Driveshaft Phasing

[RngrRegmnt586]

I've owned 3 fords (2 brand new, 1 used) and I always got the load of BS from the service tech that says, "Sorry. We couldn't replicate the problem." Just my personal experience with stealerships here in the Los Angeles County area. I know there are actually some good Ford dealsherships out there from what I've read in the forums.

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[Greatlakespilot]

So I’m having a pretty good vibration above 75. Enough that if you put your head against the headrest, it shakes my sunglassses off my nose. Took it in and was told tires were out of balance. One over an ounce. Truck still vibrates, maybe 10 percent improvement. Going to take it in on Thursday and tell them to check the drive phase. Also have had mine in four times now for a faulty communication modem. I bought it in October, it quit communicating in November. It’s been replaced twice and not fixed. Ordered another modem on back order. I’m getting fed up. Haven’t been able to use ford pass or WiFi since a month after I bought it. Trying to upload a video I took. Held the phone against the headrest and the video is just shaking like it’s coming apart.

 

[Porpoise Hork]

In case anyone has not looked in the vibration issue thread, take a look.

https://www.ranger5g.com/forum/threads/vibration-at-take-off.2092/page-7

After looking into this issue in the AU market I found that they had been experiencing the same issues when lifting the rear suspension. When comparing the AU suspension to the NA version it seems that Ford basically gave us a 1.5-2" rear lift, and did not account for this in the drive-line. This seems to have introduced the vibration in the drive-line. Since the NA center bearing is setup differently than the AU model and their kit would not work, I went with a different type of shim. So far after adding them the vibration at acceleration and at freeway speeds have been eliminated.

 

[SpaceRanger]

In case anyone has not looked in the vibration issue thread, take a look.

https://www.ranger5g.com/forum/threads/vibration-at-take-off.2092/page-7

After looking into this issue in the AU market I found that they had been experiencing the same issues when lifting the rear suspension. When comparing the AU suspension to the NA version it seems that Ford basically gave us a 1.5-2" rear lift, and did not account for this in the drive-line. This seems to have introduced the vibration in the drive-line. Since the NA center bearing is setup differently than the AU model and their kit would not work, I went with a different type of shim. So far after adding them the vibration at acceleration and at freeway speeds have been eliminated.

Soooo, about this shim? Care to share the details and how to get our hands on this or make it? I also believe something like this would eliminate the drivetrain slop a lot of us have in parallel with the vibration. And by slop, I mean a "thunk" coming to a stop and a similar "thunk" from the initial acceleration from a dead stop - almost as if something was sliding forward and rearward due to inertia.

 

[SpaceRanger]

Soooo, about this shim? Care to share the details and how to get our hands on this or make it? I also believe something like this would eliminate the drivetrain slop a lot of us have in parallel with the vibration. And by slop, I mean a "thunk" coming to a stop and a similar "thunk" from the initial acceleration from a dead stop - almost as if something was sliding forward and rearward due to inertia.

@Porpoise Hork I replied too soon. I looked at your link and you listed what you used. I'm in the process of ordering the exact shim kit right now. I'll definitely report back and see if this works, as well. Thanks!

 

[SpaceRanger]

Ok, so here's an update with the shim method mentioned by @Porpoise Hork. I added a single 1/8th inch shim and then took it for a test drive last night. Didn't seem to change anything or make any difference on said test drive (smooth highway at 60+ mph) and same with a brand new glass-like interstate at 70-80mph. I was pretty distraught and exhausted from work and decided to leave it for now.

I'm currently on my way to Chicago (3 hours one way) and I'm actually thinking it might have made it worse? Or maybe I'm just ultra sensitive to it right now. Once I get home, I'll add a little more. Test drive more. Rinse and repeat. I'm even considering getting longer bolts just to see what kind of effect I get. Again, I'll let you guys know what happens.

 

[SpaceRanger]

imagine your despair after a 6hr round trip you destroy something in the process.....
i would have waited and not interupted the adjust/test/repeat process....at least not decided on a 6 hour test drive anyways.

