Nodge! Going back to your post about balancing. I might have been wrong? maybe Shelley Shafts just balanced the two prop shafts and then built it all up with the new bearings ready to fit. However it's silky smooth now!
The propshafts are individually balanced at the GKN factory, but could go out of balance in a few instances. Being bent from an impact with a rock would do it, or throwing a balance weight would be another reason.
The VCU isn't balanced at all, and would be impossible to balance, due to the fact it's 90% full of thick fluid, the remaining 10% being just air. This fluid does settle to the bottom of the unit when it's been sat for a while. This would throw it out of balance when it starts rotating. The action of the plates slipping slightly while the unit is spun in normal use, will restore it's balance, within a few hundred yards of driving away. To eliminate excessive vibration when staring from cold, the VCU is supported on flexible mounts, which absorbs the out of balance forces until balance is restored after driving for a while.
While I respect BEng in their expertise and workmanship in their field their description of the OWUT is entirely unfair and unevidenced and I suspect driven by other motives.
Absolutely. And unfounded, considering just how much business this forum there sent his way over the years.
Bell Engineering supported and helped with the design/argueing of the OWUT many years ago and supported it at the time. They have been asked to change their website before, and did, carefully.
Agreed.
The OWUT was something that Austin at Bell originally supported. It's just a hunch, but I suspect he realised that owners doing the OWUT at home might affect sales, so he changed his mind on it completely, now claiming its not a valid test, along with driving in circles.
I believe that it's the fastest and most reliable way to test the VCU on the vehicle, without the need to a 20HP lathe and torque measuring equipment.
