The car shudders at higher speeds, but is not relative to speed itself. It will shake like crazy sometimes, but fine a little while later. It's not due to road conditions, either. It will still rattle on almost all road surfaces. The tires are in good shape, all properly inflated and plenty of tread left. I'm going to get them balanced sometime this weeks to see if that helps. It doesn't cost that much and they need to be rotated anyway. It is a little worse on deceleration while going down hills (brake is not being pressed). I'm just kind of searching for ideas and some items to inspect.
does it do it on really cold days only?
I couldn't really tell you for sure, It's been really cold for awhile, lol. I don't think it's relative to temperature though. Possibly unrelated, but there is some squeaking going on near the driver's side suspension over bumps, etc.
Is the stering wheel vibrating or the whole car? If it's the whole car shaking at highway speeds it could be:
wheels out of balance, or,
drive shaft out of balance
bad u-joints
ball joints are bad (could be your squeak).
If the squeaking noise sounds like a rusty old bed, it's most likely your ball joints which could cause the vibration you are experiencing.
If the shutter changes wit acceleration/deceleration problem nay well be U-joints or worn bearing/slip yoke in rear of tranny...
I'd check the driveshaft u-joints and make sure all the bolts are in the driveshaft/rear end connection.
This almost exactly fits. It gets worse when slowing down and accelerating. I also know the passenger side ball joint was replaced before I bought it so maybe the driver's side needs to be done as well. Thanks for the input, I'll check those things out.
if it's a ujoint gone bad you're on borrowed time. once the joint starts seizing the whole drivetrain goes nuts and gets undrivable. it could even happen the next time you go to the grocery store.
Good to know, I'll be tackling the job today. Parts are around 20 bucks, and the car does have nearly 200K on the clock. Might as well replace them, right?
If there bad, It could be a different issue. If its all stock,
Then you need to look for a stock problem.
Got the tires balanced and the U-joints done today. The joints weren't all that bad but I replaced them anyway since the driveshaft was already off and already bought them. Shuddering has improved significantly, but it's still there to some extent. I may check into the seal on the transmission next. At this rate, I'll have a new drivetrain just in time for the cancerous rust to consume the rest of the body :D.
I have that problem.It starts at 75 mph.A steady vibration.I'm swapping u-joints,lower a-frames (I got a set from Chuck with nice bushings,mine are 22 years old).I'm also swapping the seals and bearings on the differential and the strut mounts.
Do you happen to have a weight on the driveshaft?
There are 3 weights spot welded to the driveshaft. I made sure to reinstall the shaft in the same orientation that i removed it. Are you thinking it may be out of balance?
Well, I don't know...it could be. My only real experience with a shimmy like what you're describing was with the convertible. Actually a year before I even owned it, I took it for a test drive and the shimmy was very noticeable. I just chalked it up to the conversion...but after buying the car the shimmy was definitely more than the roof being cut off. It was absolutely repeatable, between 25-40 mph, never before or after those speeds. Sometimes it was horrible, sometimes it was bearable, but it was always there.
So three years later I dropped the new 5.0 in, and that was what will now be known forever as The Summer of Five Transmissions™. One of the AOD's (#3...and #5 also, the one still in there) ended up being from a Mark VII, with the longer Lincoln tailshaft which I didn't know about until, naturally, it got installed.
Bear with me...the point is almost here. ;)
So I took the stock driveshaft up to a shop to have it shortened, after getting the required measurements. A few days later when picking it up, I was asked by the shop owner if the car had a pr0nounced shimmy. I said, "Hell yeah it did, how did you know?" I just figured he found a dent or something, but he mentioned that there were three large weights on the shaft. According to him, if a driveshaft is perfectly balanced, there is no need for any weights at all. Now I can see that with a custom driveshaft like mine, but for all those production cars that would be impossible. So the tacking on of weights was not only necessary but justified on a mass-production scale. Still, this is THREE weights...that's a lot, even for stock. One or two were the norm.
I'm sure they're factory on your driveshaft. And I'm sure that, at one point, they might have been necessary. But all these years later, with everything wearing in (and out) I'm not so sure. If you could get it balanced that would tell you absolutely everything you'd need to know, one way or the other.
Alternately, you might be able to rotate the driveshaft 180 degrees and see if that helps. Obviously that's the free solution.
Mine was balanced a few months ago.No weights.
Interesting... So flip it and see what happens. I may try that when I replace the seal. I've been leaking a little fluid from that area. Thought it was originally coming from the pan but seems to be the seal.