Looks like I'm getting my Ordonez on...so please forgive me for my ranting in advance but the T-Bat is starting to p*ss me off.
I have swapped out the springs per my previous post. I also swapped the right front hub that was worn as well as re-installing the stock length dogbones to put angle back right.
Today I put the car in the shop and had 4wheel align/rotation/balance done. the align was off quite a bit and the car does roll much smoother than before.
Yet this infuriating power-on vibration at highway speed still persists!
I am 99% sure this is not an engine issue since full and 3/4 throttle blasts for both a stop and low speed roll are strong and seamless. I can powerbrake the car all the way up to 3k rpm without so much as a quiver so I think an ignition miss is out of the question.
Given the time and money spent already I'm getting very tired of playing hit & miss trying to solve this issue. I am also constantly nagged in the back of my head at how maint this car has had at only 126k miles vs other cars I have owned...if I didnt like the car so much I would have already unloaded it

If anyone has substantial ideas on what could be causing this problem I'm all ears since I am not interested in continuing to drain my bank account.
Axles?...mounts?...I just dont know at this point which I'm sure is partially fueled by my frustration level.
If my car doesnt do anything else well I do demand good highway performance...I am in no way entertained by the concept of a long drive of constant vibration and shaking every time the throttle rolls on in the slightest.

I really hated being this pissed at my car...is this how Batman gets new a ride? (aside from a villan blowing it up)

getting your ordonez on... I like the sound of that.

how about the lower motor mount? has it ever been replaced?

I'd also place bets on a worn cv axle.

Possible on the CV's, but you'd really hear feel it on turns.

Have you tried putting the shortened dog bones back in to see what it did? Motor mounts are possible.

Hmmmmm.... Call me sometime and we can discuss this further. Trying to think of all the possibilities.

anyone got pics or how-to on motor mounts?...or how to check them out?

I'm with Slick on the CV joints...I've turned tons of circles in parking lots, right, left, slow and fast and it makes not a peep. No popping or crunching of any kind...then again I suppose if the joint closest to the tranny is goin south it might not have those symptoms.

If a mount was bad wouldnt I get a "thump" or something when I change gears? forward to reverse or such?...when I powerbrake it doesnt thump or rock then either.

Not neccasarily. The stock rubber will harden. It'll lose it's ability to dampen vibration before it goes full tilt bang bang when loading and unloading the motor.

My wifes bike has been giving me fits and was getting frustrated with it. Even thought of swapping out the drive train from mine to put into hers and trade out mine lol. But after a few hours in the garage I finally got everything fixed on it. Best part was it didn't cost me a dime. Turned out between the intake manifold half on half off and mis routed throttle cables was causing all my issues.

at Slick's suggestion I swapped out to set of shortened dogbones I had made before I bought a set from the W-body store. I'm assuming if compressing the worn mounts (since they have run that way since I went to TMS) helped the problem maybe it would narrow things down.
I changed them as soon as I got home from work tonite and took a quick test spin. The vibration does seem to be less but I'm also feeling more of it when I turn than I did before. I suppose this could be from bad axle angle since the engine is rocked forward on the stock spring setup...then again Rook could be right about the CV going bad.
Bottom line for all this right now is that I only have two days before we are set to leave for Connecticut. I wanted badly to get the car straight so I can hook up with BlackArrow for our mini-meet, but I'm not gonna spend the next two days flogging and spending more money on "maybe this or that"...looks like the T-Bat gets parked and I'll be taking the Sebring. Maybe after I come back I can get after this problem with a clear head.

At the end of it all and after thinking about it, I would probably encourage you to change the motor mounts no matter what the final cause be.

Reasoning is that you have a car that's getting up there in mileage and it'll need them before all is said and done with.

I'll see what I can do about a write up, but I'll have to borrow a gp from someone for the pics unless I can find some in my collection already that'll work.

anybody got "how-to" on swapping axles?

just call your online tech support...

he's available 24/7 as long as you can wake him up when he's sleeping...

You can use this Wheel Bearing Hub Replacement as a guide, but instead of removing the hub, you'll need to separate the outer tie rod, sway bar end link, ABS connector, and lower ball joint from the spindle, then once you clear the spindle from the axle shaft splines, use a prybar or big screwdriver & hammer to pop the inboard cv joint shaft out of the transaxle, which is held in with a snap ring.
When you install the new axle, make sure the open ends of the snap ring are facing downward, (it'll pop back in easier) then support the axle shaft and tap it in with a hammer; you should hear it "click" when it goes back in.

