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Play in driveshaft? Tailshaft bushing needs replacing?

A

americandreamer

New member
Joined
Jul 6, 2015
Location
Syracuse, New York
I have a 93' 945 that just clicked over 250K this past week.

I have a bunch of varying needs with it at the moment, but one that's pretty annoying is the play I'm getting in the driveshaft. To the point you can visually see the shifter move back and forth when accelerating and braking (not all the time but often), and a consistent clunking in the rear....

Obviously sight unseen this would be tough to diagnose. But does this sound like a tailshaft bushing issue?

If so, what else should I potentially look at doing at the same time, to avoid some redundant disassembly.

Thanks
 
Is it an auto or M46/47? Have you shaken down the drive train to locate the play? If you're seeing the shifter pitch and sway when you're driving, my brain says it could be a worn/tired transmission mount. The clunk could be bad rear shocks for all you know without further looking into the problems you're speaking of.
 
The shifter moving has nothing to do with a tail shaft bushing. Most likely, you have a broken transmission mount. They are designed to just drop down against a built in stop. If you look under the car and see the transmission mount stud protruding out of the hole in the cross member past the cross member surface the mount is bottomed out, thus, broken.
 
If your shifter is moving from side to side when accelerating or decelerating, I would first check the Motor mounts.
If it's moving forward and backward when accelerating or decelerating, I would check the transmission mount.

The clunking could be a rear u-joint that's worn out.

It doesn't sound like the tail shaft bushing to me....not from the evidence you give.

Get under the car and push the drive shaft up and down, side to side while looking for unwanted movement.

Hope this helps.
 
KeizerBrickGuy said:
Is it an auto or M46/47? Have you shaken down the drive train to locate the play? If you're seeing the shifter pitch and sway when you're driving, my brain says it could be a worn/tired transmission mount. The clunk could be bad rear shocks for all you know without further looking into the problems you're speaking of.
Click to expand...

I think its a AW71? For whatever reason the previous owner said he swapped a practically new transmission in it at like, 150K maybe? Because he came across one in a junkyard and had a Volvo mechanic friend give him a hand to do it.... So, I'm guessing that mount is about 100K old. So could be that, but I had it looked at and was told it wasnt that, but could absolutely be reinspected. Clunk could be rear shocks for sure but it sounds centered in the car and coincides with the back and forth movement of the shifter.
 
coalminer said:
If your shifter is moving from side to side when accelerating or decelerating, I would first check the Motor mounts.
If it's moving forward and backward when accelerating or decelerating, I would check the transmission mount.

The clunking could be a rear u-joint that's worn out.

It doesn't sound like the tail shaft bushing to me....not from the evidence you give.

Get under the car and push the drive shaft up and down, side to side while looking for unwanted movement.

Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

Yeah i think that's some wise advice, to try and find the play by shaking it around. The motor mounts have been replaced within the past 18 months and it was doing it beforehand even... One kind of peculiar thing is actually when I take my foot off the gas at 50-60 miles an hour it does a kind of lurch also, like something is moving and slams back into place when the acceleration stops....
 
2manyturbos said:
The shifter moving has nothing to do with a tail shaft bushing. Most likely, you have a broken transmission mount. They are designed to just drop down against a built in stop. If you look under the car and see the transmission mount stud protruding out of the hole in the cross member past the cross member surface the mount is bottomed out, thus, broken.
Click to expand...

Ah good call. This is a good way to check. I'll look into this to rule it out.... As I mentioned in my reply to the other poster, one of the weirder things about this car, and I'm thinking it may be related, is that when I take my foot off the gas at like 55 mph the rear end kind of slams into place in a weird way. Something about that exact speed and taking my foot off the gas causes something to move. I have assumed these two issues were related because of where they feel like they are coming from. I remember a mechanic who looked at it and I asked him about it, said that he thought it was a "bushing that held the differential in place"... I wasn't sure what that meant...
 
americandreamer said:
I think its a AW71? For whatever reason the previous owner said he swapped a practically new transmission in it at like, 150K maybe? Because he came across one in a junkyard and had a Volvo mechanic friend give him a hand to do it.... So, I'm guessing that mount is about 100K old. So could be that, but I had it looked at and was told it wasnt that, but could absolutely be reinspected. Clunk could be rear shocks for sure but it sounds centered in the car and coincides with the back and forth movement of the shifter.
Click to expand...

The only thing that will give you a back and forth movement of the shifter is a broken mount. They aren't obvious at all because they are designed to keep the drive line from being damaged when they do fail, unlike the 240 mount which lets the transmission drop so much it will actually ruin the u-joints. As I said, just look under the car. You don't even need to jack it up. Just look straight across underneath the car and if you can see the transmission tail shaft stud/nut protruding past the cross member surface at all, the trans mount is done. If it is ~ 3/8" past the cross member surface it is totally bottomed out, sitting on t he built in stop.
 
americandreamer said:
Ah good call. This is a good way to check. I'll look into this to rule it out.... As I mentioned in my reply to the other poster, one of the weirder things about this car, and I'm thinking it may be related, is that when I take my foot off the gas at like 55 mph the rear end kind of slams into place in a weird way. Something about that exact speed and taking my foot off the gas causes something to move. I have assumed these two issues were related because of where they feel like they are coming from. I remember a mechanic who looked at it and I asked him about it, said that he thought it was a "bushing that held the differential in place"... I wasn't sure what that meant...
Click to expand...

You may also have a trailing arm bushing that is broken. The front bushing is usually the one that fails and will result in a "clunk" when accelerating, decelerating.
 
I think the tail shaft bushing was replaced with a bearing by '93.

If the shifter is moving, the bushings for the shift bucket brace are probably gone. They're #20 & #59 in this pic.

GR-54955.jpg
 
hiperfauto said:
I think the tail shaft bushing was replaced with a bearing by '93.

If the shifter is moving, the bushings for the shift bucket brace are probably gone. They're #20 & #59 in this pic.

GR-54955.jpg
Click to expand...

A 93 940 does not have that shifter, nor, does it have a brace. The entire shifter mechanism was new in 1993.

And you are correct about a tail shaft bearing instead of a bushing in 1993, however, the OP says the transmission was replaced. No telling what is in it now.
 
I think the 2 bushings with the white plastic outer collar are the front trailing arm bushings. It has been a long time since I installed one. The hour glass shaped bushings are the torque rod bushings,IIRC.
 
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