1995 XJ, stock height. When I brake hard I hear a grinding noise. It sounded like an issue with the brakes/rotors but I removed the front driveshaft and the noise went away. The driveshaft is shiny from rubbing on the body on the driver's side, see pictures below. It is also rubbing on the shifter cable mount and a brake line. Braking hard pitches the body forward which seems to cause the rubbing. I replaced my transmission and motor mounts a year ago and they seem to be fine. The motor mounts and brackets are made by Brown Dog. Any ideas? Maybe I should loosen all the mounts and use a pry bar to nudge the motor more to the passenger's side?







At extreme flex it seems to have rubbed on the exhaust pipe.

 

What brand transmission mount? Is the transmission sitting straight, not shifted to the side? The driveshaft will sit closer to the pan if you manage to get it over far enough. Never seen it happen, or if its even possible to get it that far over, but wouldnt rule it out. Is the front axle shifted to the passenger side any? I could see the driveshaft rubbing if it shifts. I havent seen that happen either, but again, wouldnt rule it out.

 

Is you track bar shot on both ends? My ‘96 did that when I broke a track bar end.
It would seem you have a ton of lateral movement in your front axle.

 

Putting the transmission mount in backwards will shift it to the side and cause a problem like that.

 

Thanks for the replies.

It is Omix-Ada, I bought it here: .

I checked and there is nothing obviously wrong with the track bar. No broken welds, loose brackets, or play in the bar.

Here is how I put it in (see picture below), I thought this was the correct orientation. Can anyone confirm?



No cracks or anything obviously wrong with the transmission mount:

 

To clarify, the front driveshaft is rubbing on the driver's side floor pan, so it seems like it needs to move farther towards the passenger side. I checked and the wheels are exactly centered with the body, so the axle seems to be in the right place. It is hard to tell if the transmission is centered or not.

 

Looks backwards to me. I think the holes in the crossmember are also offset by about an 1".

 

Nah it's right, it matches this picture: http://www.fourwheeler.com/how-to/tr...ount/#photo-09. The 4 bolts on the mount are closer to the driver's side than the passenger's side.

 

Maybe this is a track bar issue. I realized the grinding started right after I greased all the suspension points (including the track bar) for the first time after buying the vehicle. Maybe the bushings have too much play in them and the grease made it worse. The grinding also started right after I changed the brakes so I assumed it was a brake issue, until I removed the driveshaft today and the grinding went away.

Tonight I loosened the motor mounts and nudged the motor as far to the passenger side as I could, but it hardly moved (maybe half an inch) and I'm doubtful it will make much of a difference. I'll take it for a test drive and if that doesn't fix the issue I'll look into replacing the track bar bushings, unless anyone has another idea.

 

Drive shaft is still rubbing after trying to nudge the motor to one side and putting everything back together. I checked the track bar for lateral movement while someone sawed the steering wheel back and forth and I didn't see any. I used a sharpie to draw a line on the drive shaft and other parts to see where it is rubbing the most. It is only rubbing in the middle of the drive shaft on the floor pan (and not rubbing on the shifter cable mount or exhaust during normal braking, that must only be during extreme flex).



I'm temped to use a hammer to pound out the sheet metal a little. I could also get an adjustable track bar and shift the axle out some, but that would throw the axle off center. When I bought the vehicle the motor mount bracket on the passenger side was hanging on by one bolt and the other bolts were sheared off in the block, which is why I needed the Brown Dog brackets that have more bolt holes. Maybe something got bent and it messed up the alignment of the motor/transmission a little.

 

I replaced the track bar with a Moog DS1235 and no more driveshaft rubbing when braking hard. The new track bar is a little longer than the old one, which shifted the axle towards the passenger side by a small amount. Now the axle is off center by 1/2 inch but I guess that is better than the driveshaft rubbing! And no hammer therapy to the sheet metal needed either. Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

 

I spoke too soon, the driveshaft started rubbing again even with the new track bar. I measured the axle position and it hasn't moved at all. Something seems to have lateral play in it, any ideas before I take a hammer to pound out the sheet metal a bit?

 

Is the coil spring or spring perch broken? What's the distance from center wheel to bottom of fender opening?