65 Falcon

[alvin stadel]

This has nothing to do with 57 fords, but I could use some help or advise. About a year ago I bought a restored 65 Falcon 2dht. Now a year later it is restored to my specs. some guys should never be allowed to own a wrench. The 289 is rebuilt and runs strong,T-10 4 speed rebuilt and shifts smooth as silk, new 8in rear end and drive line. The problem I'm having is that from 65 on up I get one hell of a vibration. I took it into Billings again yesterday and had drive shaft rebalanced, was good and rechecked the pinon angle also right on. I had the wheels on my 57 bird and they never give me any problems, and have new tires on these rims that balance out nicely. I don't know what to check or redo next, this is about to drive me over the edge,  Any ideas on this.  thanks Alvin

[4thgen57]

under acceleration? deceleration? on the brakes? off the brakes? Rotors/drums out of round? Does it have stock suspension? Pinion angle is all good? Sorry, lots of questions.

[alvin stadel]

I have not had drums checked, it is very constant at speeds above 65, I do notice it on acceleration also.

[RICH MUISE]

Alvin....Rich Koberski had a similar situation a few months back....look in the general tech threads section..alot of suggestions and things he went through. It's on page 2, titled "vibration saga". I had to chuckle at the 65 mph you quoted. There were a number of threads on the hamb dealing with similar issues, and on one of those threads, a few members brought up the point of how often vibrations seem to occur at 65 mph

[alvin stadel]

Rich, I'm sure you are right, the vibration is know doubt there way before 65, however , after I'v run the gears this is where  I really start to notice it.

[JimNolan]

Run it up to 70mph and put it in neutral, and if the vibration goes away it's in your transmission. Also I had a T85 that was causing me vibration until I rebuilt it. The T85 IS a T10 with one more gear. Also, my 57 absolutely would not run at higher speeds without vibration when I first bought it. I eventually had to go with front disc brakes to be able to ride in it above 60 mph. I tried balancing with the tires on the car and everything. Just wouldn't balance. My 63 on the other hand has drums and it's good to 120 mph + that I can attest to. Good luck.

[rmk57]

Tires these days have a lot to desired. I'd say try another shop to try and rebalance or borrow another set of mounted wheels and tires and see what happens. That may narrow it down.

Randy

[hotroddonnie]

Like Jim said, I had a similar problem with my work truck, took it to a transmission shop Russ gets in drives down the hi way puts it into neutral vibrations still there, comes back changes the transmission mount, 49 dollars and it was gone! Not saying that's your problem but a collapsed transmission mount was mine. HRD

[wv 57s forever]

  what about shocks, flat spots on tires.

[Boss/Cyclone]

I'm a moderator at cometcentral.com and a guy recently had a similar problem on a 64 Comet.  I sent this suggestion and it happened to solve the problem.  Hope it is this simple on your Falcon.

"Check the rear u-joint and u-bolts. They may not have the u-joint properly seated in the rear axle." 

He replied a couple days later that one of the u-joint end caps was seated on top of the flange stop and tightened down on it.   He reseated it and everything was fine.

[RICH MUISE]

I'm guessing since he said he brought the driveshaft in for balancing, the posible problem you brought up is probably not what's happening here..the shaft would have had to been installed that way twice. That's not to say it couldn't have been an un-noticed problem, like wrong u-joint size,caps,etc. I'm sure no expert on mechanicals, but if it were mine, I'd put the car in neutral and bring it up to whatever rpm's it is at, at 65mph to at least see if the engine is running smooth.
soooo many things that can cause a vibration problem...good luck!
Alvin...do you know if the vibration was there before you had all that work done?

[hiball3985]

Why is it always at 65 mph. Had the same in my 66 Mustang, new trans mount fixed 50%, tail shaft bushing in the trans 40% more, still looking for the 10%.

[Limey57]

Had something similar on my daily when it was brand new, turned out one of the (new) tires wasn't round(!) and apparently it isn't uncommon. As has been said, try and borrow another set of wheels/tires and start eliminating stuff from there.

[Zapato]

Were your wheels torqued or just ran up with the air gun. Had a set of wheels that every time wife had the tires rotated the same thing would happen and I'd have to break them loose and torque to spec.

Zap-

[4thgen57]

Are you feeling it in the steering wheel or in the seat?