Someone posted this pic on another forum.

What is this chunk bolted to the control arm bracket on the differential.

After speaking to a friend of mine who works at a Ford dealership I have determined it isn't a tiedown used in transporting the vehicle to the dealers.

I still believe it may be something used to stack differentials for transport or to hold the differential in place on the assembly line.

Someone elses theory is that it is used to quell vibrations in the rear end.

Does anyone have a definitive answer?

 

I only have an opinion, based on my frame of reference I would say it should have not left the assembly line. I bet they are looking for that one ...... lost on night shift... likely a Monday car...What day was your build date?

There shouldn't be any vibrations to dampen there since these things are precision machines...not the days of cowboys and Indians and Wagons....

I suppose that's a lot of unsprung weight too. Heh, maybe it will help put a little more traction to the ground on that wheel under hard acceleration! It must be a prototype mod for that.

Really though, It is likely an assembly line piece. I would get your picture over to Blue Oval and let them tell you.

(edited to reflect my understanding that it is not your car...so ignore some of what I said, I would post it at Blue Oval still)

 

I think a lot of these cars have those... mine included.

 

I already posted it at blue oval. I'm just trying to disprove the vibration damper theory which I think is pretty far fetched.

 

I checked the factory shop manuals and there's no mention of these on any of the suspension or diff drawings.

 

it is a vibration dampner. they started putting them on in early 05 now all have them. there is a TSB on it. i called a buddy at ford who called the ford tech rep. it was another step they took to rid the car of noises and vibrations from some unknown cause. that also why we have a 40lb two piece driveshaft and the panhard bar was filled with sand. why didn't they just find the source of the problem? seems more costly to engineer around it.

 

Interesting, my 06 doesnt have one

 

Man... you didn't wheels or tires either!!!

 

Hi Don my car did not come with but the shop put them on later to help with the rear end. Just a damper and did not work and had 3 new rear ends put in to. This week they will just try new gears.

 

YOU GOT IT!!!!!!! but they did not work on my stang.

 

YIKES! I have them also. On both sides. Sounds like a Q for KC...

 

Gosh, What in the heck is vibrating that that, placed there, would change? Maybe we are still in the day of Cowboys and Indians after all...

Both of mine at least have not had them installed. I suppose if I went in to complain of a vibration in the rear axle trunk area of my stage coach they would throw me on a pair.

Do you suppose then, with these, they don't have to balance the tires?
If they add them at the dealer..geez at least they ought to have them painted.

What a crazy thing. They weigh 40lbs a piece?
Do you know the TSB for it?

 

my car doesn't have those big weights

 

Lol, I got the economy package.


Yeah, wonder what KC could find out about them. A little less weight is a good thing! Thats a couple of cheesburgers right there!

 

The shop put them on my stang to help with the rear end noise, i have an auto. They will put new gears in this week and i will have them taken off? that is about 10 lbs off the car.

 

Do you think they fixed the vibration issue with the 06? I dont have them, nor a vibration issue.

 

I put a request on KC's thread to chime in on this...

 

I have a 05 GT Vert built in March 2005 and my car has them also. I can also confirm that our panhard bars are loaded with steel shot I thought. I was in the plant last week that makes all of the panhard bars for the V6 and GT. It is Tenneco Automotive in Napolean, Ohio, I saw the special machine that makes them. Starts with a round piece of tubing. It grabs the tube and holds it vertical and stuffs a rubber ball into the tube about 3 inches. It than rotates the tube 180 degrees and fills it with steel shot and stuffs another rubber ball into the tube to hold the shot. It than proceeds to weld the ends onto the panhard bar. The engineer I was with said Ford filled the panhard with shot because of some kind of harmonic problem in the rearend. Very interesting. :scratch: :scratch: This plant also makes all of the suspension bushings the the entire Mustang. Wonder want the problem was and do aftermarket panhard bars have shot in them??
Scott

Ya, I wondered why when You tap on the Panhard bar it sounds so Weird!

 

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This is an Early TSB Used on Few Cars. It is my belief that the New Tsb on the rear axle gears is the True Fix.

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Man I love my new Cable Internet at the House! I can pull up fords site and Rip this info out! Used to be able to drive to detroit in the time it took to download stuff!

 

Very interesting! My car was built on the 23rd of Nov 2004 and I have those blocks.

What's really interesting is that I had a fairly extensive groan at a specific speed/rpm range (70-73mph @ 2300 rpms in any gear). Since I found it easy to avoid that range, I did nothing about it, as I considered it to be a minor issue that I could live with, and wasn't too thrilled at the prospect of numerous trips to the dealer as it's one of those problems that can be very hard to diagnose and pin down.

What ended up happening is that sometime after about 10,000 miles, it went away all by itself

So in the end, doing nothing worked in my favor!

I'll get those off of there and see what happens. Interesting indeed