Hello Gang. I have noticed a slight but annoying vibration in my '01 SS MC. When I accelerate moderately to hard and turn the steering wheel to the right I pickup a vibration from the front. The vibration goes away if I steer straight or to the left. I am thinking it's int the left front drive axle. Have any of you experienced something like this? How hard is it to change the axle?

 

It might be your wheel hub and not the axle. Jack the car up, and put your hands at 12 and 6 on the tire and see if you can rock it back and forth (you shouldn't be able to)

 

Thanks Mike. I will give it a try myself. I just had the car inspected yesterday at a good friend/mechanic's shop and ask him to double check that. He jacked it up again and inspected it like you said. He said it felt good. I will try it myself tonight, how much play should I feel?

 

You shouldn't feel any play when it rocks.

Sometimes the vibration can be felt before you can notice the hub is bad.

 

We'll checl it out.

 

Good Morning Mike. I rolled my SS into my shop yesterday to change the oil and check the hub. I could not get any play out of the hub. It felt like a new one. I did notice that the axle boot or cv joint boot closest to the trans-axle is cracked and has been leaking. I may plan to replace the hub and joints when I replace the boot. Do you think that's overkill?

 

I had a similar issue on my 03 SS. I can't recall which way exactly is vibrated but when accelerating and esp on turning I think was to the right I would get an annoying vibration. Let off the gas and vibration went away. But soon as applied any throttle the vibration came back. It got worse and worse over time.
I went to visually look at the axles and all boots were intact, couldn't feel and obvious slop in the wheels. But once jack the car up on stands I could tell maybe 1/4 inch play in the hub bearing. So I decided to change both hubs while I had the tools out and both axles too. You can buy new complete axles for like $65 each. Versus taking the axle out any ways and trying to replace the boot and grease and still have wore joints.
Maybe a little overkill but the job was done right and no more vibration
I think in parts I had like $250 between both hubs and both axles. I did it myself took like 3 hours start to finish.
I just figured if the one side was starting to wear, the other wouldn't be far behind lol

 

Thanks Aerocoupe86. I will probably go the same route.

 

Aren't axles typically a clunking / clicking sound when they are bad, and wheel bearings vibrations?

 

Good point Zippy. I don' have any clicking or popping. Probably is the hub.