Single (and Two) Piece Driveshaft = Vibes....BE GONE!!!

I'm only going this route due to my abuse of my drive shaft

 

Tom Woods is as good as it gets, his warantee is second to none - I know I had to call him when I exploded one of his.

I had one of his shafts with 1 ton u-joints on my Jeep. Left the icy parking lot at work with my foot buried and the Jeep sideways. Forgot the front lot was salted and when it hooked up I wheelied the front end almost 2 feet off the ground before the u-joints exploded. Broke all 3 joints in the double cardan shaft and almost put the shaft in my back seat. Called Tom and asked about the warantee. He asked for pictures of the damage and called me back within 5 minutes once he saw the pics. He said new one would ship out next day and asked how I destroyed it. Guaranteed he would replace no matter how I destroyed it. Gave him an honest answer and he simply said no problem, but if this happens same way again we will have to talk.

Failure was 100% me being an idiot and he still replaced my almost $1000 shaft. That's why you pay a buck or two more for a Woody.

 

Excellent information here!!!

Subbed!

 

Alignment of the u-joints.

On a two joint shaft the u-joints need equal and opposite angles to keep oscillations cancelled between the two. When you lift and don't change the axle angle to keep all joints balanced angle wise the oscillations aren't canceled which leads to vibrations. The larger the angles the larger the oscillations and harder to cancel out even if they are even between both ends. So even done right the vibrations may exist due to larger angles, but if not perfect the results are magnified by the larger joint angles.

On a 3 joint double cardan shaft you set up the single joint almost no angle and the other two at the opposite end do most of the bending. (Set up the single with some angle to get some movement in the needle bearings so everything doesn't seize over time).

 

Exactly right.

And what I find interesting is I drove my Tacoma with a Bilstein 5100 and AAL lift for 3 years with no vibrations. I went about 1" higher with Icons and a Dakar pack and all of a sudden had vibrations. I even tried the carrier bearing spacer that came with my lift when we installed it. No dice. So there are a lot of factors and I think it's realistically the total height (in the rear) that matters.

 

When I first lifted my Jeep I cheaped out and had my shaft lengthened. It helped but I couldn't drive hwy speed without vibes. If I exceeded the speed limit it ate driveshafts. I was late after a wheeling trip and was going about 120kmh / 70mhr and I MELTED the ears off the u-joint cross. I used to keep spare joints with me as well as a ujoint press just for this.

I finally spent the money on a double cardan shaft and slip yoke eliminator kit (its a Jeep thing and you might not understand literally). Never had a vibe or had to replace joints after that.

People forget that the higher the joint angle the more needle bearing movement per revolution and more heat so you need to grease them more often. Greasing doesn't always help because of the heat it can cook the solvent out of the grease leaving the waxes which can plug the unjointed and prevent further grease getting in...... now seizure is a possibility. Trust me I have seen it all. Driveline angles need to be addressed properly. They will cause problems and failures over a stock unlifted low angle setup.

 

Angles. It is always angles. If you lift and change the angles it may not be cancelling one joint against the other. There are wedges to put between the spring perches and the springs that will allow you to slightly alter the rear axle pinion to driveshaft angle. It saves you cutting and rewelding the rear axle perches to adjust minor angles.

On full size long bed quad cab trucks you can lift much more without affecting the angles as much as the driveline is much longer. On the flip side Jeeps have tiny driveshafts length wise which a small lift causes huge changes in DS angles. That's why the Jeep guys understand joint angles and vibration so much.

 

Read through a lot of this thread and I am thinking I should start with a 'one- piece' driveshaft as my first attempt at fixing the vibrations.
Took it back to the dealership and they claimed they didn't notice any vibrations they did find that both rear tires had separated belts- so those were replaced- still the same vibrations. I was going to start with replacing the old carrier bearing with a new one as well as the carrier bearing drop. But after seeing the video I think this is a better approach.

Thanks.

***Is there any reason I can't take the factory drive shaft and have a new tube installed and balanced into one piece with the factory end that bolts to the TC and the factory U joint that bolts to the rear diff- just a new tube in between and no more carrier bearing?
Like someone said earlier in this thread about getting a regular cab drive shaft retubed to the proper length- Can't I just take my existing drive shaft to a shop?

 

@uurx yo sub'd af

 

They should be plentiful in the junk yards from wrecked Tacos.

 

I suppose you could but I'm not sure it's worth the time and effort. I decided to keep mine as a spare for when I'm on long offroad excursions. Figured it would be smart to have a spare to get me home in case something terrible happens.

True story. However, I thought I'd gotten my angles EXACTLY right (I measured with level meters) but it still had issues. I was sick of dealing with it.

What's nice about the double cardan input joint is it tolerates marginally improper angles quite well. Angles that would have had the OEM shaft throwing a fit.

 

After the fact but....could you have had a bad CB?

 

Good question. The original carrier bearing was indeed wearing. However, these vibes were immediately introduced when the lift was installed so the lift was the issue. I tried a replacement unit (and various length spacers milled from solid aluminum). No dice. It allowed me to delay my final solution as a bit of a band aid but it never fixed it.

 

Ahh...I see you went with the the IDELs too. Have one of those waiting....but......may not be going in after all.

 

Mine was waiting for a long time too. If your CB is dead and that's the ONLY issue, it will fix your vibes that exist only due to the CB being worn. However, you must make sure the IDEL bearing must carry the shaft at the same height.

 

Which is why it is usually just easier to go to a double cardan and while at it upgrade to heavier components. You fix your current issues and also prevent future issues because we lift for bigger tires

Yes you can have a shop modify your old shaft. My one question is why do you have a vibration in the first place? Did you lift it? Did you go bigger tires? Are you taking it off road?

So if it is vibrating due to old bearings then sure you might get away with just modding your original shaft but if you lifted, bigger tires and going off road I wouldn't bother with the stocker. My reason is simple. Additional stresses from tires, lift or off roading may destroy the joints which were not designed for the additional stresses. I will use my Jeep as an example. I went from stock tires approx 29" to 32" and then 35's. I had 7" of lift. When I ordered my Tom Woods shaft it had 1 ton equivalent ujoints compared to the ones for a 1/4t Jeep. So I gained a double cardan shaft (one joint at one end and two at the other) which will help a ton in solving the vibe problem and added much beefier components in the joints and the ears that hold the joints.

You actually get a lot for your money when you commit to doing it right.

Here is some reading that everyone should enjoy:

http://www.customdriveshafts.com/JR7_TW_Driveshaft.pdf

 

Any regular cab owners out there who can help me out? I'm really interested if determining if the cross member is necessary from a structural standpoint, or if it's only there to hold up the two piece drive shaft.

 

Do you think they can make one for the 16' Tacoma?

 

Recently bought a 2012 4x4 Tacoma TRD off road. 45K miles. It was a certified preowned. Truck is stock- no lift- no big tires. The dealer replaced the complete rear drive shaft with new carrier bearing. The acceleration vibration is less but still there and now the truck vibrates the entire time driving (maybe stiffer bushing in the new carrier?). I can be driving in drive with the vibration present and then shift into neutral and it goes away- back into drive and its back.
Here is the tread I started when I thought they had it fixed with the new drive shaft- I was overly optimistic!;

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/2012-rear-drive-shaft-replaced-tc-to-diff.479800/#post-14606273

Glad to have this site- makes it harder for the dealer to bull shit you.