93 ZJ Terrible Shake and Smoke

Drove the Jeep about 7 miles yesterday and about halfway Jeep started shaking really bad. I thought it was my tires going flat so I stopped and check it out. When I stopped and sit a minute, there was smoke coming from underneath the Jeep but I couldn't tell where it's coming from. I didn't have anyone to come and pick me up so I started it up again and finished my drive. I couldn't do more than 30 miles an hour without it shaking crazily. The steering wheel was not shaking and I would assume it's not the brakes causing the car to shake. I'm thinking more of my rear end because of the leak. I'm going to add some gear fluid this morning and see what that does

 

Just checked and turns out my rear axle gear fluid was empty !

 

Empty to the point where it wags it's tail? Not cool

 

Put my finger mid way in and nothing. I walked to the auto parts store and bought gear fluid and added it but I haven't tried to drive it yet

 

Get a new diff cover gasket and fill till it drips out. Hope for the best

 

https://youtu.be/vRLTech0eUw

This is a video I found of somebody's rear differential running with no fluid and my rear end sounds nothing like this. It just vibrates after 30 miles per hour and the vibrations get louder as I'm speeding up. You would think that because I drove it for 14 miles while it's vibrating like this and when I pulled over to check it out it started smoking, you would think I wouldn't even be able to drive it 2 miles, yet alone finished dropping off my girl at work and driving 7 miles back home. Doing all that my Jeep should sound just like the one in the video here and I shouldn't be able to drive it without hearing what's going on in this video.

 

I seen another video of a guy saying how he had the same symptoms I did with vibrating and a burning smell and smoking. Only his issue was his back brakes being stuck or locking up. That's a high probability for me too because I've had brake issues and I've only replaced the front brakes. The rear brakes I haven't touched and the smell of the fluid did not smell like gear fluid and I'm pretty familiar with how that smells because I spilled a whole bottle of it in my Jeep and can't get rid of smell. Brake fluid doesn't really have a smell to it and I can't smell the fluid that's all over the rear end of my car. I wouldn't doubt the smoking and burnt smell came from my rear brakes. Note that my emergency brake is faulty and does not work when I pull it up and I can't say for sure if it's stuck in the on position and I've been driving it like that. The smell I smelt with the smoke smelt like rubber

 

So is what I'm going to do, is raise my back tires off the ground and start it and run it and see what exactly is vibrating

 

Be careful.

 

I don't have a front drive shaft installed so my front tire shouldn't move when I press the gas pedal. But I'm not for sure totally, if my front tires are disabled and my back tires are off the ground there should be no movement when I press the gas pedal right?

 

Shouldn't be but if the vibration is significant enough it could come off of or knock the jack stands over.

 

Rodger that and I appreciate your concern

 

Could use some large chocks up front to counter any ghost momentum

 

Burnt brake pads will have a distinct smell unlike gear oil which is more odorous .

 

Yeah I'm very familiar with gear oil smell and I just didn't smell gear oil especially burnt gear oil. What I smelled was a hint of rubber and it wasn't very strong I just seen smoke

 

I guess the only way to find out is to remove the cover and take pics to send you guys and see what y'all think

 

https://youtu.be/5rKkuAe25B4

Here's me driving it this morning on the highway. The vibration didn't start this time until I hit about 35 40 miles an hour

 

Maybe if drive is another 14 miles it will sound like that pull the cover off and inspect.

 

Stop driving until you find out what’s going on!!!

 

Your right, I'm not driving it anymore until I check it out by pulling the cover. I can't do it until Monday because I don't have a garage and the sleet and snow storm is here.