Questions and Answers

Vibrating Aerostar Q. Hello Vince, Recently I've been having a shaking problem with the above van. At about 25 mph through 35 mph it will shake so bad the change rattles in the cup holders. I think it's what caused one of the bolts that holds the hydraulic supports for the van's back hatch to shear right through. (I need that fixed pretty fast too).

To try to eliminate this problem I had some front end work done (a mistake; by the brother of a co-worker who does side work) and as of this writing I don't know exactly what parts were replaced save for the shocks and I think the tie rod end assembly.

He left me with no replacement part list except for the shocks. I don't like that. I want to know what I paid for and how much the parts cost. I will find out tomorrow. I brought the car to him to fix the vibration and after his work and I drove the van home I still have the shakes. I will have the front end aligned soon and rotate the tires (I have searched through the archives). If all of that fails what else can I do?

I read in my Chilton's book for this van that this shaking can be caused by an unbalanced drive shaft. How would it become unbalanced?

Could it be the drive shaft or the U-joints? The mechanic said the u-joints looked fine but I don't feel right about his work now.

I had the vacuum modulator on the transmission replaced about 18 months ago. At that time the transmission was having trouble engaging at all. But all was well after that. I can't afford to replace anything that won't fix this problem right now. I really didn't HAVE to have the shocks replaced. This is bad timing for a major repair job for me (is the timing ever good?) because I'm very short on work right now. So I guess I need to know what's the best checklist to go down to eliminate the most obvious causes of this shaking problem.

1994 Ford Aerostar XLT
3.0 liter V-6
Automatic transmission
186,000 miles
Fuel Injection
No ABS brakes
P/S - A/C - Cruise control

Thanks So Much.
Carlo

A. I am a strong believer in the K.I.S.S. principle, Keep It Simple Stupid. Anytime a customer comes into my shop with a problem like yours the first thing I do is balance and rotate all four tires. 8 times out of 10 this fixes the problem. So that would be my advice to you. Get all four wheels balanced and rotated before looking for any drive shaft imbalance, which is probably very unlikely anyway.

And I would find another mechanic A.S.A.P., if this guy is not forthcoming with what he did, there's a pretty good chance he's screwing you.

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