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

They're doing it in Australia too! That's where OME comes from lol...

 

Yep, I'm done with mods for a while. Gonna get a DIY weld together front plate bumper kit this summer, but as of now, I pretty much have it where I want it.

 

I thought I was sold on the solid drive shaft but now I think I'm gonna replace my carrier bearing and U joints. I'm really unsure what the correct fix is.

 

Op,

Should your measurements work for any 2005-2015 double cab short bed?

I have a 2011. Lifted approximately 2.5 inches(OME).

Anyone know if there are variations through the 2nd gen model years?

Thanks!!!

 

Seems like almost every modification ends up not working out or causing other problems in the end,so I am also done with it for awhile.

 

I believe the measurements are the same as long as you are...

• 2005-20015
• Double Cab
• Short Bed
• 4x4

But I strongly suggest you get under there and measure the exact length of the shaft. Takes about 30 seconds total....really. The flanges should be identical as long as the flange part number is a Spicer 5001905. It should be cast into the metal so it's easy to spot. Here's an example.

 

^^x2. Took no time to measure. But if you are thinking about this, call Tom Wood's, the guys there are very nice and very helpful. I gonna say it's the same, but like ItylionStylion said, I would advise taking your own measurements. I ran to harbor freight and got a digital caliper. I had a 20% off coupon and paid like $7 for it. It's small enough to get the measurements without having to remove anything. It reads mm or inches. If I'm not mistaken you give Tom the mm measurements. But double check. I gave the exact numbers to Tom Wood's that ItylionStylion pulled. He is an '09 and I'm a '13 and they were identical, along with the total drive shaft length. Fit like a glove. Word to the wise, don't have your parking break set (habit for me) and had trouble lining everything up at first, started to panic thinking I gave the wrong measurements and then it hit me, "dumbass, you have the parking break set". It wasn't allowing that ever so slight rotation of the rear diff flange to let everything line up. Hollard at the wife to release the break and bam, lined right up. That was the only issue, everything else went great.

 

Custom one piece rear driveshaft for 05 4x4 Tacoma double cab long bed. No vibrations!!!
No shitty center support bearing. Tucks higher than before.

 

After a trip to Arizona this past weekend, on the way back I started to get some very noticeable driveshaft vibration at 70+ mph. Ended up driving home at about 65mph to avoid subjecting the transfer case and diff to any possible damage or premature wear.

Just got off the phone with Troy over at Tom Woods and they're setting me up with a UPS shipping label so they can get it back and see what's going on. All at no charge which is great. They seemed genuinely concerned and want to get it on the machine and see what happened. Great customer service thus far. Shit happens and not everything can be perfect every time so nothing bad to say.

It's been smooth up to about 80 mph before this happened and not sure what happened. Hopefully it's something simple and once it's back all will be resolved and no more issues in the future.

If the problem returns, I'm not sure what route I'm going to take as driveline problems have been a plaque.

• Had stock driveshaft rebuild and balanced. Bad vibes.
• Had custom 2 piece driveshaft made with a double cardon joint. Sheered the stub at the flange on a offroad trip.
• That driveshaft was warrantied by the builder but I lost all trust in it due to using the same parts. Builder and other shops say bigger components not available without significant modifications.
• Went 1 piece to eliminate the weak 2 piece assembly. By far the smoothest and most noticeable difference. But it's now out of balance/something worn.

Ugh.

 

Sorry to hear you're having issues again.

I'm very VERY interested to hear more about your custom 2 piece shaft with the double cardan joint. Can you give us more info on that? Prior to its failure, was it a good solution? Where was the double cardan joint added? How did your failure occur and do you have a picture of the failure? I'm looking at adding one right behind the carrier bearing. If the pinion angle is what's causing the start-off vibrations, a double cardan SHOULD tolerate the angle changes much more gracefully. Having the carrier bearing will support the middle and allow the shaft to work at higher speeds. At least that's my hypothesis. Still looking for advice.

 

x2

 

It was smooth and was a great solution, but it did have a "clunk" or delay (hard to describe) when taking off. Basically the extra weight of the double cardon joint on the support bearing caused extra movement.



Failure occurred at the midship stub. To convert it over, they have to use a smaller diameter and therefore it's substantially weaker.



Snapped off midship stub inside the stock factory yoke for size comparison.



Broke on the side of a moderate difficulty trail. Nothing that should warrant a failure.






I have the replacement if anyone is interested in buying it haha.

 

Sub'd

 

If you are getting vibes at higher rpm's it means you did not use a large enough diameter tubing, a 1 piece should be 4" tubing. There is a simple equation length / tubing size / rpm's and your driveline shop probably has a cool little chart to take the guess work out of it. At full bump you will have to completely cut through the OE carrier bearing cross member at which point you should just drill out the rivets and remove it. I've had mine for 3 years and could have possibly maybe driven 100 mph ish with zero vibrations ever.

 

Wow, very interesting @1MK and I appreciate you posting such detailed info. Seems like that should still be a VERY strong piece there and I'm almost wondering if that was a flaw in the initial build of that stub.

Some more questions...what is your gearing ratio for the diffs and is your transmission an auto?

 

Shaft was a 4" shaft so that's a moot point. Are you on stock gearing or do you have after market ratios? If you're on stock gearing (like I WAS) then it's no surprise you're fine. As I stated in my earlier post, my situation is such that the 4.56 gears require the shaft to spin significantly faster than stock to achieve the same speeds.

 

When upgrading, you'd think the components should be at least equal size if not bigger then stock. That's why you upgrade most of the time, to make it stronger/better. Going smaller/weaker then stock doesn't make sense. If I'd have known that was how it was going to be built I would have passed on going that route.

Gear ratio is whatever it came with stock (3.73?). Automatic transmission.

 

Agreed on wanting to make things stronger. However, thicker doesn't always mean stronger in some cases where there are more design elements and material differences.

And since you are on stock gearing I'm guessing the single piece shaft is your silver bullet. If you ever regear, plan on that going down the shitter. Hope they figure out what happened to yours. Odd that only now it's starting to give you trouble.

 

This is one of the best threads on TW, imo.

 

Would the double cardan make much of a difference.
@ItalynStylion did you get a DC on yours?

edit: just looked at the OP. You have it on the TC side, correct?