need help- 89 5.0 has a vibrations?

[akagreg3]

my buddys 1989 5.0 gets a vibrations at 50 miles a hour and up, the car has had this vibrations since he bought it, hes changed the rear end with 3 diffrent rear ends, the one he has in it now was built by a shop in dayton? he also has changed the trans 2 times, the trans in it now was just rebuilt.

the car is factor for the most part, it has
new rebuilt t-5 trans -brand new stock flywheel/clutch/throw out bearing and pilot bearing -rear end has a 3.55 gear stock axles stock carrier build by some dayton ohio shop -drive shaft is out of 88 cobra -hes also has tried two diffrent shafts, brand new motor mounts and trans mount, we changed the hurmaci balancer with one off my 94 gt witch i know was good, he told me that he also has had two diffrent sets of rims and tires on the car and it still had the vibrations,

the next thing i was gonna do is put the car up on jack stands and see what it does when up to speed lol yea i know right :rolleyes: - the shocks are pretty old and need changed both front & back so if anyone has a set please give me a pm, i did check the ball joints by hand and they seem ok, theres a little play on the drivers side but not that bad?, - think he said it has drag springs in the rear end but he took the bags out, im not totally sure on that tho. and just stock springs up front, and all the bushing in the rear end and trans cross member he said where good and didnt look worn out.


thanks for any suggestion and help stangbangerz

[mustangjon]

Pinion angle could be off, torque boxes could be tweaked or control arms

[dedpedal]

You didn't mention if he changed the driveshaft with a known good one? Old ones are beat up often. Also, is this limited to speed or RPMs? If its rpm then I'd say its something not right with the motor. Wrong flywheel or balancer. 28 vs 50 oz balance.

[akagreg3]

Pinion angle could be off, torque boxes could be tweaked or control arms

thanks jon when i get the rear end up in the air ill check all that, you know what factory pinion angle is supposted to be? by chance


You didn't mention if he changed the driveshaft?


yea he had an 86 drive shaft he used first then he went a bought the 88 cobra drive shaft, the guy he bought it from said it only had 20k on it before he changed it to a performance one? i have one off a 94 gt that we can throw on there just to check it.

[Stangman]

A lot of times it could be just as simple as replacing a u-joint.

A driveshaft from a '94 will be 5/8 of an inch too long. Might not be enough play to get it in or out.

Have you tried marking the current drive shaft, and rotating it 180 degrees to see if it goes away.

Or even mark the yokes and shaft and change the u joints? Beats continuously throwing parts at it.

I've seen guys have to redrill holes in the trans crossmember to get the drivetrain straight. You'd be surprised how it can affect a vibration.

I'm still cracking up at "hurmaci" balancer though lol

[akagreg3]

lol oops didnt even realize it was wrong -harmonic balancer"" there ya go :P
anyway now im laughing but thanks for the advice ill give rotating it a try first then smoke two joints lol change the u-joints - iv only been under the front of the car so iv not seen the crossmember to know if its lined up correctly but yea thats what i told him "buddy were throwing parts at it" hes happy with that his wife not so much lol

[Stangman]

A mis-aligned drivetrain won't be something you can see with the naked eye. Unless its real bad. Usually slotting the trans mount holes in the cross member fixes the issue if you can point the tail of your trans left or right. Depending on how bad it is. Add a couple washers for the bottom, or even for the top if your trans sits too low. 5.0 cars get all twsited up over their life span

[akagreg3]

hmm? how would i align then? laser level or something

[chris91]

What about the brakes?? Warped rotors will give you a vibration. Or wheel bearings.

[Stangman]

I forget what type of tool is used. Steve would know if he got on here

[akagreg3]

well i just googled drivetrain aligment and from the first post i read you messure from the frame rail to the trans and from the frame rail to the pinion? sound right? also you can run a string from the balancer to the tail shaft and to the pinion?

chris iv never checked the brakes? i know my buddy said he did the rear drums when he did the swap but never asked about the front


thing is there no vibrations at all in till you get to the 50 55 mile per hour make

[mustangjon]

Also ive had an out of balance drum but most all balance vibration will be a certain mph range ie 50-55 then goes away

[akagreg3]

well after the holidays where gonna try what was talked about and ill keep ya all updated,

but hey jon you still at tire discounters? if so my father in law was wanting to get some new tires lol (i was hopping to get the deal deal see) ill send ya a pm bud

[mustangjon]

Call me tomm @ shop 513 948 8200 so i dont forget

[akagreg3]

i will john

[akagreg3]

so we rotated the shaft 180 didn't help, so we tried the jack stands idea still had the vibration, i did some more research on goggled and found a articles about vibrations that i had not read because they where on motor vibrations, well long story short, we tried revving the car up and holding it and the vibrations started at about 2500 - 3000 rpms and continued, i am think its in the thrust bearing and or the rear main bearing, it was leaking oil before and my buddy replaced the main seal, so how hard is it going to be to replace the thrust bearings why the motors in the car? iv done crack bearings before why the engine was in the car but it was on a Chevy truck.

