By James Shackelford (Shack) on Thursday, June 07, 2001 - 05:05 pm: Edit

All,

All right. Before I spend anymore $$ than I need to I want your opinions. For starters, here is my setup:

95' Disco
3" RTE springs and cones
RTE front radius arms (castor correction)
RTE rear trailing arms
GBR double cardan drive shaft
U-Joint rear drive shaft
265/75R16 Big O XTs
ARB front bumper
Custom rear bumper
Ranchos on all four corners
More stuff but irrelevant to this thread

Okay, here's what I am experiencing. After the initial 3" install (prior to arms) the ride was crap and I had the "Grunking" noise everyone talks about. Ride was attributed to angle of spring plates (angled down on both ends).

Installed rear trailing arms, "Grunking" went away. Very minor vibration on acceleration.

Installed Radius arms, "Grunking" returned and more vibration. Attributed to front shaft (took it off).

Installed GBR front drive shaft and "grunking" has gone away. Removed one spacer from rear trailing arms and some vibration stopped.

Up to date, ride is good, steering is good. I still have a minor vibration on acceleration and under power. If I coast, vibration goes away. What I am thinking...

1) I need CV drive shaft in rear?
2) Under acceleration (torque) axle flexes forward giving negative angle on rear u-joint causing vibration (that's why no vibration on coasting), so I need to remove another spacer.

Tom Pearson, I would like to know how many spacers you ended up using in your set up.

Thanks all,

James

By RVR OVR (Tom) on Thursday, June 07, 2001 - 05:31 pm: Edit

James,

I used the 2 big ones and left the smaller one off.

For what its worth, I am still on stock bumpers, so my lift may be a bit taller. Have you actually measured the angle on your rear diff and your tcase output to see how close they are to one another? Mine came out to be about 2 and 2.

Tom

By RVR OVR (Tom) on Thursday, June 07, 2001 - 05:36 pm: Edit

Also, somebody was posting a while back about his front tcase bearings being shot. Maybe you should look into that?

Tom "Araid of Catching the Vibes" Pearson

By Blue Gill (Bluegill) on Thursday, June 07, 2001 - 06:15 pm: Edit

I'm hearing good things about RTE's castor-corrected front radius arms. There is an excellent write-up of Ho's mod on The Expedition Exchange bboard. I think that I'll have to crack my piggy bank and buy a set to correct my shitty handling issues.

James, what rims did you mount your Big O's on? Seems like you've had about 10 rims for sale. I finally sent for that castor alloy spare you sold me that's been sitting up in Denver for 3 months. Should be here before the next off-road trip.

-Blue "Thank God I don't have the vibes" Gill

By James Shackelford (Shack) on Friday, June 08, 2001 - 12:01 am: Edit

Blue,

Here's the whole story. Had the stock castor wheels. Bought the freestyle set off of Jay Allen after he rolled his D1 (check the photos) and bought a D2 last year. Traded my steel spare for the castor with Simon Arenas last year(he traded all his alloys for other people's spares, again photos). Went to the Unique Wheel offset steel rim when I went to the 265/75s and the RTE lift, so I didn't need my stock rims. Sold the original castor's as beat ups, sold you the spare, and sold the freestyles to a guy in Tennessee. Not bad huh. Though, I just replaced my shock mounts with the RTE and I think I trashed my stock mounts and I just found out that stock mounts go for $95 from the dealer. I am sure I might have found someone who wanted them...

Oh well.

James

BTW, I am going to take some pictures this weekend to submit.

By Blue Gill (Bluegill) on Friday, June 08, 2001 - 12:20 pm: Edit

That's funny - I talked to Simon Arenas way back when about trading my steel for one of his castors, too. I decided not to (I want two spares), but now I see that I will be getting one of his castors anyway! It's a small world! Looking forward to the pictures.

By RVR OVR (Tom) on Friday, June 08, 2001 - 12:25 pm: Edit

James, stop, my head is spinning.

tom