That's going way overboard on things to tear off...

I only have to undo the tie rod end, axle nut, and maybe the strut to knuckle bolts. Makes like a bit simpler. The pry bar bit works sometime, but only on the driver's side. On the passenger side it doesn't work so well.

Slick,
I was going to suggest your method as an alternative; I usually try to do as little as possible(leaving the calipers & rotors on, etc.), but it depends on the car..as I said, use it as a guide.

well I picked up a set of mounts today from Autozone and I will try those in the morning (I know, I'm a hopeless case) i cant leave the car alone knowing it isnt working right. I also know what great hiway cruiser it is when its working right.
If the mounts do do the trick then I have a last shot friday morning to have axles swapped out...but I may put in the shop for that. I asked today and he said $189 to get it done. I would consider doing it myself but I have to get some sleep friday before I hit the road that night. I'll post up before I go for last results.
A big "thank you" for tech support and all your responses. I may be shouting tomorrow on motor mounts

well I picked up a set of mounts today from Autozone and I will try those in the morning (I know, I'm a hopeless case) i cant leave the car alone knowing it isnt working right. I also know what great hiway cruiser it is when its working right.
If the mounts do do the trick then I have a last shot friday morning to have axles swapped out...but I may put in the shop for that. I asked today and he said $189 to get it done. I would consider doing it myself but I have to get some sleep friday before I hit the road that night. I'll post up before I go for last results.
A big "thank you" for tech support and all your responses. I may be shouting tomorrow on motor mounts

Anytime...

you have learned much young one ...that is how you post whore.

Good thing I learn quickly...

... and am willing to share wisdom gained.

well after MUCH cursing and couple phone calls to Tech Support I was finally able to get the engine and tranny mount swapped out. I had pretty much settled on just leaving the car alone until I took it to the shop in the morning for axles. Especially given my frustration level in getting the engine mount changed. The engine got misaligned when I raised it and trying to get it back straight took some head scratching...during which time I swore off ever modding another car again, pushing this one off a cliff and kicking myself for the number of woes I seem to have brought upon myself since owning this car.
When I went up to Autozone to pick up my trans mount the counterman couldnt seem to find it. To which I replied; "If you cant find it, OK it will give me the perfect excuse to quit today"

As it all turns out, when my wife and I returned from our afternoon of jaunting about I broke down and took the car for test to the video store. Much to my surprise the mounts seem to have all but cured the problem. I'm assuming the old mounts were letting the engine rock far enough to throw off the axle angle at highway speed causing the vibration. I'm still gonna put the car in tomorrow morning and let him check the axles (he is an honest guy) since I can rock from D to R and back again and I do get a clacking sound (hope its not my diff)
Such is life with the GP...but it appears to be road worthy for now.

So did you install or find the trans mount?
I'd like to know about my mounts, just wondering how you inspect them.

YAY!!!

woot! its always nice when something goes right!

unfortunately the mounts look pretty much the same visually...if they have visible oil leak then you KNOW its gone bad, aside from that I couldnt tell just by looking. To be honest, after I was finished swapping them out I seriously didnt think they would make that big a difference.
The engine mount took quite abit of coercing even to the point of having to hold the new one crooked with one top hole and one bottom hole somewhat inplace as I lowered the engine (watch your fingers!) to get it to fall into the proper spot...many bad words.
Then to borrow a phrase from my Tech Support (thanks Slick)..."if you can get the engine mount in the trans mount is a piece of cake"
Fluffy angel cake I tell Ya...I wrestled with the engine mount for over an hour...I swapped the trans mount in 15min no sweat.
So a quick check of the axles in the morning, pack the luggage and the tool bag, check all vital fluids and the ThunderBat will once again prowl the midnight highways on his storied run past NYC into the quiet villages of New England by sunrise the next day. His trailblazing predecessor, the "Bat Taxi" made this run until 175k showed on his clock before passing his mantle. So the T-Bat has a legacy to uphold, and hopefully exceed before he will pass those crusading duties to another worthy Bat-Machine.
But before the moonrise on that fateful night, cast the signal into the dark and cloudy sky and let the Thunder roll...

(can you tell a new Batman movie is close to premier date?)

Heh, I love reading your posts...

Y'all have fun at the car show and be sure to bring back plenty-o-pics.