Greg.

[Stangman]

Good luck dropping the pan while the motor is in to do that. Its nothing to yank a fox motor.

Did you check your transmission angle yet?

[dedpedal]

When you revved the car on stands, was it in gear? Neutral? Clutch in or out? I think the thrust bearing is the middle main but it's for lateral movement not rotational. If a bearing was causing the vibration, I'd think that there would be other issues such as low oil pressure and noise.

How certain are you that the balancer and flywheel are correct for the crank that's in the car? I don't remember when ford changed, but if you have the incorrect ones, that would cause issues.

[akagreg3]

lol crack bearings nvm

when it was on the stands we ran it through all gears and got it up to about 50 to 60 that's when it started vibrating, we took it off the stands and drove it down the road, it still had the vibration, so after i read the article we started the car in Neutral and revved up, i don't think we pressed the clutch or put it in gear, i did notice a little difference when driving it if you press the clutch in but not much,

my buddy has had 2 different flywheels on the car and 2 different balancer and as stated before car has always had this vibration since he bought it, it was originally an automatic car.

as for oil pressure, i asked him if he had any weird oil pressure and he said that the oil pressure gauge don't work so really no way to tell in till it gets fixed.

no stangmam we have not checked it, we need to get an Angle finder from home depot or somewhere, but its vibrating when the drive shaft is not even spinging so

[akagreg3]

anyone have a shop suggestion to take it to? somewhere that's not gonna rip him off... before we tear the bottom of the engine off lol

[dedpedal]

From what you're saying, you've confined the vibration to the motor.are you sure it's the original motor? Of the parts that were changed, were they the correct imbalance? It might just be time to scrap the short block and rebuild another.
I'd be happy to look at it if you could get it to me. Mabbe a fresh set of eyes will see the problem.

Another thought, how are the sensors and other electronic parts? If you have an injector that's partially clogged it could cause a vibration when that cyl loses fuel.

[Stangman]

Even if the driveshaft isn't spinning, the trans could still be in a bind. With the car on stands and the clutch let out, you input shaft is spinning. With the clutch in, its not spinning, however if its in a bind it could cause vibrations. Hence slotting the trans mount holes and getting the trans straight.

[dedpedal]

Jesse brings another thought to mind. How's the pilot bearing for the input shaft?

[akagreg3]

to my buddy's knowledge its the original motor, never ran the numbers or anything

the parts that are brand new -are flywheel for a 1989 gt 5 speed/clutch and pressure plate/throw out bearing/pilot bearing/motor mounts/trans mount, the blancer is not new but came from my 94 gt and was good 4 mounts ago -but don't mean it is now, there no rubber or any wear visible.
rear end was just rebuilt with 355 gears and is the second one that's been in there, t-5 trans was just rebuild and is also that's second one been in there,

would the cross member being for the automatic make it not line up? just a thought

we could stop bye sometime dedpedal, i know id like to have another opinion for sure

[dedpedal]

Still sounds like you can rule out anything from the trans back. Look close at the pulleys while you have friend slowly rev the motor to the vibration point. Watch for bent or wobbling pulleys,especialy the crank pulley.

[dedpedal]

I'm free most of the time tomm and Tuesday. Then next Sunday.

[akagreg3]

ill get with Dustin and see whens a good time and will setup something, hes supposed to be making account on here lol, he could probably tell you more about whats was done and not then me,,

but thanks for the help and ill get back with ya

[dreamer 89]

Hi everyone this is dustin lol, And greg that crossmember is off the five speed car i had, And HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i dont know what to do anymore guys running out of options.

[dreamer 89]

Im ready for a third set of eyes

[akagreg3]

kewl, i didn't know that it was from a 5 speed,

well that junk fan needs to go first thing:tongue2: i grabbed some ford racing pulley from mom house to-day we can try on that water pump