TC Main Shaft Lubrication

[cham]

Got my front driveshaft worked on and installed. They replaced one u-joint as it was quite notchy and had no intentions of loosening up with some hammer persuasion. Had it rebalanced as well.

Most of the vibration is gone but there is still a very slight oscillation vibration that comes and goes above 70mph. When putting it back in I found that my transfer case front output shaft and rear output shaft flanges have a very small amount of lateral play. If I leaver up on the rear drive shaft I can also make my transfer case move in its 3rd member bushing but I checked the bushing and it’s still pliable and not torn. I’m guessing there is an allowable amount of movement.

Got one of the new CV shafts put in today and it had zero binding with my OME MD coils and Rocky Road Outfitters spacer. The only issue I noticed is when the tire is off the ground, and I’m spinning it while looking at the CV axle; the center shaft of the CV is rotating ever so eccentrically instead of concentrically. In terms of driveshafts you could say the cv axle has a lot of run-out if that makes sense. I still have the original OEM CV axle on the passenger side so I’m going to test that function tomorrow.

I’m just curious if that is normal and a product of CV axles needing to move inwards and outwards to articulate, therefor the center shaft doesn’t spin exactly concentrically and with zero run-out.


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[Slartibartfast]

At least it's mostly fixed!

 

The transfer is mounted on rubber, so, yeah, it should have a little wiggle to it. Not sure what you mean by lateral play--is it axial (moving parallel to the shaft) or radial (moving at 90 degrees to the shaft)? In either case, AFAIK those bearings aren't preloaded like wheel bearings, so I wouldn't expect them to be perfectly tight anyway. If it isn't loose enough to trash the seal I doubt it's an issue. There might be a spec in the service manual for allowable play.

 

The CV runout is an odd one. I don't know that it's an issue, but I would not have expected a CV to do that, at least not enough that you'd notice it by eye.

[cham]

I think just seeing the transfer case move that much up and down when I leaver on the rear driveshaft surprised me a little. But as far as I can tell the 3rd member bushing is not thrashed.

Yes I do mean radially. If you grab the flanges and apply up and down impulses there is slight radial play in both output shafts in the Transfercase. I guess the rear shouldn’t be too surprising since the driveshaft yoke actually slides into the transfer case; it’s not bolted; so of course there is some clearance.

I’ll check the OEM CV axle today to see if it’s rotating concentrically or not when the wheel/tire is at full droop. If so, I might send the new CV axles back as I don’t want to cause more vibrations than I already have to deal with. On the drive home it didn’t seem too bad but I wasn’t able to get up to highway speeds yet so not sure if the vibration is worse or not with that new driver side cv axle in.

They are “Value Select” Nissan axles by the way, definitely a little more expensive than your average aftermarket axle so I would assume some decent quality. Without being on sale they are about $250 an axle. Usually you can find it on sale though around $180.


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[cham]

Got both axles in and there definitely seems to be a slight increase in vibrations over the worn out factory axles (I get a foot massage from the gas pedal now lol) but I can live with it and I don’t feel like going through that again and sending axles back etc. Kind of wish I just rebooted an OEM axle from a low mileage junkyard Pathy but ah well. If the vibrations get worse I might do that. Do CV axles have a break in period?

As for the differential side axle oil seal; did not go so smoothly. Once I had the passenger side CV axle off, I removed the four axle end retainer bolts. I then proceeded to hammer away at the flange from every possible angle with everything under the sun and it never budged. To make things worse I believe when you hit the flange you are applying a direct load on the inner race of the axle bearing where the shaft collar mates to it. The side axle wants to slide out with its pressfit collar and with the flange but the retainer is keeping that from happening (the retainer houses the bearing) thus potentially damaging that side axle bearing.

So for anyone in the future attempting this; I’d highly recommend a slide hammer and be careful not to be too rough. Or if you do it the old school way; plan to replace the axle bearing and everything else that goes with that assembly. I just said the hell with it; the leak isn’t too bad and bolted everything back up.

Last thing I promise; got a P0430 code that comes and goes seldomly but my gas mileage is in the tank. Any change it’s just an O2 sensor in bank 2? I have a BlueDriver can I determine a bad O2 sensor based on live voltage data? I replaced my spark plugs a few months ago and maybe used a little too much dielectric grease on the ignition coils; worried the electrical contact is not the best it could be. I do not have any missing codes though.


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