BlackXJR, I'm a little late to this party, but I can offer a couple of things.

First, don't fret about the gap between the new bushing you put in and the mount washer, that is the way that mount works. It is supposed to be 'springy' and allow movement. The old disintegrated bushing did not have the lower portion any longer for the washer to bump against during movement.

Second, the 'vibration' you mention does follow the pattern of a propshaft issue. One suggestion that many times helps is to 're-phase' the prop at the rear Jurid Coupling. The differential pinion flange has three ears and three bolts to the coupling. That leaves three different mounting positions, each 120 degrees apart. There is almost always one position where any vibration is minimal. Just be sure and never separate the Jurid Coupling from the propshaft tube, always separate from the pinion. Mark your flange and the propshaft, then try the other two positions and see if you don't find some improvement. It's a relatively easy, no parts possible fix. I actually did it to mine shortly after I bought it 13 years ago.

Good luck!

 

Interesting. So did you have this issue then that caused you to change phasing? Mostly I am curious to know whether your issue was a steady frequency, 30-50mph or so and unrelated to whether you were accelerating or coasting like mine. (If you recall 13 years back) Or more closely follows the symptoms in the links others have provided, where it is mostly noticed on acceleration?

limegreenclown, I am also going to have a look and see if I can determine anything loose on the V mounts while I am in the front suspension crow-baring around. As the original problem was severe tramlining there may be something to that as well.

 

Well, there's a story to mine as well............

Bought the car with 30K miles, drove like a raped ape, had the tramlining you were complaining about, also had a real queasy feel to the rear end when accelerating hard, esp. in a slight turn. Here's how it went.

This car came without the solid monostrut at the rear suspension, and tires about 80% through the tread. Did the tires first, that wiped out the tramlining. Tramlining is common with wide performance tires and is all about tire flexibility; tread wears, it's less flexible, tire ages, it's less flexible. That's why an old tire with good tread can still tramline.
Next, I installed the suspension monostrut. It did away with the two separate suspension links that make a standard sedan ride so well. Great for the VDP but make the XJR a noodle in the rear. Felt like I was home free......wrong. Now I had a nagging vibration that sort of felt like flat spotted tires, worse at low temps, only it seemed to fade off above 65 MPH.

I did all the balancing, re-balancing, moving tires, adjusting air pressure, checking bushings etc. Over and over. Nothing helped. So I zeroed in on the prop. I was going to take it out and have it balanced. I decided to move it around on a whim. I tried all three positions, one other position was about the same, but the third was smooth. I've never given that vibration another thought since.

In a way, I see some similarities to your scenario. That's why I thought it was worth a try with your XJR. I don't guess it could hurt!

Good luck!

 

Did the vibration on yours peak at say 55MPH before fading at 65MPH? And did the steering wheel also buzz/shimmy slightly?

 

As I recall the peak was about 52 MPH. It was a seat of the pants feel rather than steering wheel.

Cheers,

 

BlackXJR......

Made any headway on this vibration yet???

 

Not yet. Winter has finally come to Southwest Missouri and the last few weekends it has been 35 degrees in the garage. The weather has had some snow, rain, sleet…just ugly. I have been driving my old car and letting the Jag stay in the garage. (Dry but not so warm)

I will post back with the results of the drive shaft re-phasing. It really bugs me when you go and search on a forum, read a whole post and the OP just disappears at the end with no resolution to the problem.

Like Arnold said… “I’ll be back”

 

I understand completely, as you can see, I'm one of the Midwest Types too.
If the re-phasing doesn't pan out, you do have yet another option. A dealer that still has their equipment intact can do a balancing thing with special selectable weighted nuts. Involves some high priced equipment, but it can get the job done. I just had to do that to a fellows 2007 XJ a week or so ago. It'll cost a few bucks, but it's way better than a propshaft.

Cheers,

 

Just an update, I still have not tried xjrguy’s driveshaft phasing solution on my XJR. I fell into a good deal on an HVAC unit for the garage so I have just been living with it while I install ductwork, rewire and insulate the garage.

 

Any update on this?

I'm apparently fighting the same issue...

 

Just a quick note on the vibration you talked about
My XJR had the famed X300 XJR tramlining I also replaced lots of bushes and joints and so forth searched lots of forums then finally gave up and accepted the vibration
my car had 200,000 kilometers at the time so is up there as well also 15 years young at the time when the 255/45/17 tyres finally wore out I decided to go with 235/50/17 tyres when I went to the new tyres I decided to have my Rims restored not just painted but spun up and trued at the same time as replacing the tyres
When I picked up the rims the guy told me that two of my rims had pretty decent flat spots well fitted the tyres to the restored rims and hey presto no vibration
Don't forget if you bought the car second hand you don't know how many kerbs/gutters it has hit not to mention pot holes and when I spoke to the wheel restorer guy he said its pretty common wheels getting buckled these days with all the low profile tyres fitted to cars he says his business has picked up in the last 10 years because of the low profile tyres
just a thought how do the edges of the rims look like if they are gouged and damaged there might be something to the rims being in need of a rebuild
I only found this out after getting my wheels done I had already given up on the seat of the pants vibration

 

Thanks xjrguy, this seems to have worked! I had kind of got used to the vibration after all this time, but its nice to have it gone. (Well, almost gone...its so slight now I don't think anyone else would notice it)

 

Guess I'll give it it try as well, as I have a bit of vibration left after other fixes failed to totally eliminate it.

I'm not arguing with sucess but I have to wonder *why* rotating the driveshaft fixes the problem. In other words, in the life of a driveshaft, what changes? I wonder if it's the rubber Jurid coupling?

In my case the Jurid coupling visually looks perfect....almost amazingly so ofter 130k miles....but I wonder if there's more to it than that?

Cheers
DD

 

Thank you BlackXJR! Always gratified when a suggestion produces results. Thanks even more for coming back and posting your resolution here for all. So many times we never get feedback and learn whether our ideas panned out or not.

Personally, I wouldn't worry too much about the "slight" remnants of the vibration. When something like this happens you get "tuned" to a noise or vibration and then you never can get away from it. Chances are you are so tuned to vibrations that you are picking out the normal road feel. Now that it's "low" enough, pretty soon it will no longer grab your attention. That's when you can get back to really enjoying the XJR. I know, I'm biased.......but there ain't nuttin' like 'em!

Cheers,

 

+1 on becoming hyper-focused on vibrations (or rattles, etc). Been there, done that :-)

Cheers
DD

 

I replaced my jurid coupling this year when I changed the diff ratio to 3.54,s it had no cracks and looked fine but figure spending so much already the costs of the coupling was negligible and I did not want to look at it again for a few more years

 

Can some one tell me how to align the driveline on a 1995 Vandeplus???
I saw string and three plumb bobs could you please elaborate

 

Here you go.......

Good luck!

 

my 96 XJR has vibration when im driving on highway, its quiet noticeable. could it be the tires? im running 245/45/17 i think.

 

Thanks for the Plumb bob info I believe this could be the issue, I will update after I try it