Axle shift in 4th-5th gear...

[Trogdor636]

So here's a weird one. 94 5 speed. One of my trailing arms had a bushing that was pretty bad (the lower one on the axle side, I could grab the arm and move it side to side...the frame side wasn't as bad but had a little play) and the only Pathfinder in my Pick n Pull was a 88 which has the dog bone arms. Bushings looked good (wayyyy better than mine) so I grabbed it and installed it on my truck. No more grabbing it and moving it by hand. Initial drive around it felt better when turning, I could feel a little shift with the other one. Here's what gets me. Its fine from gears 1-3, but when I shift to 4th or 5th, I feel the axle "get loose" for lack of a better term for a brief second. Almost like a muscle car with a high powered motor would feel, if that makes sense. My old arm never did this with a destroyed bushing. Is there a front-rear marked on the arm? Obviously I need to change all my trailing arm bushings but if this is a easy fix I'd like to do it

[Precise1]

My guess is that the bushings in your one arm were so bad, it masked this effect which is caused by one or more of the other components. Now that you have taken care of the worst one, you are feeling this. One of the reasons you might just feel it in 4th and 5th is that it puts the most load on the axle and you are going at a faster rate of speed which could magnify the feel/effect of any yaw.

 

AFAIK there is no front/rear bias, it should just be a symmetrical arm. You didn't think to mark it when you removed it?

 

B

[Trogdor636]

Heck no I didn't mark it, I was happy it came off. First part ever thats been harder to remove from a junkyard than my Midwest transplant. I didn't think there was a difference either, but rob also said the parts numbers were different from left to right. I suspect that night be because of the bracket that holds the e-brake cable.<br />

Edited May 6, 2013 by Trogdor636