Drivetrain Problems

[Bukwheet]

Has anyone experienced drivetrain trouble?

My car is currently at the dealer repairing a broken right axle. Last month, I had it in to correct what seemed like a mis-aligned shifter linkage that turned out to be a transmission rebuild. It fixed that problem.

[Bigdogjim]

Bukwheet: Do a search upper left. There has been a few alxe problems. Sorry to hear about your problems.

[WolfeBros]

Welcome Bukwheet. This is the place to hang out if you want to know more about your car. Just curious.....how long have you had the car and how many miles on it ? We do know of axle bearing problems on some early builds.

[Bukwheet]

Thanks for the welcome.

I bought the car on 1/27/03. I have 6600 miles on it. It has always had a slight driveline vibration since I've had it. I wasn't sure if it was normal; i.e. tires or driveshaft since it was so faint.

The axle broke while I was drag racing at the local track. I have raced the car several times, including the WFC last month. The axle gave way while I was footbraking the car at 2000 RPM on the starting line. This was like my 6th or 7th pass that evening.

I have worked on everything from bone stock to NHRA/IHRA Pro Stock cars and have never seen a stock 8.8 rear break an axle with street tires. I knew something was wrong with it.

I got some flack from the dealership, but they are fixing it under warranty. I am glad I found the info on the axle bearing TSB though.

[UncleLar]

You're real lucky they're fixing it under warranty if they know you were racing it. Big no-no to tell them that,the last I heard they could theoretically void your entire warranty.

[SergntMac]

Originally posted by Bukwheet
I have 6600 miles on it. It has always had a slight driveline vibration since I've had it. I wasn't sure if it was normal; i.e. tires or driveshaft since it was so faint. The axle broke while I was drag racing at the local track. I have raced the car several times, including the WFC last month. The axle gave way while I was footbraking the car at 2000 RPM on the starting line. This was like my 6th or 7th pass that evening. I got some flack from the dealership, but they are fixing it under warranty. I am glad I found the info on the axle bearing TSB though.

Whew! Me too. Did the 4:10 install at 3000 miles, and by 7000 miles, I had a pinion howl so loud, police cars followed me down the street thinking I was heading to an "in progress" call...LOL

Same TSB (03-5-5) replaced everything in the rear end.

So, what kind of times have you been getting with your MM, and with what, if any mods?

[Bukwheet]

They can't void the entire warranty, but if they have evidence of excessive abuse, Ford will deny the warranty. I have never admitted to them that I was racing it when it happened. The only evidence they could find that something wasn't "normal" was the loose rubber still on the tires and the tire pressure about 10 lbs too low.

The bottom line was the axle should have never broken. My car is bone stock. I have not made any modifications just for this reason. I work for a major performance parts manufacturer in Bowling Green, KY, and everyone in town knows where I work. The first thing any of the dealerships in town think when an employee brings a car like mine in for warranty work is that it has been modified/raced or both.

I am very glad I found the info on the TSB about the axles on this site. The local dealer's had my car since Tuesday last week. They never checked for the TSB. They saw the broken axle and immediately assumed that hard driving was the cause, despite my insistance that there was a pre-existing problem. They proceded to order all the individual parts to repair the car, only to have one of the axle bearings be on national backorder. This has been holding up my repair.

I got a copy of the TSB through a customer of mine and stopped by the dealership today. They had not even seen it. The part number listed in the TSB is a kit with 2 axles, bearings, seals, friction modifier, and a tube of silicone. I found out that Ford has 60 of these kits in stock in their Atlanta depot. They are supposed to get the parts Fed Exd in tomorrow and have it done Friday. I won't hold my breath.

They probably wouldn't even have replaced the other axle if I hadn't alerted them to the TSB.

So thanks to all who have posted info about this, it has helped me out a bunch.

[Bukwheet]

My best ET so far has been 15.209. Best MPH is 93.32 on a slower pass.

Both were run on the same night, outside air temp on the car's thermo at 45 deg. This was shallow staged. 60' was 2.290. Launched car on footbrake at 2000 RPM with shifter in D and OD off. This was with the air filter removed. This was the only modification. I had a half tank of gas and still had the spare tire and jack in it!

[Mike M]

It will go way quicker then that, leave at an idle and the car will flash the converter and leave a bit harder. I am racing mine again this week and I am hoping for a 14.40. It went 14.60 already.