Trike vibrates at highway speed when decelerating

[Orangewinglady]

My 02 Gl1800 Champion solid axle vibrates when rolling off gas at highway speeds for 5 mph. Have already replaced two driveshafts. Last repair the driveshaft slipped off of splines but was put back in place. Any ideas why I have a vibration?

[rhino 2]

I can't help you on the vibrations, But I'm sure someone will chime in soon with help you need.......In the mean time Welcome to Trike-Talk....

[Gorilla]

welcome aboard hard to say with so little information. where do you feel like the vibration is coming from?

[Orangewinglady]

welcome aboard hard to say with so little information. where do you feel like the vibration is coming from?

Underneath me

[GoldWingrGreg]

Start with the easy stuff first. Have all 3 wheels and tires checked for not spinning true. Then re-check the drive shaft. Probably 90% of trike vibration are fixed by checking and fixing 2 possibilities.

[CrystalPistol]

Sounds to me like a worn universal joint when unloaded and free-er to flop losely in yoke. Power or loading tends to apply enough pressure to lead to a "centered yoke" condition & less vibration.

Last repair the driveshaft slipped off of splines but was put back in place. Any ideas why I have a vibration?

Alsso check "phase" between the yokes, the yokes on each end of the driveshft itself should be like back to back.

rear differential---+>--<+--- engine/trans output.

[CrystalPistol]

I have had similar experiences in some police cars and then on our Lehman which uses oem front -joint and a larger car type at differential end.

Several years ago I wrote my findings after one such experience ... involving a new never used U-joint from Mother Honda.



I don't have a link to that post but below is it:

Just passing on an experience.

A while back we headed out one day for a group ride and it was one of the few where we got on the interstate and as we had a good ways to go, we kicked it up to 65 - 70. It's not often that I cruise this trike at speeds above 65, I just avoid Interstates.

I noticed a vibration through the pegs that I didn't recall there before, it went away with power or coast, but as I rolled back and forth on the throttle it was worst when there was no load on the joint at all like when the throttle was just enough to match rpm to speed. When I speeded up more, it was noticeably worse ... but not bad, just enough to be noticed. I suspected a Ujoint as they'll do that as power or load tends to center them and they flop when unloaded sometimes thus swinging the driveshaft like a jump rope.

I left the ride and went home at 55 or less on old road, not bad now, and I pulled the shaft at home. Rear car size U-joint was tight, as expected it being bigger and getting regular greasings.

Front Honda U-joint which was original and seemed OK, maybe a little easy to flop around, but no slack in joint. I thought maybe the splines were worn but could see no wear on either motor output shaft splines or drive shaft splines even with magnifying glass.

I ordered a Valk U-joint, it's the one Honda ships for all 1500s now. It came in a few days later and I slipped the shaft back out and put the new front U-joint in with plenty of grease on the splines making sure that the front and rear joints were in proper phase.

Took it for a ride, it was as bad if not worse! Damn it!

Well, a few nights ago I was going over the trike for a couple rides coming up, I wasn't sleepy, and I had her jacked up putting grease in the rear joint and adjusting the rear drum brakes and I decided to take another look at that Honda Valk U-joint. Well, I pulled the shaft and joint, wiped the joint clean of excess grease, and checked the fit on the splines, no appreciable slack.

Then as I rotated the joint looking and wondering why the hell I have this persistant vibration, I noticed something. It looked like the joint cross wasn't centered just right in the front yoke, the rear yoke looked like it was a hair out to one side. The surfaces of the yokes at widest point is machined, so I got the idea to measure the depth at each of the 4 bearinmg cups from this surface. The cups in the rear half of the joint were very nearly the same, maybe a hair difference, but certainly within a few thousadths of being the same.

The cups in the front yoke, the yoke half that slips up on the motor output shaft, ...

... weren't close. 65 thousandths difference between the two. The cross was not centered in the yoke! Manufacturer's defect. These cups are pressed in and staked. The staking points on the side where the bearing cup was pressed deepest didn't go all the way to the cup, so I figuured I didn't need to cut them out ... there was room to move it.

Well, I looked through sockets and found one that fit inside the yoke and was against the stake points withouit being on top[ of them, this socket was a 12mm HD for use with air wreches I think. Inserted in behind the bearing cup, it would contact the cup at the outer edge without flatening the center hump flattening it, and it would go inside the stake point circle. Using this socket and a hammer and measuring after every whack, I finally drove that cross back to center point between the yokes, I even centered up the two cups on the rear half of the yoke as they were a few thou out. When done, the cross was centered as near perfectl;y between the yokes as was possible to measure with my tools. I had moved the joint 30+ thousandths in the one yoke back to center.

These cups are tight in the bores, the stake points were just for safe measure I guess.

Anyway, put it back together with more good grease in the splines and in phaze and we took her for a ride. Took it out for ice creame and hit a section if interstate between two exits out west where there's no traffic and run it up faster than I will say .... and the vibration is gone! Finally!

Now I'm going to dig out the original joint and check it too.

More follow up below:

http://www.goldwingfacts.com/forums/...riveshaft.html



http://www.goldwingfacts.com/forums/...ive-shaft.html