90 caravan turbo is eating axle shafts

[boostinfreak]

hey all,i have a 90 caravan that is killing drivers axle shafts.currently it has an 89 turbo II motor from a daytona hooked to the stock auto trans.whenever i make a right turn the drivers shaft clunks repeatedly till i straighten up.it does it with or without exceleration.i put a new shaft in and it started doing the same thing within a day of driving it..the trans mount is new and the other mounts look fine.i did check the motor to see if it was centered and the endplay on both axles is about equal. i also notice under hard excelleration,when it shift gears i get a clunk in the left front..it is lowered using daytona struts if that makes a difference..any suggestions?

thanks
mark

[pauly_no_van]

You have the dreaded big soft engine mounts!!
I too have suffered the wrath of the 1990 engine mount gods !
You need to ignore end-play and move engine toward driver side as far as it will go.
No, it will not cause shaft on other side to do this.
The driver side of the motor deflects forward and away from the driver side wheel when its turned and put under power,
this is how the shaft gets spit-out. The newer big er mounts may be more better er for vibration, but they stink for higher hp apps!

[boostinfreak]

i take it i can't switch to the older mounts with this setup? i will try what you suggest and see if it helps..thanks!

[turbovanman²]

Check your axle length, its possible someone put a car axle shaft in place. Lowering won't affect cv axles unless they are bad.

No, you can't run the older passenger side mount but you can run the older front mount.

Get some mounts from www.polybushings.com and forget about them.

[RoadWarrior222]

Driveline centering is worth a check too, make sure it's not sitting to one side or another, kinda falls in toward the tranny mount when that collapses.

Also could be crappy re-man syndrome, the insides of those joints are meant to be ground on a hyperbolic or parabolic curve, the cheap rebuilders can only do a spherical curve, so at large deflections, they clunk.

[boostinfreak]

moving the engine to the drivers side seems to have helped..still going to exchange the halfshaft i put in it,it was a new shaft not a reman...

[moparman76_69]

Un-equal shafts? I had a similar issue after lowering. I was using a daytona intermediate shaft and it worked fine until I lowered it then the axles started to disintegrate.

[pauly_no_van]

moving the engine to the drivers side seems to have helped..still going to exchange the halfshaft i put in it,it was a new shaft not a reman...

Yes once it skips its garbage.... Best to go and get a minivan shaft from a yard, most likely to get right part that way...

[JDAWG]

I blew 2 new/reman advance auto axles on my caravan till I said F it and bout a NEW napa that was designed to have play for saggy motor mounts even though they were new, never a problem after that

[turbovanman²]

Un-equal shafts? I had a similar issue after lowering. I was using a daytona intermediate shaft and it worked fine until I lowered it then the axles started to disintegrate.

Weird, how low did you go? I am also using a car shaft, and its 2.5" in the front.

[moparman76_69]

Weird, how low did you go? I am also using a car shaft, and its 2.5" in the front.

3-3.5 inches, daytona struts with lebaron GTC springs cut 1/2 coil. I'm changing to a different setup now. I'm going to try to get the same amount of drop with better a-arm geometry.

[turbovanman²]

Yeah, that's low.

[boostinfreak]

it has unequal length shafts in it..i decided to start pulling the motor out today,putting a 2.5 back in it.will update once it is running and i change the shaft again.may try the shaft for sagging mounts,thought about that when i bought this one..

[1BADVAN]

I blew 2 new/reman advance auto axles on my caravan till I said F it and bout a NEW napa that was designed to have play for saggy motor mounts even though they were new, never a problem after that

Thanks for that info, mine has been eating drivers side shafts, (3 in 5,000 miles) So i just bought a NEW one we will see what happens

[boostinfreak]

it was working good for a little bit but now it is clicking again....grrr!! going to try one of those ones for saggy mounts...

[Johnny]

Are you positive your engine mounts are good?

[turbovanman²]

Have you actually removed the cv shaft nuts and measured if both sides are the same? Does the 90 use spacers under the passenger mount?

[1BADVAN]

Have you actually removed the cv shaft nuts and measured if both sides are the same? Does the 90 use spacers under the passenger mount?

question , do you mean the push in on them till they bottom out test? On my van which is eating axles it definitely seems like the driver's side pushes in way farther, but the engine is alr eady shifted over as far as it will go. I was thinking wouldn't different brand axles have different compressing distances, so that would throw off the test right? Couldn't it be easier to have a hub to differential measurement we could use? on cars with equal length shafts i use a measuring tape to make sure the axle lengths are the same And it works great.

[pauly_no_van]

This is especially true IF your mounts are old:
You need to ignore end-play and move engine toward driver side as far as it will go.
The driver side of the motor deflects forward and away from the driver side wheel when its turned and put under power,
this is how the shaft gets spit-out
As long as you can push the driver axle in 1" with knuckle attached, you are good to go.
That's enough inward travel for the shaft to operate.
2 shafts in 5 k would be enough to make me go buy poly bushings from you know who!

[boostinfreak]

my mounts aren't torn but you can tell they are getting soft,i replaced the trans mount a few months ago with another used one that wasn't torn.it may be time to look at poly mounts and see if that helps..i can move the drivers shaft in the 1" with no problem.mine didn't have spacers under pass mount and i got mine from original owner.