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Update on vibration issue - intermediate axle bearing Posted by Mark in Marine [Email] ![]() ![]() In Reply to: Experience with CHEAP Axles ? Please share, Mark in Marine ![]() |
I initially posted about cheap axles, but when I saw the old axles had no slop, I cleaned, greased and rebooted them. NAPA and O'Reilly's apparently offer reman axles, but I doubt that they'd be as good as what I already had. When I asked O'Reilly's about ordering, they said SAAB axles were 'hard to get' - it would be 7 to 10 days and I would have to pay added shipping.
Here's the status on the 1999 SE that we’re thinking of giving to someone who is currently car-less. My goal in working on the car is not to make it perfect, but to do my best to be sure that it’s reasonably reliable and not a money pit for the future owner. The main reason I think it can be reliable is that over our 100K miles of ownership I have replaced a significant number of wear items and have a good list of what was done when.
The vibration issue that I had at highway speeds was the external bearing for the intermediate axle on the right side. The car is all is back together now – SMOOTH, no vibration at highway speed. It's really satisfying ! I go in for an alignment check tomorrow.
When I rebooted the axles, I did NOT swap left and right axles, because I did not want to risk a poor seal between the axle and the differential. The right side axle inner driver had a little corrosion on the polished land that seals into the differential on the left side, but this area is less protected where it meets the intermediate shaft.
I used a 2-inch PVC pipe as the install tool for new diff seals. Removing the old seals and installing the new ones with the car only on jack stands was more work than I had hoped. It's hard to line everything up and get the diff seal to drive in straight when one is mostly lying or kneeling on the ground! I lost about a quart of ATF, as expected.
WIS says to “move the alternator upward” to access the intermediate axle bracket. I could not see how I would do that without removing the alternator from it’s bracket, so I decided to take it out and install new brushes & regulator. I took it out the top, and I sawed off the unused tabs on the intake manifold to give more room. The brushes were almost at the limit of their spring travel, so that was work well spent to avoid a future failure and large repair bill. The alternator bearings and commutator appeared just fine.
This car had a non-parking wiper motor for a while, and replacing the motor gave me an opportunity to re-brush the HVAC blower motor. This would have continued to run longer than the alternator, but the brushes were getting a bit short.
Thanks for reading.
Mark in Marine
->Posting last edited on Sat, 21 Apr 2018 15:25:02.
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