31F driveshaft junk already

[foglght]

I've been pulling my hair out trying to fix a shake issue with the motorhome. I just got back from a 1500 mile trip down and back to Georgia.

Noise starts around 60mph and quits around 67 or so. Vibration starts around 65 and doesn't stop. It is completely intermittent, where some sort of vibration mode lines up and it shakes all the time and other times it has no shake at all.

Most of the time, I am forced to keep it at 65 max otherwise the wheel and seat start shaking and it drives me nuts.

The noise at 65 is loud enough to be distracting (very loud hum). I took the whole 3 piece shaft out and dropped it off as I have already checked and replaced literally everything else. 1 bearing and a u joint are bad. Didn't hear back yet on the balancing. $530. No idea if that fixed the problem yet.

I very much wish I never bought this thing.

[Berjr]

Our Rig a 2018 29MV

We also have a drive shaft issue where is clanks. thank fully not shaking yet. Our local ford dealer recognized the issue and said we should replace it. But unfortunately they wont work on it due to that Jayco modified it from it original design. Going to try a local RV repair to see if they can do it. Ford did say it was safe enough to drive

[craigav]

More for Berjr as I didn't see any question really from foglght.

I bent a driveshaft in the not too distant past, what I found out at that time is that there are driveshaft repair shops in most cities that can straighten and balance your driveshafts (or make you a new one(s) if needed) .

If you drop off your shafts off at a Ford place or RV place then they will just send it out and profit on the deal in the middle. So I would suggest to deal with the driveshaft repair shop directly. You could even ask the Ford place or RV place which driveline shop they send out driveshafts, they may be friendly enough to tell you. ~CA

[craigav]

Originally Posted by foglght

I've been pulling my hair out trying to fix a shake issue with the motorhome. I just got back from a 1500 mile trip down and back to Georgia.

Noise starts around 60mph and quits around 67 or so. Vibration starts around 65 and doesn't stop. It is completely intermittent, where some sort of vibration mode lines up and it shakes all the time and other times it has no shake at all.

Most of the time, I am forced to keep it at 65 max otherwise the wheel and seat start shaking and it drives me nuts.

The noise at 65 is loud enough to be distracting (very loud hum). I took the whole 3 piece shaft out and dropped it off as I have already checked and replaced literally everything else. 1 bearing and a u joint are bad. Didn't hear back yet on the balancing. $530. No idea if that fixed the problem yet.

I very much wish I never bought this thing.

Your comment reminded me of some similar reports that may help for you to take a look at as over the years others have reported similar issues and even with new bearings and balancing the issue still occurred. What the resolution was in many (perhaps all) of these reports was to shim the driveshaft carrier bearing.

Searching the forums here for "driveshaft bearing shim" will bring up quite a few of the threads that I had read in the past and may give you a better idea of what to do or check for. ~CA

[foglght]

Originally Posted by craigav

More for Berjr as I didn't see any question really from foglght.

I bent a driveshaft in the not too distant past, what I found out at that time is that there are driveshaft repair shops in most cities that can straighten and balance your driveshafts (or make you a new one(s) if needed) .

If you drop off your shafts off at a Ford place or RV place then they will just send it out and profit on the deal in the middle. So I would suggest to deal with the driveshaft repair shop directly. You could even ask the Ford place or RV place which driveline shop they send out driveshafts, they may be friendly enough to tell you. ~CA

I dropped it at a specific driveshaft shop. That was the $530.

The shaft was shimmed for both carrier bearings. the angles were slightly off and honestly I'm not sure given the measured angles it actually needed any shims. The vehicle should easily be able to tolerate these angles without shaking.

I'm tired of it and nobody can fix it. Been to the frame shop, multiple tire places, driveshaft shop, Ford dealer and two RV repair places. Nobody, I mean nobody can fix it. At one point the Ford dealer said they think its the transmission, but of course they have no place to lift it and referred me to someplace 2 hours away.

Drove it there for them to tell me they can't feel it shaking. I'm at around $6k trying to fix it and I'm not even sure how many hundreds of lost hours.

[craigav]

Originally Posted by foglght

I dropped it at a specific driveshaft shop. That was the $530.

The shaft was shimmed for both carrier bearings. the angles were slightly off and honestly I'm not sure given the measured angles it actually needed any shims. The vehicle should easily be able to tolerate these angles without shaking.

I'm tired of it and nobody can fix it. Been to the frame shop, multiple tire places, driveshaft shop, Ford dealer and two RV repair places. Nobody, I mean nobody can fix it. At one point the Ford dealer said they think its the transmission, but of course they have no place to lift it and referred me to someplace 2 hours away.

Drove it there for them to tell me they can't feel it shaking. I'm at around $6k trying to fix it and I'm not even sure how many hundreds of lost hours.

