it as I turned right forward at full lock (a very serious sounding single clunk). That's when I took it to my usual repair shop expecting the job to be done much cheaper.

With my now obvious ignorance of vehicle mechanics, I believed that this steering rack incorporated the cv joint. I don't mind you laughing because I'm still clueless!!!

Nope there is the steering and the driveshafts on the frontside with a 4 wheeldrive.

You problably still have to change one of these driveshafts or just one joint on it sometimes this is possible.

To check out under the car wich one it is most of the time the one with the most backlass when you puss it back and foward or up and down.

Because of the wheel changing its angle a lot combined with the engine putting power on it in 4x4 drive the ones on the wheelside are the ones to have the hardest life.

I bet its one of these joints.

[BSJ]

A clunk on full lock is CV joint problems.....and they replaced the steering rack! Tell us who this workshop is.....so we never go there.

[Lickey]

A knackered cv joint will cause constant clicking on full lock, Khowan says there is one "clunk" which tells me its a broken coil spring,

[WarpSpeed]

I checked the tyre pressures after first suspecting that but they were normal. Not at all stiff - quite the opposite: feels like there's no weight in the front of the pickup.

My thanks to you all for your advice - I'll take it back as soon as possible (next couple of days, and I'll refrain from driving it in the meantime).

Cheers

Khonwan

This definitely sounds like an alignment issue did they even do an alignment at all? Does this shop even have an alignment rack?

[WarpSpeed]

A knackered cv joint will cause constant clicking on full lock, Khowan says there is one "clunk" which tells me its a broken coil spring,

Or potentially suspension bushing..Top or bottom of the spring seat or shock mount if coil over struts there is a bearing at the top to allow for steering rotation and this bearing may have failed but definitely a suspension issue described by being more distinctive when reversing direction.

Edited March 14, 2013 by WarpSpeed

[roadrunner300]

A knackered cv joint will cause constant clicking on full lock, Khowan says there is one "clunk" which tells me its a broken coil spring,

Then you see differents in hight left and right unless its broken al the way on the top.

[Lickey]

Ok, lets look and anylyse OPs posts,

Seems he drives quick to "smooth out the bumps ect" fair enough, living in the sticks, lot of us do that, this will eventually weaken the coil springs,

The "clunking" problem started after the steering rack was changed,

The truck is jacked up on the front axle beam, wheels are removed and the axle is pulled lock to lock to remove the track rod ends, at this stage, with weak springs, they can loose there seatings, [usually a notch in a steel holding plate] so when on a lock the spring will knock back and out of position again,its not damaging atall, but ask them to look for this,

As for feeling different, well, yes of course it does, you had a knackered leaking steering rack, now youve got a new one,

[arthurwait]

The thing is he says it only happens when in 4wd not 2wd so why isn't the spring or alignment affecting it it 2wd mode ?

[transam]

After studying a blown up diagram of the front drive set up it is far more complicated than l thought, fact is l couldn't figure out all the internal hardware .

At times my 4x4 makes a loud clunk that jolts the ride when l disengage the front drive, and times makes no noise at all.

As above, Don't think it's a spring problem as it would be constant.