rear end dog bone

[JD1964]

I'm working on improving traction on my 92 LX and it's getting better as I change some things. The dog bone is still on the rear axle. I suppose it would be best to leave it there since the extra weight is at the rear wheels. I mean, most people try to loose whatever weight they can, but in the case where I need more traction, I suspect keeping this particular weight would be preferred.

Any thoughts on this?

 

[Habu135]

I'm interested in seeing the response on this as this part was removed on my car by a previous owner. Great question.

 

[Gear grabber]

I pulled mine,the first time the diff. came apart.

 

[General karthief]

It's unsprung weight, loose it.

 

[Habu135]

What is it there for? Reduction in noise, vibration and harshness or what?

 

[Mustang5L5]

Pulled mine but kept it. Have yet to see a good explanation as to removing or keeping it.

If it actually did reduce vibration I would put it back.

 

[General karthief]

Factory NVH thing. Pulled mine years ago with no noticeable difference. I also have an aluminum drive shaft.

 

[Habu135]

Nice. Thanks.

Ya, I'm finding all kinds of missing items on my car. I actually visited a junkyard just to grab a differential bump stop.

 

[Wayne Waldrep]

I gave a good answer once that was given to me in the first couple years of ownership of my car. It was from people within the Ford world at the time, but it was met with resistance last time I said it so I'm reluctant to even say it again. As I said before, I don't remember who and I'm not wasting time looking for who...but. Per them (not me) the dogbone is useless after the factory gears are changed. It was very detailed why and I don't remember everything they said. But after that day, I removed every single one I ever worked on. Never a single problem. Mines been off since 1989!
I used to install gears for every Fox body in my area. There weren't many people in my area doing work then so go figure. That's all I got.

 

[Rt jam]

The way I see it is, if there is vibration, it should be corrected by balancing the driveshaft. Not by dampening it with a weight.

 

[Wayne Waldrep]

The way I see it is, if there is vibration, it should be corrected by balancing the driveshaft. Not by dampening it with a weight.

The driveshaft is balanced independently. It's not balanced to correct some other vibration. If it's even barely out of balance it will beat you to death.

 

[General karthief]

I gave a good answer once that was given to me in the first couple years of ownership of my car. It was from people within the Ford world at the time, but it was met with resistance last time I said it so I'm reluctant to even say it again. As I said before, I don't remember who and I'm not wasting time looking for who...but. Per them (not me) the dogbone is useless after the factory gears are changed. It was very detailed why and I don't remember everything they said. But after that day, I removed every single one I ever worked on. Never a single problem. Mines been off since 1989!
I used to install gears for every Fox body in my area. There weren't many people in my area doing work then so go figure. That's all I got.

So what did they say it was for?
What's a little 'resistance ' between friends?

 

[Wayne Waldrep]

Lol...Yeah it's all good. Unfortunately, I don't remember the why. They told me it was of no use after the factory gears were changed. They didn't say it hurt anything but that it didn't do anything then. No memories beyond that. Maybe hypnosis would help

 

[trebor3170]

Be careful with that hypnosis stuff, you might find out you were abducted by aliens, or even that you are an alien.

 

[Hoytster]

I dug up an old article I have that explains the harmonic forces in the driveline. I forget who the author's name is, but he was supposed to be a high level driveline engineer at Ford IIRC. He indicates it is for reducing a particular driveline harmonic created by the u-joints.

"One side note: that great big mass on your pinion nose, fondly named by driveline engineers after the appendage on a male moose, is tuned to 45 Hz, the frequency at which the 2nd order forces created by u-joints as they rotate, force the pinion to bounce or pitch up and down and shake you by the seat of your pants and create an uncomfortable boom in the car. Once again run outs and imbalances will module this 2nd order driveline phenomenon to make it worse"

He goes on to say that there is no reason to remove it. Personally, I can't remember the last mustang I had that still had it on.

 

[JD1964]

I suppose the condition it’s designed to correct may not be noticeable to the driver. It could however cause excessive or unusual wear on the u joints.

Has anyone here who has not had the dog bone on for a long time ever disassembled their u joints , cleaned and thoroughly inspected the roller bearing surfaces?

 

[General karthief]

I suppose the condition it’s designed to correct may not be noticeable to the driver. It could however cause excessive or unusual wear on the u joints.

Has anyone here who has not had the dog bone on for a long time ever disassembled their u joints , cleaned and thoroughly inspected the roller bearing surfaces?

Ahh, no! I barley wash my car, I ain't inspecting no needle bearings from the u joints.
i was thinking of putting that moose/dog bone thing back on to see if I could tell anything but I can't find it,

 

[Mustang5L5]

Lol...Yeah it's all good. Unfortunately, I don't remember the why. They told me it was of no use after the factory gears were changed. They didn't say it hurt anything but that it didn't do anything then. No memories beyond that. Maybe hypnosis would help

If that were the case though we would see three different weights. One of 2.73, 3.08 and 3.27.

Switching from 2.73s to 3.27s should render the weight useless....but as far as I can tell a 3.27 car has the same weight

 

[Rt jam]

Ya, there is only 1 weight for all the optional gear ratios. So it's a load of crap and nobody here can claim they personally witnessed a drawback in removing it. Since most of us have even deeper than 3.27's and an aluminum driveshaft.

So forget it's there and move on with you life or R E M O V E it.

This car is no different from many other cars out there and none of them have an extra weight on the nose of the differential.

 

[FastDriver]

Too much thought on this one, IMO. I've removed it from my mustangs and friends' and never heard another thing about it.