I certainly would be tired of that as well. I am not sure how easy it would be for you, but if possible I would raise the rear wheel off of the ground and use very high quality jack stands and chocks, supports etc. (to be as safe as possible), and then put it in drive and see if any of the wheels and tires are not perfectly lined up (bent or out of round) with each other. Some driveline shops like the one I used can do this for you and they have some equipment to determine where the vibration is coming from. The one in Fort Worth does this service for big rigs and also RV's (along with 4x4's and cars). ~CA

[pconroy]

The only thought I have is to make an appointment for factory service @ Jayco in Indiana. Assuming they're still doing that. Drop it off with them and let them try to fix it.



It's still under warranty, isn't it?

[Route 66 Traveler]

Originally Posted by foglght

I dropped it at a specific driveshaft shop. That was the $530.

The shaft was shimmed for both carrier bearings. the angles were slightly off and honestly I'm not sure given the measured angles it actually needed any shims. The vehicle should easily be able to tolerate these angles without shaking.

In 2001 I bought a Class A on a Workhorse chassis that started to vibrate at 62 mph. After paying big bucks for wheel alignments, balancing all 8 tires, and countless trips to different shops I was totally frustrated. At one shop there happened to be a guy from Workhorse there and he asked me how I liked my motorhome. When I told him my problem he said "Lets take it for a ride". When I hit 62 it started shaking...he walked to the back, came back and sat down and said the carrier bearing needs to be shimmed. Got back to the shop and he told the mechanic to add a 1/2" shim to the rear carrier bearing. Frankly I thought he was blowing smoke until I drove it home and set the cruise at 70. Smooth as glass .

[Jagiven]

Originally Posted by craigav

More for Berjr as I didn't see any question really from foglght.

I bent a driveshaft in the not too distant past, what I found out at that time is that there are driveshaft repair shops in most cities that can straighten and balance your driveshafts (or make you a new one(s) if needed) .

If you drop off your shafts off at a Ford place or RV place then they will just send it out and profit on the deal in the middle. So I would suggest to deal with the driveshaft repair shop directly. You could even ask the Ford place or RV place which driveline shop they send out driveshafts, they may be friendly enough to tell you. ~CA

Friend of mine is the forman of a local shop that only does driveline (trannies to axles). All the dealers, send him their drives haft work.

[Randy]

Hello Fog-- I feel your frustration. I was in this business for 40 years and would recommend you find a shop that has a reputation for solving tough problems. There is equipment for isolating such issues, find a shop that has one, and you have found a shop that can find your problem. Drive line angles, while on the surface seems to be a science, sometimes turns out to be a art on modified vehicles (MH, lifted vehicles ,etc.) Perhaps call some of the equipment manufactures, and ask who they have sold to in your area? https://www.steelmantools.com/shop/d...oise-vibration What state are you in?

[foglght]

Originally Posted by pconroy

The only thought I have is to make an appointment for factory service @ Jayco in Indiana. Assuming they're still doing that. Drop it off with them and let them try to fix it.



It's still under warranty, isn't it?

Ah, the beauty of Jayco and the RV industry where they are the only people to not have transferrable warranties on used vehicles.

I got the driveshaft back. According to them it had a bad carrier bearing, bad end yoke and one bad u joint.

2021 and 12k miles. WTF

[Trapper2020]

Not sure this is your issue but I had bad front end shake also. We had the upgraded aluminum wheels on rig. Front and rear tires that were aluminum were never balanced. I installed centramatic wheel balancers in both front and rear positions. Also replaced front tires because they were out of round and could no longer be balanced. Problem solved. Good luck. Safe travels

Enjoy the journey

[pconroy]

Originally Posted by foglght

Ah, the beauty of Jayco and the RV industry where they are the only people to not have transferrable warranties on used vehicles.

I got the driveshaft back. According to them it had a bad carrier bearing, bad end yoke and one bad u joint.

2021 and 12k miles. WTF

When I bought mine very-lightly used, the seller was surprised the warranty didn't transfer. He knocked off a couple of thou' after learning that.


Fingers crossed your problem is solved!!!

[ait109]

I also have an annoying hum/drone that occurs right round 65 mph on my 2022 25R. No vibrations at all for any of the speeds I've driven it at though. I assumed that it was some exhaust system resonance.

[foglght]

Originally Posted by Trapper2020

Not sure this is your issue but I had bad front end shake also. We had the upgraded aluminum wheels on rig. Front and rear tires that were aluminum were never balanced. I installed centramatic wheel balancers in both front and rear positions. Also replaced front tires because they were out of round and could no longer be balanced. Problem solved. Good luck. Safe travels

Enjoy the journey

I've had it to the tire store 5 times. At one point I dropped $1,700 on a new set of tires just to try to eliminate that as a problem. Somehow it actually made the shake worse and that was after having them all road force balanced.

