Transaxle diagnosis
... and other games ...
In an attempt to track down some noises that the transaxle seemed to be
making during tight turns, I needed a way to get both front wheels off
the ground so I could spin the whole system while moving the steering
back and forth. There is almost no place to jack or support the lower
A-frames -- the knuckle connection is pretty much inside the rim, and the
rest of the lower member slants too much to safely get underneath. And
any large objects next to the tire will interfere with the steering arc.
But the gentle curve of the arm flattens out just enough that it can come to
rest on an appropriate-height stack of bricks and wood. There is clearly
more stress on the outer ends of these, especially since they're sitting
on a piece of carpet on top of dirt, but the 4x4s on top are pretty much
tilt-limited against the underside of the frame. After a little fiddling
to get the stacks sufficiently clear of the tires, the center of the arm
contact point was still safely over the stack. Once the arms were lowered,
the wheels levered about 1/2" off the ground and stabilized -- still a little
more angled than normal ride height, but better than down at maximum spring
length. I left the jacks holding a little of the car's weight as safeties.
Detail of the A-arm's contact point. See, it's pretty flat with respect
to the wood if the corner is stuck right into where it curves down again.
Looks a little sketchy, but it's quite solid.
And this made all the needed tests feasible. Here the system is powered
up and the front wheel is turning at twice "creep" speed because the other
tire is chocked with a brick. With this I could make the differential spider
turn fairly fast in either direction while going pretty much lock-to-lock
on the steering. I could also easily inspect all the CV boots while turning.
[You can sort of see me and the tripod sitting next to a tree in the rear
door...]
The kicker? I still couldn't reproduce the mystery noise. I suspect the
boots themselves may have been squeaking against their own folds in cold
weather -- they get gronked over at a pretty nasty angle when turning hard.
Either that or it's some gear lash that only becomes audible when the
transaxle is warmed up enough.