Rattle after lift plus vibrations.

Here is a video posted by another Taco owner on youtube. I am having the same exact problem/noise after I just installed a 3" Supreme Suspension lift kit. I thought at first, it was my rear diff jammed up from the new angle, so I just had a new 3rd member from ECGS thrown in, but the guy working on it is telling me there is still vibration, and it has to do with the angle of the transfer case. Any feed back would help. Some say to ditch the diff drop, some say to get the front clam shell bushing kit from ECGS, and some of you will bitch and moan about a newbie starting a new thread, when there are tons of threads about this stuff. I am not interested in debates, wisecracks, etc. I would just like to know who else out there in Taco Land has had these issues, what seemed to work best, if the new clam kit helps, etc. The kit is a Supreme 3+ front, 3+ rear w/shims, Bilstein 5100's, have not yet done alignment, waiting on tires to show up, so I can get mount and alignment done at same time. heres the vid http://youtu.be/MzTymrYaCqU

 

Does this only happen at certain speeds? I have a vibe but only happens between 25 and 35 mph... only when im only easy on the gas. If I call for more power, my vibe will go away. For me, its the drive shaft angle being wrong due to the 6" DB lift in my truck. Only two ways to fix that. A- get a solid drive shaft instead of the split our trucks come with 2- re tune the drive shaft angles. Theres a writeup already on here about how to do that. Gets rid of the driveline vibe. I dont see how it could have anything to do with your front clam. Only issues tacos get with that clam is the bearing getting chewed. Mine did that and it sounded like a wheel bearing howling. Did the tc8 upgrade, been sweet ever since. Alignment wouldn't cause that issue either, just cause you to tare the hell out of your pretty tires l

 

yup, same type of noise/vibration. when i hit the gas it goes away. when i let off the gas it starts to rattle. im hoping its not inside the transfer case, and i am also thinking the same thing, replace the driveshaft. i found a guy on ebay out in salt lake city who builds stronger drive shafts for the tacos. im praying this will solve the problem. just dumped 1500 on new diff from ECGS. and dumped another 1000 on new tires, so i will have a heart attack if i replace the driveshaft and it doesnt solve this issue. my buddy checked it out, he said i need to lower the transfer case. it was to my understanding, all i needed was the front diff drop kit and it would be fine.

 

FYI...I'm shopping for a 6" kit and spoke with 4Wheel Parts (Lynnwood) today. They brought up the vibration issue and told me the solution would be a new driveshaft with a cost of $243.99; I'd give them a call. Please let us know how you resolve it. Good luck.

 

If the truck vibrates after a lift when it didnt vibrate before the lift , I would put all my money on universal joint angles .
Before you spend more cash , slide under the truck and take some measurements of your drive line angle to find out how far out the driveline is . Listening to what other guys did to fix their vibes without actually measuring your angles may be wasting your hard earned cash because their driveline angle could be much different from your drive line angle .
There is a good post here for reference
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-tacomas/153050-just-fixed-driveline-vibration-free.html

 

Just pulled the plug on a BDS lift kit. All BDS kits (3", 4", and 6") come with a carrier bearing drop designed to adjust your u-joint angles and eliminate vibration. See if you can get your hands on one of those brackets. Minor adjustments might be needed at that point but should be straight forward. Below, I copied the specific paragraph referring to the bearing drop on the 3" kit. hope this helps:

3” Rear Block Kit: Support the drive shaft. Remove the carrier bearing hardware and install carrier bearing drop with new 10mm x 50mm fully threaded bolts (Bolt pack #668). Crew cab long bed models will require (2) ½” USS washers per bolt to space the carrier bearing down. Crew cab short bed models will require (4) ½” USS washers per bolt. Adjustments may need to be made to the drop to get the ideal height. These are starting references and may need to be adjusted to eliminate any driveline vibrations (hardware is in # 668) (Fig. 38)

 

Vibes are a hit or miss and unfortunately so are the cures. I've used shims, spacers, angled the driveshaft differently and nothing. The only thing that got rid of 99% of the vibes was a 1 piece drive shaft, next on the list was a trac bar. Good luck.

 

I was feeling better till I read your post...I'll keep my fingers crossed then until my lift is installed.

 

Sorry bud lol I don't want you to get your hopes up just to get them crashed. You never know you might find the cure right off the bat.

 

No worries, I hope I don't run into the issue. I'll update once the lift is in Thanks : )

 

Lifted my 2012 TDR 4X4 DBCB with 1.5 inch AAL and inch incoil spacer that lifted front 1.5 inches. Added 2 washers between fram and carrier bearing still have slight vibes at 20mph. did not think a 1.5 inch lift needed much drop on carrier bearing. any ideas????

 

So I have had this noise since I bought my truck a year ago. It only happens to me when I am going over 55 and mostly on the interstate. It happens when I let off and coast and as soon as I hit the gas again it goes away. It did it before my AAL kit and it still does it now. I have a regular cab with a one piecce drive shaft/slip yoke. From what I can tell it is in the transfer case. I laid under my truck with it not running, and if you grab your drive shaft and turn it back and fourth, you will notice there is a lot of slop. From the transfer case, and between the drive shaft and slip yoke. It makes a lot of noise just when you turn it back and fourth by hand. My thought is it could be one of two things. Either that slop is what you are hearing when you unload the drivetrain by letting off the gas, which allows everything to, for lack of a better term, clang around. Or there is a bad bearing in the transfer case. I honestly have never had a transfer case apart, not sure if there are gears in there that are meshed and freewheeling while it is not engaged that could be making that noise. Thanks OP for posting that video, and I really look forward to seeing what someone finds out about this.

 

@Bamo i have same issue with my regular cab..

 

Zero issues with the BDS kit. Have had it for over a year now.

 

I have the same issue, did you ever figure yours out?

 

I'm pretty sure it's the u-joints. I hit the 4 zerks on the drive shaft with spme grease and the noise goes away and comes back a few days later. A bunch of us on the single cab thread have experienced that, but have leaned to live with it. It's never caused any problems for me.

 

There is an extended TSB on the u-joints/driveshaft for this issue. If your truck is unmodified (stock suspension), and the dealer can re-create the issue, you might be in luck.

 

From the info I've read, you're right. Apparently the u-joints we're not greased during install @ the factory (Toyota). If you don't have zerts, you should be good to go.

 

Thanks! I'll have to check that out. It gets noticeably worse when I am in 4x4 which is all the time during the winter up here.

 

Unfortunately I am lifted, it started after my lift with just a little vibe at 55 to 60 mph. Now that I'm constantly in 4x4 it his horrendous after about 35.