I?m putting this here because of the similarity of this drive train to the Blazers. This 96 Bravada has a bad shake pulling out that feels like a U joint coming apart. I have it at my Uncle?s service station for them to try to straighten out. We have thought this out and are trying to not just throw parts at it, but so far it?s not paying off. SYMPTOMS
- Bad shake when you pull out, classic clunking like bad U joint. Not nearly as bad when the car is cold or has been sitting a while. Gets better as you put on speed. It does not get better or worse if you swerve form one lane to the other to see if wheel bearing is out.
- Chirping sound like a dry bearing will make, again after warm up.
- Sound like a fan blade hitting something. This is not all the time. These symptoms go away like you turned off a switch if you let off the gas, will sometimes come back not so bad right before the car stops under braking. They all but disappear in turns even under acceleration in turns. Not present in reverse even under acceleration. At 60 MPH it settled down to a dull rumble. So far we have done the following, none of these thing helped much if at all.
- Changed left front axle.
- Changed both motor mounts, (both were broken).
- Replaced transfer case fluid with AutoTrak fluid from dealer.
- Removed and inspected rear drive shaft, no problem found, greased all U jonts and reinstalled.
- Attempted to remove fornt U join but couldn?t because of stripped bolt.
- Inspected rear cross member tranny mount found it in good condition.
- Checked lug nuts, tire pressure confirmed all tires are same size and brand.
- Tomorrow the plan is to burn off the bolt and pull front drive shaft and inspect it well. We will try to drive the car with the front shaft out and see what happens. Help me out guys, what the heck is going on here? I have 5 in chasing this now. I trust these guys completely as mechanics, my neighbor is a retired Olds tech with 40 years of service, and hundreds of hours working on these cars up til 2002, and he has agreed with everything we?ve done so far. We don?t know what to try next if the front shaft is OK. If the car runs smoothly with the shaft out where do we go from there? Is it OK to run the car with the shaft out? (I?ll check that with my neighbor in the morning before we run it). Any help or suggestion you can offer will be greatly appreciated. Larry M.