Lobro Joint Hitting Undercarriage

[Husler005 TSi]

Alright guys, here's an interesting one for you.

I recently rebuilt my 1g 5spd drive shaft with new ujoints, rebuilt lobro, and new carrier bearings. I even went ahead and replaced the carrier bearing mount bushings ($5 each from the stealership, btw). I have a mostly stock 1g AWD TSi 5 speed.

So, the driveshaft rebuild worked out great, no issues. Then I was driving the car somewhat hard and made a sharp left turn. During the turn and acceleration, I heard a clunking noise, like something was banging up against the undercarriage of the car. I drove it hard in a straight line, to see if it had to do with overloading the shaft, and no issues. It only made this noise when making a hard LEFT turn under acceleration.

I got home and looked underneath the car, and find that the bolts on the lobro joint are hitting the undercarriage. Keep in mind I used brand new carrier bearings and bushings.

Do you think there should be this much play in new carrier bearings? Does anyone recommend adding a few additional washers to the carriers to increase the distance between the body and the driveshaft?

Thank for your help guys!

 

[Husler005 TSi]

C'mon guys--no one has any thoughts or experience on this? Not even a "sounds like you forgot to..."?

 

[agentorange313]

have you tried using solid carrier bushings?

Mitsubishi Eclipse Drive Shaft Carrier Bearing Support Bushings

This is what I used when I rebuilt my drive shaft. No problems so far. They aluminum and wont compress or deform like the stock bushings.


goodluck

 

[Husler005 TSi]

AgentOrange-I did not see these before. Thanks for the suggestion and reply.

I found a fix within my current setup: I added two washers (each about 1/8") to each carrier bushing mount on the body-side. There is enough distance now where the lobro does not make contact with the body, even under hard turns and acceleration. In addition, the driveshaft is extremely smooth in all gears/power range, which tells me I had it slightly out of alignment (I did have a little vibration before).