Re: [Chrysler300] Bad shaking in Power train? 300 G

[c300c@xxxxxxx]

Mike,
 
I had a similar problem with my 300-C. Turned out to be the front ball and  
trunnion u-joint. Take the drive shaft to a competent drive shaft shop (  
meaning a shop with experience on the ball and trunnion units) or,  
preferably and older Chrysler dealer (with 60-100 year old mechanics). This  is not a 
job for a young backyard mechanic.
 
This job requires precision installation and balancing after  assembly.
 
Gary Hagy, 300-C conv. (98 degrees in Abq. NM today)
 
 
 
 
In a message dated 7/20/2009 12:43:31 P.M. Mountain Daylight Time,  
bookemdano50@xxxxxxx writes:

Help! I  got invited to the "Hot August Nights" in Reno this year as a 
result of "a  vehicle of special interest". (They had me still 1500 down on the 
list after 4  years but finally read my write up on the one family 300 car 
and went down  into the list, As the Lady at the office said, "How many 55 
Chev's can we  show?)

Now my problem. Under acceleration or in deceleration,  mostly in second 
gear, (auto trans)  the car develops a heck of a  shaking. (This just started 
and I never got an earlier warning of it).  BUT!!!, it seemed to start right 
after putting on the parking brake. I have a  steep driveway, pushed the 
brake on hard, pending blocking the wheels. Shortly  thereafter, I put the car 
at the bottom of the slope between the street and  the driveway, thus 
creating a "bridge" of the car with the front on the street  and the rear up the 
steep driveway.

I backed up and heard this  horrible sound, almost like the differential 
was disengaging and it seemed to  be coming from the rear of the car.  I 
subsequently drove around the  block and had no problem. I backed up the driveway 
with no further noise. A  few days later I drove it to Reno, about 50 
miles, put on the parking brake.  After about 1 hour I again backed up to hear 
this horrible sound. Going  forward the sound was gone, and again in backing, 
no sound.  

Driving back the 50 miles (always up hill to a greater and  lesser degree) 
I felt what I believed to be the motor missing badly at times.  Since I was 
climbing to 8000 elevation from 5000, I wrote it off to the fact  the carbs 
were jetted for sea level, thus either  a carburetor problem  and probably 
fouling of plugs. Annoying but seeming to clear.

The  following morning (I live at 7000 feet and have to wait for the motor 
to warm)  I drove about 7 miles, mostly downhill. It felt initially like the 
motor was  missing with slight shaking a couple times, but on a steeper 
hill I  downshifted to second and the car began to shake and again it felt like 
the  rear end. With this I deducted it was not a missing problem, but some 
sort of  drive train problem. Back to high gear, the shaking stopped. 
Driving around on  flat ground, not pushing the 413, it again acted normal. Coming 
home up the  steep hills my problem returned.

While not the greatest at  diagnosis, I have driven for 50 years from the 
perfect machines to all the  junkers I had and tried to keep running as a 
kid. My first guess was this hair  brained idea of the parking brake that 
Chrysler put on a lot of their cars,  since it seemed to coincide with my 
problem. But the sound was more a metallic  crunching sound, but the crunching 
sound only occurred twice. The feel while  driving feels more like a drive shaft 
trying to "find another place to live".  

I found the rear u-joints with no unusual play, while that  center "thing" 
covered by the boot appeared to be ok. The boot was mostly  gone, the grease 
around the 2 u-joint type fittings more like wax than grease  and dirty. 
The joints themselves seemed ok, but boy I've never had dealings  with such a 
thing before, so I really didn't know what to look for in  some subtle 
problem. 

The brake was ok (but a pain to put back  together)' The motor mounts are 
relative new, tightly attached. The  transmission to frame spring (mounting 
the transmission to the frame) is weak,  and allowed for what I believed to 
be excessive side sway. (I had hoped  against hope that this was the 
problem.)  I shimmed it with 2 washers to  get a tighter hold.

While I'm familiar with the twin axle, center  rubber type bushings, this 
weird joint is not in my area of expertise. (If  this was my old Chev, I 
would say this is the problem, but this joint does not  seem, one, to be worn as 
to cause this problem, and two not as critical. It  does tho have 80k miles 
on it, since I have put on 20k in the last 3 plus  years.) But, this weird 
joint seems more to handle the up and down and forward  and backward 
movement. And since it did occur AFTER I MADE A BRIDE OUT OF THE  CAR, this bridge 
would have put both an up and down strain and a stretching  pressure of the 
joint. But again, I can find no damage to it or metal in the  old grease, 
and the sound I heard should have produced  both.

HELP!! can the transmission or differential produce this  shaking?, or has 
this weird joint outsmarted me?

I only have 2  weeks to get my "Black Beauty" purring again for Hot August 
Nights.  

Any help or suggestions would greatly be appreciated. I'm about  to call 
auto repair places in Reno  for help. This car spends May thru  Oct here in 
Tahoe, but I drive it back to Los Angeles to spend the  Winter. Unfortunately 
for me, my trusted mechanic is in L.A.  

Michael Danny O'Lear, bookemdano50@xxxxxxx  



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