2003 Ford Escape Unaligned driveshaft

Tiny
BUBBY6565
  • MEMBER
  • 2003 FORD ESCAPE
  • 3.0L
  • 6 CYL
  • 4WD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 154,000 MILES
Hello, my car has been acting up (violently vibrating at various speeds) I had no clue what was wrong so I turned to this site before and the gentleman I was speaking to said it could be my torque converter, I was dumbfounded when I found that out. Ford technician qouted a very high price and recommend changing the whole tranny. And he made this over the phone. He wouldn't drive it because I wasn't going to pay him a bunch of money again for him to drive the vehicle and give me no useful information. So at this point im frustrated, confused, scared to drive this vehicle because the shaking is awful. (The center console shakes the worst) and gets worse when running 4WD and that got me to thinking, my driveshaft is there. I crawled under the car and when Ford dropped my driveshaft (not literally) but when they took it out they didn't mark it. And it was put in un-greased and unaligned. So I was wondering how might I do this myself? Is it possible? If so can I get a step by step? Thanks
Saturday, December 12th, 2015 AT 7:21 AM

9 Replies

Tiny
HMAC300
  • MECHANIC
  • 48,601 POSTS
Check to see if all bolts are tight and ujoints are mounted correctly into pinion at rear. If you have a center support bearing check that. Then check mounts for trans and tcase if one on tcase. There shouldn't be an alignment problem if they replaced it they should fix it unless it's been a long time. It sounds more like a motor or trans mount problem more than anything. I fit's a torque converter I kind of doubt as if wasn't doing it before it shouldn't now unless a weight fell off an dthat would not violently shake anyhow.
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Saturday, December 12th, 2015 AT 11:09 AM
Tiny
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I have some more information for you. I had my car in my garage and lifted the rear end and putting it on jack stands and removed both rear wheels, I chalked the front wheels and put the car into neutral and returned to the now visible wheel hubs, I looked over control arms, struts, tie rod, nothing was damaged. Next thing I did was firmly grab the rear passenger wheel hub and shook it, nothing really serious, it would rotate about a quarter inch in either direction. (Not side to side shaking, its moves as if the car was in drive or reverse) so I moved to my driverside rear wheel hub and attempted to do the same motion and I cannot get the rotor to rotate by hand. Its very rusted, but when driving the car it forces it to rotate. But there is this jerking sound from the rear end. Could this be my problem? Its 4WD, and when engaging 4x4 the jerk becomes twice as bad.
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Saturday, December 12th, 2015 AT 2:34 PM
Tiny
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That ay be a brake problem likenot being able to turn it or a wheel bearing problem. If you put in 4wd there may be problem in front as well. Check to see if parking brake is locked on as that can do it. Problems like yours should be physically looked at by a pro. As vibrations are hard for us to diagnose on here. Was the front driveshaft worked on or just rear? Have you checked all the stuff I said in first reply. Parking brake applied can cause the problem you are having.
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Saturday, December 12th, 2015 AT 3:56 PM
Tiny
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My parking brake doesn't work. The line (i guess its a line) snapped when parked on a hill with my trailer and 2 quads in it. You can pull the lever but theres no tension. It can be freely moved when the vehicle is in motion. And my car was just recently in for major repairs. Lower control arm separated from the subframe causing the wheel to jerk hard sideways ripping the c/v joint in half. Front end fell down and subframe slid across the blacktop for a good 100 feet, It destroyed my rack and pinion. Both left and right lower control arms need to be replaced, front subframe was replaced, c/v was replaced, and rack and pinion was replaced. It happened due to a safety recall so Ford was responsible for it. And they had to pay for it. Ive taken it back to them 3 times since I've had my car back (haven't had it for 30 days) they have a technician drive it and of course he returns and says theres nothing wrong with the car and told me Ford would do absolutely nothing for me and to leave the dealership. So after that I've been trying to figure this out myself. And as for the driveshaft, the bolts seem to be tight, it doesn't have any play in it and it appears to still have the weights on it, it's never been replaced, however its been removed to fix other issues but never had any work done to it. And i'm no expert, I don't have a clue how most of this vehicle operates. The best way to explain the vibration would be to take a circle object, take a saw and cut a portion off so that the circle can no longer roll properly. Its got that type of thud to it.
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Saturday, December 12th, 2015 AT 5:39 PM
Tiny
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Have a local garage look at this, I can be of no further help as vibrations can be anything. If you broke your parking brake the cable may be rusted on keeping that wheel parking brake on.
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Sunday, December 13th, 2015 AT 7:55 AM
Tiny
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Problem solved, created another problem. Jacked up my rear of the car, took wheels off and turns out both drums are bad, the brake shoes, the adjuster, went and bought everything put my car back together, when to drive and had no brakes. So I pumped the brakes to attempt to rebuild pressure but to no avail. Got out and seen brake fluid squirting from the cylinders. Went to jack up car again, got left wheel off, put on jack stand and moved to the other side and when lifting the other side my damn car slipped off the jack stand, pinned the jack stand and floor jack. What do I do?
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Sunday, December 13th, 2015 AT 3:02 PM
Tiny
HMAC300
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Try to put a hydraulic jack under side that jack stand is under like one of those you can get at sears or auto parts that are fairly cheap. Jack the car up an dput another jack stand under it. See if one under car is bent if not jack up other side and put under the other side then erplace your wheel cylinders and adjust your brakes like they should have been done before you hit the brake pedal. After that is all done clean brake shoes off with brake cleaner and hope like hell you haven't destroyed them by cylinders leaking. Clean drum as well. Then go rent a power bleeder and bleed brakes in this order. Rr-lr-rf-lf. Do not attempt anything but a power bleeder to bleed brakes. If you don not get a brake pedal take it to a local pro so he can bleed it with a scanner and open abs valves. Adjust brakes by renting this gauge at auto parts. Do this so you don't kill yourself or someone else when you drive it. There is a wheel that will turn to adjust then self aduster will take over after it's all together. J and make sure you don't put wheel on wrong side as they are different. Also the brakes may grab a bit after reinstalling everything. If you still end up with no brakes then haul it to a local garage.
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Sunday, December 13th, 2015 AT 3:42 PM
Tiny
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I shouldn't have messed with it. I have no experience in drum brakes. I didn't think it would be such a hassle. Didn't know about all the little springs and such. My cars rear wheels were hesitating, but it would drive. Now my car is inoperable, it has no brakes, its in my garage. I live on a hill so if I were to even attempt to move the car out of my garage I'd smash into my neighbors fence. I can't figure this out. I was able to get my car back on all fours by going to the local part store and purchased a cheap hydraulic jack. I honestly have no clue what i'm doing. I don't know if I should continue or not. Brakes are a important thing on a car and I have no brake. Because the cylinders popped. Is there anyway to push the cylinders back in and secure something like a c clamp to hold the cylinders in place so I can have this car removed from the garage, because the way it's setup it would be physically impossible to get a tow truck in there to hook it up.
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Sunday, December 13th, 2015 AT 6:40 PM
Tiny
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Call a tow truck and haul it to a garage. You are your own worst enemy. They can haul it out even on a hill. Most use flatbeds now
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Monday, December 14th, 2015 AT 6:33 AM

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