Vibration after Super Lows installed on EF

[Clevo383]

Hey Everyone,

I installed King Super lows in my EF on Saturday, looks and handles unreal now, but get a vibration from about 70 up to 85km/h. Its worse with 4 people in the car, when slowing down it does it a bit down to 60 but almost goes away if I put it in neutral (its auto).

Any ideas? Would I be wasting my time and money getting the tailshaft balanced with new uni joint? or is this what a castor kit fixes? I'm thinking offset bushes for the trailing arm to correct the diff angle or something like that?

Its just I haven't read anything about peoples car having this problem and don't wanna waste money on something that won't work.

Thanks for the help
Dennis

[Walkinshaw]

This is caused by the change in pinion angle of the diff. My ea use to do it arroun 80kmh when the TC locks up, however my EL doesnt do it. Mabey look into getting some EL upper trailing arms.

[trick_xd]

dose the vibration stay there ?
if it dose then get under the car and at the gearbox end grab the tail shaft and see if it moves up and down. even a small movement at about 1-3mm is bad .
post back if it moves .

[Bass Crazy]

My EA did it with both auto and manual boxes, and with a range of different diffs. New engine mount rubbers, new tail shaft and trailing arms bushes didnt solve it. Put higher springs in, and its gone........

[Clevo383]

vibration only at speeds mentioned, I drove to wollongong on sat night with 4 people in the car and over 90 its gone. Dropping in back to third up the hill on princess highway made it a bit better, surely there are offset bushes or something like that around, will ring suspension places today and see what I can sort out.

Besides that I love it, I took the mud flaps off and it clears speed humps now easy (slow). Looks alot neater.

[trick_xd]

ok well there are a heap of other ppl running s/ls and u/ls and no probs with vibration..
if your wheels are good and you have not hit any gutters then they should still be fine .
Did you check your tail shaft ?
As you have changed the hight of your car now there is a good chance that you have put just that little bit more pressure on the " rear extention housing bush " it is a very comman problem and easy to fix .
As i said up there go and test it .. very easy to do .. and if it moves then you will know how to fix it .

[CAMS290]

That will be the change of pinion angle, longer upper trailing arms may fix it.

[Clevo383]

Thanks trick_xd, I'll get under the car this arvo after work and have a looksee, hopefully it is that.

I'll let you know how it goes. problem will be borrowing a car to get to work in while the shaft is off getting reco'ed...

[TUFED6]

Pinion angle.

The Tickford upper control arms are 20mm longer for a reason.

[Clevo383]

Originally Posted by TUFED6

Pinion angle.

The Tickford upper control arms are 20mm longer for a reason.

well that makes sense too, but I haven't heard anyone complain about it until this thread. I'll check the tailshaft bush first, then start ringing wreckers for some tickford upper trailing arms.

I've already got a few options, love this website, thanks for the help everyone. :

[niko]

Originally Posted by Walkinshaw

This is caused by the change in pinion angle of the diff. My ea use to do it arroun 80kmh when the TC locks up, however my EL doesnt do it. Mabey look into getting some EL upper trailing arms.

i thought coz the diff had some different mounting points to cater for lowered cars, look into maybe updating your shockers if you havent already. that adds to the affect

[vegabass]

Originally Posted by TUFED6

Pinion angle.

The Tickford upper control arms are 20mm longer for a reason.

they also have a bend in it so it clears the diff.

[Clevo383]

Originally Posted by vegabass

they also have a bend in it so it clears the diff.

cool, thanks heaps for that, will make it easier to find the right ones. Wrecker wants $80 for a pair with good bushes but says he has a few different ones, not sure which ones are the tickford ones, I will measure my ones tonight to compare.

Unless anyone here know how long the tickford ones should be?

[arm79]

Dont bother with the tickford stuff.

EF diffs only have one mounting point on the bracket, and EL arms wont do the job. Particularly the tickford ones, it will throw the diff waaay too far back.

EL's have 3 bolt points on the diff to allow for the different length and shape arms. And the tickford arms have the bend as they are mounted so low on the diff bracket, this allows for the clearance, otherwise the arm would smack the diff.

But I've never experienced the problem you are having on an EF. Usually they stay vibration free wtih superlows. EL's all have that problem whether the back seat it loaded or not, but EF's are OK. In my experience.

Maybe the trailing arm bushes are rooted, or the rear uni is rooted, which is adding to your problems.

[TURBO_GHIA]

its not hitting the floor is it ,if it is get the sledge hammer out hehe

[trick_xd]

well if he looks under the car then he should see a witness mark where it hits the floor .

arm79 is right with most of what he says.

If the vibration was a uni joint then Mostly it will be there all the time getting worse the faster you go .

if the vibration seems to come and go . AND the front of the tail shaft moves at the g'box then you will more likely have to replace the rear extention houseing bush in the gearbox
What happends is over time , lowing a lot AND bad oil the rear seal and bush wear out . and in some cases the bush will start to move around and flog out the housing makeing you get a new one .