Yeah, that would be bad. Haha However, I highly doubt adding such a miniscule adjustment of angle to the driveline would have a catastrophic effect. Plus, I test drove the truck on the interstate for about half an hour last night. With little to no change, I'm not really too worried. If it made it noticeably worse, then yeah, I wouldn't be driving it to Chicago.

 

[Novaman71]

Installed two 5/32 shims and I’ll be damned, off the line shudder is gone. No vibration up to 50mph. Will test at speed on the highway.

 

[P. A. Schilke]

Hi Folks,

A shout out to Bret for taking the time to remove and verify the shudder had returned. Take away from my standpoint is that the driveline is extremely sensitive to center bearing position up or down and to a degree explains why some trucks have it and some do not. This may not fix all trucks but is now a valid tool for the tool box! Thanks again Bret.

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

 

[SpaceRanger]

Installed two 5/32 shims and I’ll be damned, off the line shudder is gone. No vibration up to 50mph. Will test at speed on the highway.

Did you end up going with longer bolts? I just added a 1/16th shim to the 1/8th (equalling 3/16ths) and I'm about to go test drive now.

 

[SpaceRanger]

So here's an update on the 3/16ths total shimming... Still a vibration. It might have ever so slightly gotten better? Maybe I'm just hopeful - so I'm heading into town to try and track down longer bolts and will try a total of 1/4in of shimming. I'm just not so sure on how much I should go? It does seem as if the bearing sits considerably higher than it should in comparison to how low the driveshaft sits in the bearing - like it's off center.

 

[HarryD]

Here is an Instruction Sheet .pdf of the Center Bearing Shim Kit that 4Wheeler from Austrailia mentioned in his posting in the Vibration at Takeoff Thread.
Each shim in the kit is 4mm or 5/32" thick.
Ironman 4X4 is an Austrailian company, but they have a distributer in Oregon.
https://ironman4x4america.com

 

[SpaceRanger]

Here is an Instruction Sheet .pdf of the Center Bearing Shim Kit that 4Wheeler from Austrailia mentioned in his posting in the Vibration at Takeoff Thread.
Each shim in the kit is 4mm or 5/32" thick.
Ironman 4X4 is an Austrailian company, but they have a distributer in Oregon.
https://ironman4x4america.com

Interesting. So they say that the most you can/should go is 20mm - which is just a tick over 25/32nds of an inch.

I ended up last night with bolts that were 10mm longer than the factory bolts and used 3 flat washers for shims so they couldn't slide out. The washers added up to about 11/32nds or about 9mm. I think it helped out veerrry slightly but it is still negligible. The 9mm is less than half of what the shim kit advises to be the max you should go, but the shim kit is also for a lifted rear end. The caveat to this is that besides Eibach shocks and larger tires, the rear suspension has not been lifted nor has the geometry of the driveline changed from factory. Now, unless I'm on the extreme end of the "out of alignment" spectrum from the factory, I think I may just be SOL. I'm also suspecting that I may have another underlying problem.

Anybody have any thoughts?

 

[OKRaptor]

I traded my 2019 Ranger in because of this problem a tranny issue on an F-150. I came across this on the F-150 site and wondered if it might be related to the Ranger vibration issues.

https://www.f150forum.com/f118/driveline-vibration-smoking-gun-found-428699/

 

[SpaceRanger]

I traded my 2019 Ranger in because of this problem a tranny issue on an F-150. I came across this on the F-150 site and wondered if it might be related to the Ranger vibration issues.

https://www.f150forum.com/f118/driveline-vibration-smoking-gun-found-428699/

That sounds exactly like what we're dealing with. Slop in the driveline, vibration at that exact MPH range... Only problem is would be to get a Ford dealership to look into the rear end like that guy did. My dealership CHARGED me for them to lube the spline gears because, even though they noticed the problem, they said it was "just the nature of the beast". I'm a hair shy of 30k miles and each time I mention that I have a vibration, they tell me "then it's a wheel/tire out of balance" or "it's in your aftermarket wheels". Obviously that's just a bullsh*t cop out, especially since I've had this problem since I was rolling around on my factory wheels and tires, had those balanced twice, put my aftermarket wheels and tires on and had those suckers balanced 3 times. I'm sure they're going to tell me that it's my Eibach leveling kit and shocks that's causing it next time I mention it.

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