FIXED - Front Axle Wobble / Hop / Binding

[LSXGMC]

Hi all,

So I was having the issue of the front axle hopping / binding that many others have had. I rebuilt the axle twice, greased, cleaned, made sure the CVD's were in sync, changed how it was shimmed, you name it. Still had the wobble or hopping effect. I was about to just run it and hope it smoothed itself out, but thought I'd try something as a last resort.

The rear end was super smooth, but the front was hopping. I had a look at the rear driveshaft, specifically the yokes. They were in "sync". Basically, if the truck was sitting on the bench, the "pin" that holds the driveshaft yokes together (held in by the outer bearing on the axle housing, and by the spring / retainer on the transmission output) would be in the same position or orientation at both ends. For example, if that pin was vertical on the axle side, it should be vertical on the transmission side as well.

I'm not sure about others, but my driveshaft halves only went together smoothly one way (not sure if they're keyed, didn't look at that). So I had to take the yoke off the driveshaft end on one side to line up the pins, and reassemble so that the pins were oriented the same way.

I hope the isn't too confusing.

I wasn't very optimistic when I tried this, but it worked well for me. The front axle is smooth as butter now. I really didn't want to start drilling new holes in my new axles to change the pinion angle and luckily I didn't have to.

[Natedog]

Excellent to hear that you fixed this, yes the driveshafts only slip together one way (one key is wider than the others), the end joint pieces must also be in phase as you have done. Mine is RTR so I didnt' know if it's possible (well it must be since yours was) to assemble the ends out of phase. I had assumed that it was not possible to assemble the ends out of phase. Thanks for posting the fix!

[LSXGMC]

Yes mine was an RTR. I took it apart to put in my Team KNK SS screw kit (love their stuff) and to shim the diffs. I didn't pay attention to these, but hopefully my mistake can finally fix this issue for others!