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More on the mystery shake ...
Some of you might remember that my '85 5KT had a serious
case of the shakes last week: local mechanic found nothing
but a ripped right outer CV boot, and even I could not
reproduce the problem again.
Well, over the weekend, I took the right half-axle out (that's
7 words but about 3 hours: even with all the right tools) and
took a close look at it. In a word, *nothing*. The outer
CV joint looked fine (and two different mechanics thought so, too)
and it had already passed all the rocking tests I could think
of with the wheel still on the car.
I toyed with the idea of putting in a rebuilt half-shaft since
I had it out anyway, but dropped the idea because one wasn't readily
available (Viking first said he could get one for about $130, but
then couldn't because his supplier said they didn't have any
cores to rebuild: new one was too expensive at $270.) So I decided
I'd just replace the boot and see what happened. Replaced the
tie-rod-end ball joint as well, something I'd been planning on
doing for several months.
I've driven the car about 150 miles now: no sign of the shake.
Here's my theory (a derivative of the ice-in-the-joint theory):
a little rock or something got into the joint when the boot was
ripped, causing the car to wallow whenever the joint snagged.
Probably fell out soon afterwards, thus resulting in the symptom
disappearing.
(Hey, that's the best I could do, OK? :-))
Thanks for all the suggestions and offers of help! Until next
time (I'm sure it won't be long) ...
-Arun
--
Arun Rao (rao@pixar.com -- use this if you can't get "Reply" to work)
Scientist
Pixar,
Richmond, CA 94804
(510)215-3526
'85 Audi 5000S Turbo, 103K
'92 Honda Accord DX, 40K