[Clevo383]

Originally Posted by trick_xd

well if he looks under the car then he should see a witness mark where it hits the floor .

arm79 is right with most of what he says.

If the vibration was a uni joint then Mostly it will be there all the time getting worse the faster you go .

if the vibration seems to come and go . AND the front of the tail shaft moves at the g'box then you will more likely have to replace the rear extention houseing bush in the gearbox
What happends is over time , lowing a lot AND bad oil the rear seal and bush wear out . and in some cases the bush will start to move around and flog out the housing makeing you get a new one .

Its not hitting the floor, its only a minor vibration.

It does come and go, had a look underneath last night, I can see the uni joint now has an angle on it so thought the arms would help but now I'm being told the tickford ones are too long? I measured mine last night so have something to go off at the wreckers this arvo.

But....as trick_xd has been saying, i do have about 1mm of vertical play at the front of the tailshaft. Rear uni seems tight. So... is it a big job to replace the rear bush in the gearbox? its not the joint on the tailshaft that gets replaced? please tell me gearbox does not have to come out...

[arm79]

If you had an EL, I'd say definately go buy the XR arms, as your vibration problem would be a fair sight worse than what it is now. Vibrations at almost all speeds.

As I said, the arm mounting points on the diff are different between EF and EL. And I would guess that EL XR arms are more than 20mm longer than an EF arm. They might be 20mm longer than a standard EL arm, if that is the correct measurement.

I do wish you luck finding EL XR arms at the wreckers. A very rare items indeed. If anyone had one on the shelf, it would FTG auto salvage. But I doubt it would help you.

You cant do that bush in the gearbox yourself, as I think you need a press to get them in and out correctly. But you can remove the extension housing yourself and take it to a mechanic to get a new bush and driveshaft seal fitted. Parts wise, its about $25. Time wise for a mechanic, not sure. I've always bought changeover extension housings from Ford.

You could also get the unis changed. Most tailshaft places I know charge about $40 per uni swap.

If you wanted to do it yourself, jack rear end of car up high. Remove tailshaft (4 bolts on the diff end) and slide it out of the extension housing. Put a jack under the sump of the auto trans. Remove the rear mount and lower the trans. Remove the speedo sensor on the drivers side (8mm bolt). Then unbolt the exentsion housing (4 x 12mm bolts that hold it to the back of the auto). Then just venture down to your mechanics where you arranged to get the stuff done. You will need a new extension housing seal from Ford ($6) to put it back together.

That might save you about $100 in labour costs, and might fix the problem cheaply for you.

[Clevo383]

Thanks for some great info guys. I will still go past a couple of wreckers that say they have a few different length ones, I have measurements to compare with and see what I find. In the meantime I will organise with my mechanic mate to get the rear extension housing bush replaced, even if the longer arms stop the vibes, the bush is loose so will change it before it gets worse.

If anyones interested I'll update this post in a week or so to let you know how it all goes.

Thanks again
Dennis

[TUFED6]

Originally Posted by Clevo383

Thanks for some great info guys. I will still go past a couple of wreckers that say they have a few different length ones, I have measurements to compare with and see what I find. In the meantime I will organise with my mechanic mate to get the rear extension housing bush replaced, even if the longer arms stop the vibes, the bush is loose so will change it before it gets worse.

If anyones interested I'll update this post in a week or so to let you know how it all goes.

Nolathane have complete aftermarket control arms in standard and Tickford length. I don't know if they are any good but I've used thier bushes before and they've lasted well. Not sure if they are expensive or not either. Might be worth checking out.

- John

[galapogos01]

Does anyone have workshop manual pics of the EF and EL upper arm setups, to compare?

Im pretty sure the diff place I went to fitted an EL housing when they changed my ratio, but not 100%. I dont know if they used the correct mounts to correspond to the EF arms. Id like to fit EL arms as I think the suspension creaking im getting might be related to this...

[niko]

if your rear shockers arnt new, change them my brother had same trouble with his ef. we changed shockers and it was fine u hear it every now and then but its very mild

[trick_xd]

My EL has just over 100,000km on it now and i have had it from 13,000km and it is the way that i put it together right now apart from i lowerd it even lower ( from Lows to super lows )

the only time i have had Vibration was my tail shaft went out of line ( hight revs for a long time ) and the rear bush in the g'box

Doing the rear bush is a easy thing i have done around 7/8 now of other peoples cars. A hacksaw blade to cut through the old 1 and i socket to hit the new 1 in with . And again what ARM79
is saying is right about how to do it .
I have gotten a few change over rear housing from the auto place all up costing me 15bux new every thing .
Every service i do now on E-series I make sure i test the rear bush .. Maybe about 1 in 6 or 7 has i worn bush when you ask them they say " Yes i can feel it but i have gotten used to it "
So i replace the bush and ask them again and they say no probs at all smooth.