Btw, ya think the ThunderBat can have a side kick?

Glad to hear you got the T-bat ready to roll... I'll watch the skies for the Bat-Signal heralding your arrival...

Blackarrow: you got it backwards... You need to blast the signal into the heavens so the winged warrior knows you're callin' and where to find ya.

The herald of his arrival will be the sound of a deep rumbling exhaust.

Well, I've been in contact with the Dark Knight, and T-bat has the map coordinates for our meeting place, so the signal has been given... I just hope we don't get our "signals" crossed...

Peter, Ray, Winston, and Egon could tell ya a few things about crossing powerful beams. they would say DONT!!!

Where you going?
And what makes the ride of the lowered gps so bad? I don't get it.
Changes the angle of drivetrain stuff and all, or what?

He's heading to NY to the autoshow. Lowering any car requires stiffer springs. It also changes the angle of the driveshafts which changes the angle the cv joints operate at and when you put a bigger angle in em the tend to vibrate a little more. That's why people put shorter dogbones on because it changes the angle of the cv joints.

Stiffer springs means the car won't absorb those seams in the highway. And can wear on an old body after awhile.

Actually the trip each year is to Connecticut to visit my wifes relatives. They dont bother trying to get together at Christmas or Thanksgiving cuz the weather usually is too bad for traveling.

I get the lucky benefit that the NYC auto show is always the week of Easter so we stop off in Manhattan on the way back Monday.

I'm afraid I must report bad news though, I got about 20 miles south of Fredricksburg and the vibration returned just as bad as it was before. Being quite angry and frustrated I had to turn around and limp back home (another hour plus)
I'm assuming the axles are bad. I told my shop guy last friday morning I thought things were better and he told me "if it aint broke, dont mess with it"...and I thought so as well until I had to turn around.
I'm almost surprised BlackArrow hadnt already posted about our "mini meet" with me showing up in my Sebring convertible. I'll post on that later.
I hate to admit I'm back in that uncomfortable place of being angry with my car. This would be the first time one of my Bat machines has let me down. Granted, it could have been much worse. It could have puked on the roadside and left us to the mercy of AAA to all hours of the night. I guess it must have been something in the air this weekend...especially since my wifes Olympus camera that I was given to take to the car show died shortly after I got off the ferry...so much for car show pics...I'll try to make up for that with links and colorful commentary. Maybe I'll get time for that this weekend if I'm not changing out axles...arrrgh.
One tidbit of info concerning the show...I was very pleased to see Dodge show three seperate versions of the new Challenger. SRT8, R/T and a V6 powered SE, which still looks to be a nicely equipped car...fog lights, scooped hood and 18in wheels were all still on this entry level model...very curious to see the price. they admit it will be higher than the mustang but by how much no one would say.

At least it was kind enough to get you back home...

*starts thinking about other possible causes of vibration*

Wow 2:40 am, The bat was prowling late!

Well, I didn't want to "steal your thunder" so to speak, and if you had brought your GP, I might've been tempted...

Its gotta be the axles. I have been going over in my head what it could be. I feel like since you have cover all of the basics that might just be your problem.

Unless you bent a rim or something... but its highly unlikely

yeah prowling late is my thing...we usually leave late on friday night and drive overnight to CT...its nice to cruise around the DC beltway with almost no traffic and hit the Jersey turnpike with it as desolate as the salt flats (and almost as fast )...but the best part is zooming right by NYC before the sun comes up with gridlock. I'm most always rolling the CT countryside by sunrise on Sat...but not THIS time...grrr...this setback threw the whole schedule out of whack. Traffic still wasnt unbearable but not so thin as I'm used to.

The other deal with springs and ride quality is that I'm sure a lot of you know the road quality up north leaves a lot to be desired...plus when you have back issues ride comfort becomes a much higher priority.

I'm also spretty sure it has to be axles as well since hubs and tie rod ends have already been replaced. New mounts may have dampened the vibration to a degree it obviously wasnt the cause. Next question is do I really want to get in there and swap them out in this frame of mind. $189 a side feels a bit steep,especially since my Sebring needs a serp belt as well...look like another wrenching weekend coming up.

I've got a feeling the problem is the axles as well...in case you missed it, Tbat, see this thread: NEED HELP ASAP

I called it in the second reply. :p

I told him earlier than that, via PM...

Only thing left would be a shot torque converter.

Stop tryin to cheer me up ok Herc?