1. Wheel appears to wobble, most wheels can be balanced out to take car of vibration from a warped rim. It may have 4 lbs of weight in it but they can be balanced out.
The wheel appears to wobble, but it is in balance. If my rim happened to be damaged somehow, wouldn't they notice that when they were balancing it as they put new tires on? I don't know if this is an old problem or one that has recently come up, so it is hard to tell.
2. Your axles are leaking. This could be the result of a bad install. Bearings could have been damaged when they were pressed on to the shafts. May not be in the right location on the shaft. A lot of things could have happened here to cause that problem.......If, you would have had no previous symptomless before and you had only changed the bearings because of bad bearings and then they started leaking. However, that's not the case...but, I still wouldn't rule it out.
The bearings I bought only had one O-ring on them, and that was supposed to be the seal. I was skeptical, but I figured I would just trust it since it was an axle saver bearing with seal. The axle saver bearings have the bearing itself located a tad further in on the axle shaft than the original bearings, this is so it won't have to run where the axle already has worn down.
3. twisted shafts or bad shafts. This very well could still be the problem. Good way to find out is to take the shaft out and and use a straight edge to check and see if the axle is bent. I would also remove the wheel, rotors and brake calipers from the axles while the car is on jackstand's and see if you notice "run out" on the hub.
This is my main suspect, They didn't look bad when I pulled them out to put in new bearings last time, but then again the damage might be too small for the bare eye.
4. Bad axel housing. Only way I know to check this is with a bore gauge. If you don’t know what Micrometers and a bore gauge is…best to skip trying to check it.
I doubt it is the axle housing, but we never know! If it turns out to be a bad axle housing I will end up going to a junk yard and pulling one off of another Mustang. I haven't checked into pricing for a new one, but I need to keep the cost as low as possible for now.
Your bearings could have been going bad on the axle shaft. Caused wear on the axle shaft bearing surface. That wear (missing material) on the axle shaft allowed the old bearing to get in a "bind". Effectively "cocking" the bearing in the bearing race....not allowing it to leak out of the ends of your axle housing. Would also account for a low speed chirp.
You replaced the old bearings with new ones. Effectively...allowing the bearing to run true again...thus allowing the gear oil to leak out of the ends.
I suspect the leak comes from the axle saver bearings I put on. I trusted them to be of high quality, as these are the exact same ones Ford use in their shops around here.
I haven't seen two axles do this at the same time. Usually just one or the other. Also, if the axle shaft had wear on it in the area that the bearing rides....someone should have caught that when the new bearing was pressed on...Unless your dad pressed them on, he may not have known what to look for. Also, did your dad have them pressed on or did he give the "ol' heev ohh on the bench vise"
It was just one of my axles originally, but the leak started after I replaced the bearings, so I am confident when I assume those are the reason for the leak. My dad went to NAPA and bought two new axle shafts with bearing and seal kit, this time with normal bearings and separate seals. Because the axle saver bearings have the bearings sit a tad further in on the axle, you have no choice but to replace the axle it self when you need new bearings. Or so I was told, due to the wear locations of these bearings.
And yes, it was my dad that pressed the bearings on. First he put them into the axle housing carefully, then he took the old bearing in his hand and a hammer in the other and gently knocked it all the way around in a cross pattern to get it even. We just used the old bearing to even the pressure on the new bearing and to not damage it. Because the axle saver bearings are wider/longer than the original ones, we figured it would set evenly inside the axle housing, which it seemed to do. I just keep thinking that it is the O-ring on the axle saver bearing that didn't do it's job since it started leaking. I guess I'll find out in a little when I go out to the garage to take the rear end apart again.
Everyone that has looked at your car is right. Bent axles will cause a lot of drivetrain vibration because it is causing the wheel to "run out" and no amount of tire balance can compensate for that. Bad axle bearings usually don't cause too much vibration because at a high enough speed where you would feel it....its pretty much just forced to spin and the axel runs true. Same case with an axle that has worn down where the bearing is. At low speed it will skip along and chirp. At high speed its pretty much forced to spin…either in the bearing or its going to spin on the shaft. One of the two will happen. Usually can't tell from vibration alone for either unless it has gotten really sever and your about to have axles shot out the side of your car.
It just strikes me as very odd that I have no vibrations at all. I had vibrations at speeds over 40mph the first day I had the car, but when I went and got the wheels balances and new tires the next day it was gone.
Just as I am typing now I came with the thought; what if the problem is not the axle shaft or bearing, but the "head" of the axle. What I'm saying is, what if it is the end where you mount the brakes and tire that is a little off? The center of the wheel seems to be running smoothly when it is up on jack stands, but one can clearly see the wheel wobble back and forth as it is spinning, as if it was the very end of the axle shaft the problem lies in. This would explain the chirping sound, as the brake disk would wobble slightly and maybe make metal-to-metal contact with the caliper? Just a thought, and if I didn't make myself clear, please let me know. Explaining my thoughts isn't exactly what I do best.
My advice is to back up. Start over and look at everything as being an independent problem. Then put the clues together and see if it adds up to one diagnostic. But first…I would resolve the leak. This may have nothing to do with your previous issue and could be something that you had induced to the problem.
I did not have a leak before, so as I mentioned above in this post I assume it is the new bearings I put in.
Check run out of the hub without a wheel of rotor and calipers on it. After that, I would pull the axles back out. Take them to a driveline shop. One that may specialize in driveshaft’s balancing and axles to have them checked for run out and let the use Micrometers to check the diameter of the bearing surface.
Because my car has 130.xxx miles there are very few shops that are willing to even have a look at it, except for the Ford stealership.
Have new bearings pressed on. I would not recommend doing this at home!
I have a slide hammer and the set to pull out bearings (rented from Autozone), but I don't have any tools to press them on. My dad has a degree as an aviation mechanic and I have my fair share of knowledge on the subject + I know most there is to know (mechanically speaking) about my Mustang. I just do not have the money to take it to a shop and getting it done. Ford wanted 470 dollars for each side, and we've already bought the axle shafts and bearings anyways. I guess we'll just have to try one more time by our selves!
Or….suck it up and order a set of new axles from strange or moser that already has bearings pressed on them……also can just replace with a set of OEM spec…Junkyard…so forth and so on.
I'd really like to, but as stated above I already got new axle shafts. I need my car for school, and with the leak I can't really drive it before I get it fixed. If I had time and money I would probably get some Strange or Moser axles, preferably 31 spline if really wanted to put money into it.
Thank you very much for your post, getting another perspective on what is going on really helps sometimes. I appreciate you taking your time to help me out, I will be sure to update you guys as how it goes once I'm done.
