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New Vibration at 60mph on 62' Dart

katmachine62

Well-Known Member
Local time
1:45 PM
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Mar 31, 2022
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Location
Melbourne Australia
Hi all...
My vehicle is an all original, Dodge Dart Sedan 440 spec mdl., original 58000 miles. (I'm in Australia fyi!) I have had engine rebuilt, brakes etc all rebuilt, and rear end got new seals and checked out before I imported the vehicle here)
I've had no vibration etc prior to now...
So, for the last week or so I've had the rear of the car up in stands whilst I'd removed the Leaf spring hanger brackets (was going to have some custom brackets made to slightly lower the rear)
Long story short, the brackets I had made weren't up to spec, so I bolted the originals back in
Keep in mind, All that I removed and replaced was these brackets, I did not loosen, nor remove anything else... It is a standard, all original 8 3/4 rear end. After buttoning everything up, and putting her back down, took her out today, and has now developed a high speed (only at 55mph-65mph range) bad vibration through the drive line. Under 55mph, and over 65mph it smoothes out/isn't present.
I have checked the drive shaft, wheel bearings, wheels etc all seem good. I can't help but think I've done something wrong when I jacked up the rear end, had the axles on stands etc?... There's no play in the drive shaft, but could i have somehow altered the pinion angle!? And/or something else? Tomorrow morning I'm thinking to slide some washers under the leafs from the rear to see if that makes a difference (pinion angle) and maybe swap out wheels on the front to see if in case I've lost a balancer on one of the front wheels... If anyone has any feedback would be great to hear
 
Original brackets get installed upside down maybe? That might change the pinion angle, or one side did and the other didn’t making the rear end off level from side to side.
 
Might be you have a bad U joint ,bearing or cup that's seized up in the yoke. Last fall I had one go bad on my 66 Charger. Started out making a slight metallic grinding sounding noise at certain speeds and eventually got bad enough that it caused a vibration even at 30 mph.
 
(was going to have some custom brackets made to slightly lower the rear)

Even though all I removed and refitted was the brackets? I forgot to mention that I had already removed and refitted them a previous time with no issues

How much did the brackets lower the rear?

Edit...
Never mind, I re read that you didn't change the brackets. In other words you didn't change anything.

U joint seated in correctly?
 
Last edited:
How much did the brackets lower the rear?

Edit...
Never mind, I re read that you didn't change the brackets. In other words you didn't change anything.

U joint seated in correctly?
I believe so, but can't be 100%... I had my guy at his shop check the shaft for any excessive play etc yesterday,.and it is he who is suggesting I try slightly adjusting the pinion angle to start, but before I go to all that effort I wanted to ask on here in case it might be something else that someone else has experienced
 
Found the Culprit... Couldn't see this upon inspection yesterday, but perhaps it opened up a bit more today, and reared it's ugly head... This is a used radial with about 75% tread (just using temporarily, on the front, whilst I await my original style 28inch white walls from USA) - seems in excellent condition!! Obviously something was wrong!... I'll swap these out tomorrow and re-test (I already tested with an old white wall and the vibration seems to have disappreared) , fingers crossed that's all it was!
 
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