Driveshaft free play

[thanos]

Hi all. I recently noticed that the drive shaft in my ae86 has a lot of free play around. 1/4 is it normal?
Since we had two other 86's on the garage we checked the other two and the free play was much less in the other cars.
So i wonder, is the free play an indication of worn crown pinion and drive shaft or not?
The rear axle has a 2way trd lsd I hear no strange noises whatsoever, and the car is lowered around 5 cm (i don't know if that affects the angle of the drive shaft) and an adjustable panhard rod is already fitted.
Any suggestions welcomed

[Ivan141]

Seen this with a broken LSD once, it's less likely if you have a a trd diff though.

[zenki]

I had the same problem back in '13 with a stock worn zenki diff. Drivetrain would vibrate sometimes, making accelerating and decelerating kinda funny. And the driveshaft had even more play than 1/4 on mine. I just put another diff and crown pinion in and it was gone.

[fax0815]

1/4 of a turn seems much... I´ve had some play, that resulted from worn spline on my driveshafts. Have you got the right shafts for your diff? I remeber zenki shafts fit a kouki diff, not for long and with play!

[thanos]

Thanks for the replies, the axle is the oem (zenki) with 350000 km except the diff which has been changed with a trd 2way(zenki). I noticed the free play while i was changing the gear oil and the car was lifted. The funny thing though is that the car even at high speeds on the freeway -in terms of drive shaft-diff noise- is almost silent.
But i guess sooner or later i 'll have to open the axle and see what is going on inside.....

[allencr]

(02-23-2015 01:48 PM)thanos Wrote:  ...is the free play an indication of worn crown pinion and drive shaft or not?

No. It'd never be the ring gear/crown wheel and pinion gear mesh having that much clearance without very noticeable & disastrous results.
The play is in the small spider/pinion gears and/or the pinion gear's splines for the axle. Usually harmless.
Driveshaft/propeller shaft U-Joints?

[thanos]

I spoke with the mechanic this evening and he also mentioned that since the driveshaft-diff are quiet, a ring/pinion failure seems unlikely, however we will have to open the axle soon just to make sure.

(02-24-2015 09:14 PM)allencr Wrote:  Driveshaft/propeller shaft U-Joints?

We checked the U joints and they were in very good condition also I forgot to mention that the center bearing was like new (replaced in 2007 and has less than 35000 km from then)