At that point I wondered if it was an out of spec wheel (which would be extremely unlikely coming from Ford), but I put a dial indicator on it anyway. there was one wheel that maybe was on the upper end of what I would consider normal.

Typically, OEMs will spec around 0.2mm (200 micron or 0.080") and none of the wheels measured worse than that. One was close at 57, but typically once a tire is road force balanced you can match mount and eliminate high/low spots as long as the tire isn't bad itself.

Going to check the angles again as I re-install this driveshaft. Typically under 10 degrees there should be no issues and usually I plan for 2-4 degrees of difference at the pinion to account for windup.

[t18skyguy]

I was deep into this issue when I had my 2017 FS. There is a complete service bulletin on it with pictures of where and how to measure the angles. I don't think it was from Jayco I think maybe Morryde, not sure. I think it would be in this forum somewhere. This problem comes from stretching the chassis. The angles have to be just right and as previously stated use shims at the carrier bearing in 1/4 inch increments to get the angle right on. I remember the bulletin stating there will always be a vibration but it should occur at low rpm instead of high rpm. I wish I could be more help.

[foglght]

Originally Posted by t18skyguy

I was deep into this issue when I had my 2017 FS. There is a complete service bulletin on it with pictures of where and how to measure the angles. I don't think it was from Jayco I think maybe Morryde, not sure. I think it would be in this forum somewhere. This problem comes from stretching the chassis. The angles have to be just right and as previously stated use shims at the carrier bearing in 1/4 inch increments to get the angle right on. I remember the bulletin stating there will always be a vibration but it should occur at low rpm instead of high rpm. I wish I could be more help.

I have all the angles measured. First off about the measurements, nothing looks even remotely out of spec for a standard u joint angle issue.

However, this is a 3 piece shaft with 4 u joints. I can't find any information on this saying there is something special about a 3 piece shaft.

Put the new one in today. It actually made the problem worse. Now the noise starts around 53mph and continues up till about 67. Its louder than before. I've moved shims around and nothing helps.

I'm honestly almost at a mental breakdown point as nobody will take it on to fix it and i obviously can't fix it myself. Thousands of dollars down the drain at this point.

[craigav]

I would highly consider finding a driveline shop that has experience with driveline vibrations.

This type of issue seems to have been occurring for 20+ years now for some of the E-series units. I had read from others this same information and the copied information below is old from rv dot net website but something I remember reading from others and something to be aware of for sure, if you are not already. btw, the poster never returned to the thread to report the outcome, however and again I have read but can't find any that a change like this has provided a positive outcome for many. ~CA

My mechanic had the driveline specialist (the guy that balanced the shafts) come out to the shop to have a look today. My mechanic said that since they balanced it and he aligned everything, the problem should be remedied. Since it was not, he solicited their assistance.

He came out with an alignment gauge and found that the shafts needed to be adjusted with shims by a couple of degrees. Although they were aligned perfectly straight, they should not have been. Apparently, there needs to be some deflection from one shaft to the next (there are actually three driveshafts in this coach). The deflection needs to be minimal and exact, but the specialist guaranteed that the U-Joints will not function properly without it. In-other-words, a perfect alignment from one shaft to the next results in vibration.

While I don't fully understand it, they have assured me that this will remedy the problem. My mechanic hasn't realigned it yet, but will have it done somtime next week. I'll post back then. Keeping my fingers crossed!

[foglght]

Originally Posted by craigav

I would highly consider finding a driveline shop that has experience with driveline vibrations.

This type of issue seems to have been occurring for 20+ years now for some of the E-series units. I had read from others this same information and the copied information below is old from rv dot net website but something I remember reading from others and something to be aware of for sure, if you are not already. btw, the poster never returned to the thread to report the outcome, however and again I have read but can't find any that a change like this has provided a positive outcome for many. ~CA

My mechanic had the driveline specialist (the guy that balanced the shafts) come out to the shop to have a look today. My mechanic said that since they balanced it and he aligned everything, the problem should be remedied. Since it was not, he solicited their assistance.

He came out with an alignment gauge and found that the shafts needed to be adjusted with shims by a couple of degrees. Although they were aligned perfectly straight, they should not have been. Apparently, there needs to be some deflection from one shaft to the next (there are actually three driveshafts in this coach). The deflection needs to be minimal and exact, but the specialist guaranteed that the U-Joints will not function properly without it. In-other-words, a perfect alignment from one shaft to the next results in vibration.

While I don't fully understand it, they have assured me that this will remedy the problem. My mechanic hasn't realigned it yet, but will have it done somtime next week. I'll post back then. Keeping my fingers crossed!

nobody will take it. I've called 4 shops that are within 3 hours of me. The only place I could get to do anything was if I took the shaft out myself and brought it to them. I'll call Jayco AGAIN on Monday and see if they will give me the angle specs.

[foglght]

Does anyone have a 31F or similar with the 3 piece shaft so I can see the amount of shims?