FIXED: Horrible shaking between 35 and 65 mph. Tire worn out. Shocks?

I'll leave the original post here for others. The fix ended up being new u-joints and center support bearing. More specifically, the u-joint closest to the tranny was bad.
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So, my wife comes home from a 1000 mile trip pulling a trailer with a golf cart on it and tells me the truck ('06 V6 with towing package and 135K miles) is struggling. I told her it was normal when pulling a trailer. I jump into the truck a week later and find that what was "struggling" to her was in reality a horrible shaking that felt like the tires were out of balance. There was also some rattling while accelerating. I did not feel this 4 weeks earlier when I drove the truck 1000 miles in two days.

I felt around the tires and found one that had bad cupping. I swapped it out with the spare and it felt like the vast majority of the shaking went away. The tires had 70K miles on them so they needed replaced before I did any further troubleshooting. Today we bought 4 new tires and the vibration (especially when accelerating) has not gone away. I'm thinking that it could be the shocks (original with 135K miles) since the front right tire was worn but I am not sure. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. If I order shocks I really need to order them in the next few days.

FWIW, the truck had some shimmy that I felt when hard braking at high speeds that I had "fixed" a week earlier by changing out the pads/rotors. Also, I just changed out the "transfer case seal" (not sure what to call this but it is the rear transmission seal that the drive shaft goes through) due to a leak. I don't know if it is related but I thought I would throw it in here since the two part drive shaft has a bearing on it.

 

Did you index the driveshaft to get it back in exactly same position it was before you replaced the trans seal? If that part is all good, then yes it sounds like a bad shock and/or imbalanced wheel. I suggest having a friend drive next to you and watch if one of your wheels is bouncing on the road, this would indicate a bad shock for sure. Otherwise you can check your shocks before replacing them, pull it out and you should feel strong resistance when trying to compress the piston by hand. The "bounce method" is inconclusive for identifying bad shocks. Good luck, and thanks for trying to keep your vehicle safe for public roads

 

If the shaking is upon accelleration check the U joints.
Had the same issue recently and I had a weight fall off my rear wheel which made it seem like it was an out of balance wheel but it was my Ujoint

 

No, I have no idea if I put the driveshaft back in the exact position.

Thanks for the quick reply!

 

Make sure the driveshaft was reinstalled "phased" correctly. I did it wrong once, slightly tweaked at a u-joint and had a bad vibration.

 

I have no idea how to do that. I remember having problems getting the shaft back in (very frustrating with it flopping around at the ujoint like that) and I think I jacked up the rear and moved the tires a bit to make the spline line up.

 

X2

 

Post a few pics of the tire and suspension

 

If you did not physically separate the drive shaft into pieces it has not lost it "phasing" they are balanced as an assembly, separately from the truck ,not matched to it. Do you have a shimmy side to side in the steering wheel or a hopping type of bouncing from an individual tire or from the front or rear end as a unit? That would point to a suspension problem. It may be a bad u-joint or joints. Do you see vibration in the inside rear view mirror or feel it in the floor? Is there any strange squeaking while moving slowly or a clanging clunk when going from forward to reverse? That would point to a u-joint. What tires did you buy? Big off road monsters or stock size street type? Many guys have been recently posting horrendous problems from bad new tires and the worst balancing jobs you can imagine.

 

Yeah, the diff moves enough that it isn't going to be perfectly lined up when reinstalling. I've had the same issue removing mine a few times.

"In phase" is more making sure each joint (@ Tcase, @ center bearing and @ diff) are all perfectly clocked in line with each other and one isn't a few degrees out of line.

It's more a concern when you remove the yolk off the splines at the center bearing, as you can easily install it a spline off either rotational direction, but I have found that when installing the u-joints, it's possible to get one slightly wonky. I did it on mine and it took me a bit to figure it out because I was working on the driveshaft to fix vibrations anyways, so having an out-of-phase vibration didn't immediately que me in on the problem.

Here's a good video:

 

I was not getting notifications to this thread so I didn't know anyone was replying to it. Sorry I did not respond. I will check on subscription settings in a minute.

To clarify my problem:
When travelling above 25MPH I get a shaking/bouncing from the front end that feels like a wheel balance issue.
Tires and shocks have been changed this week - this did not fix anything.
I did pull the driveshaft (as one single unit meaning no indexing problem) a week before the problems started.
I watched my wife drive the truck and did not see any wheel hop.

I will shoot for changing the u-joints and center support bearing next weekend unless you guys have other suggestions. Thanks!

 

Before you start throwing serious coin at it, and the fact that the vibration is in the front end, lets start with some simple, free things. Jack up one wheel at a time, spin , and check if the wheel or tire is out of round. A two by four underneath and beside the tire makes a good reference point. Loosen all the lug nuts and re-torque them. Check tire pressures just to make sure the playing field is level.
It would be best to do these things in the reverse order that I listed them as the outcome will be better.

 

If and I do mean If it is a 2nd gen and the U-Joints turn out to be the culprit, Toyota has a Warranty Enhancement deal with their U-joints meaning they will replace all three at no cost. I recently had this performed on a 2008 PreRunner Sport at the dealer.

 

When you removed the driveshaft as a whole did put it back exactly the same? Aka did you mark the flanges where everything bolts together

 

Now you tell me. I just ordered the parts. I only found one bad but will replace all three as well as the center support. See this video:

 

That will absolutely give you a vibration. I lost a rear one on my 71 F250 Hi-Boy. Vibration started and at the very next traffic light (1/2 mile) the rear drive shaft let loose. I took it out roadside and came home on the front end. I replaced both joints at that time. You are very lucky your wife wasn't caught by that on the side of the road. I'll bet rear suspension sag with the trailer changed the joint angles and caused the failure. the joint was going anyway but that hastened it.

 

Hah, I'm kind of late to the party. At least they aren't too expensive, just time and grease putting them back in. Glad you found the vibration.

 

Yep, it was a bad u-joint closest to the tranny...

 

^ That will do it for sure. I'm surprised that one wasn't squeaking.

On edit: make sure to grease u-joints at every oil change if possible.