I had been having problems with torque bind for the past 6 months. The rear end had been changed and a used wrecking yard transmission was installed in a 96 OBW 2.5 auto.with 300K miles on it. My mechanic replaced the solenoid in the AWD unit and then replaced the clutch assembly. He changed the fluid and even installed a new housing in an effort to fix the torque bind but to no avail. Then as a last resort he replaced the driveshaft (which had been replaced once already by my dealer with a used one) and that fixed the torque bind issue. The car now runs smooth as silk, just like new and transfers power to the awd with no chattering or binding.

Can't believe the driveshaft was the culprit all the time. I posted my problem on several boards and everyone had different solutions including replacing the trans again, but no one mentioned the driveshaft. Must be uncommon.

Im not getting at you im just asking, how can a driveshaft go wrong? Isnt it just like one big long pole with some bolts at each end? :-\

You must not have had what we commonly call as toquebind. Torquebind is 99.9% caused by tranny internals.

If your driveshaft had a slight warp to it.. that would cause torque bind. Wouldn't it?

If your driveshaft had a slight warp to it.. that would cause torque bind. Wouldn't it?

 

Ya that makes sence, but that would be in a straight line it would bind as well.

If your driveshaft had a slight warp to it..

no way i can see that being the case. i've seen a number of bad driveshafts in various states of failure and none have ever caused torque bind symptoms. with one end being bolted to the rear diff and the other slid into a splined shaft, it's still a direct mechanical link from the rear output shaft of trans to rear diff. so one turn equals one turn. warpage bad enough to cause issue would result in stripped splines, horrible vibration and/or fluid leakage our of the rear trans seal.

 

i'd be interested to hear what the exact symptoms were before and after transmission swapping.

Drive shafts dont warp, they can loose thier balance weight. If you have ever tried to "warp" a steel tube, it wont warp, but will fold and bend. Even if it was "warped" the amount of vibration coming off the shaft would make the vehical undriveable.

You do have universal joints and a carrier bearing. The Universals give vibration at high speed, and maybe a clunk if really shot. The carrier bearing can clunk and give issues at low speeds, but all are very obvious upon inspection.

i agree i think it goes back to the tranny swap, but either way great to hear you got it fixed. AT 300,000 miles i would not be shocked if you also had a bad driveshaft along with TB

 

nipper

It is possible to have interesting problems with driveshafts, but they often come to light on inspection. You can have siezed joints or splines, but the real bear is if someone installs a driveshaft out of phase. This is a dumb trick but it has been done many times and is why you should mark a shaft on dissasembly if there are no arrows. If the U Joints are on the wrong angle to each other it can cause binding, vibration, and very early joint failure. I think I have heard of one bad enough to snap the joint on start up after the repair.

I would have thought that would be fairly easy to see when one changed shafts though.

I hear what you are saying about "torque bind" but is it not when the AWD clutch assembly chatters which can be caused by many things such as,

Bad solenoid

worn clutch plates

debris in the fluid causing solenoid to malfunction

mis matched tire sizes

All of these affect the way the AWD clutches work and when the clutches slip at the wrong time or slip and then grab you get a chattering in the rear drivetrain that is commonly referred to as "torque bind". When the mechanic pulled out my driveshaft he showed me the u-joint that had a tight spot in it when you rotated in along one of the axis. This tight spot translated into a "bind" in the drivetrain whenever the driveshaft changed angles, such as a tight turn or a jack rabbit start or backing up a steep hill. This is when my OBW would chatter the most. Isn't this what "torque bind" is? Whatever you want to call it, torque bind is what two Subaru dealers diagnosed it as. I'm just happy that whatever it was it's gone now.

I hear what you are saying about "torque bind" but is it not when the AWD clutch assembly chatters which can be caused by many things such as,

Bad solenoid

worn clutch plates

debris in the fluid causing solenoid to malfunction

mis matched tire sizes

All of these affect the way the AWD clutches work and when the clutches slip at the wrong time or slip and then grab you get a chattering in the rear drivetrain that is commonly referred to as "torque bind". When the mechanic pulled out my driveshaft he showed me the u-joint that had a tight spot in it when you rotated in along one of the axis. This tight spot translated into a "bind" in the drivetrain whenever the driveshaft changed angles, such as a tight turn or a jack rabbit start or backing up a steep hill. This is when my OBW would chatter the most. Isn't this what "torque bind" is? Whatever you want to call it, torque bind is what two Subaru dealers diagnosed it as. I'm just happy that whatever it was it's gone now.

 

There is also an internal spool valve, which everyone seems to forget, along with internal seal failure.

 

Thats just a seized universal joint.

 

nipper