Bought my dream truck.. and it shakes like CRAZY. Help me!!!

Super helpful — thank you SO much

 

1st gens are really easy to work on. Theres lots of how to threads on here and timmy the tool man has great youtube vids. Good luck with the diagnosis. It shouldnt be too hard to find the culprit.

 

Thanks!! Stoked to get greasy soon enough.. maybe it will be my new thing.

 

i would say that dealership you bought it from should have pre-tested all of that out in the first place before they listed it for sale!

cannot even trust the trusted dealerships anymore anywhere

 

bad vibes from vacuum leak is something new to me!
how do i go about checking on that for my current vibe that has been going on for six months now
its the vibe at 2.1k rpms and is VERY prevalent after having the A/C on the highway and then turning it off for in town stop and go. Every gear that gremlin vibe appears at 2.1k rpm ... but it does not happen all the time (hence its a gremlin )
no mechanic local has ever heard of this situation so its perplexed me for quite some time

 

what kind of roads do you have in New Mexico?
i ask because my truck is 7 years older than yours and has ~50k more miles.
Mine still drives and handles near excellent like i just bought it yesterday! ... other than the aforementioned rattle which is not in the steering as far as i can tell

but the roads here in the midwest/central plains are TOTAL and complete garbage that I cannot tell if any of these paved bumps and holes and uneven pavement blocks I try but often can't avoid are abnormal shakes, rattles and rolls or not

when I get on the newly paved roads that are smooth it drives very well!

 

Totally!! Thank you.. that was the only reason I felt comfortable getting on a plane to go buy it... they assured me like 100000 times on the phone and at the dealership that they had done all the tests and that it was in perfect shape. I test drove it around the dealership but not enough to notice the jitters, which was obviously a major misstep on my part but I was really trusting that a Toyota dealership would be on really top of things. Serious face palm.

 

Regardless of this situation with that low mileage it should be easy to find the problem and should not be a deal breaker anyways

Typically this issue is shocks, alignment or tire issues.

Once fixed your truck will drive just fine without any issues.

I do balance my tires every 5k,

One thing about these trucks to be aware of is that the rubber is 20 years
old so the rubber will fail from age not from use necessarily.

Nice truck, should last you 25 years plus.
I bought mine new in 1997 22 years ago or so at 600,500 miles Now.

Just don’t ever let the truck over heat because of the aluminum heads.

 

Yes, The roads here are definitely complete garbage too, super undermaintained pavement full of potholes and frost heaves. My own road is like pure washboard dirt road but i only live about a quarter mile from pavement. But that quarter mile is like a traumatic driving experience with the shakes. On a smooth highway the truck drives perfectly with the new tires.

But it seems like the amount of jitters from bumps is excessive, like I feel like the truck should be able to take some little bumps without nearly fishtailing. I love hearing that yours drives so perfectly.... that gives me hope that I can get mine driving great too.

 

My bet is you are feeling the clunking in the slip joint on the steering column. Search for the tack weld mod in here for more info on it.

 

Thank you!! I really think it’s the most beautiful and awesome truck ever made, these 1st gens. I bought the new tires and got them balanced but the last piece is the alignment which I’m doing this week... then will move onto shocks if it’s still jittering. just going to keep trying to chipping away until I can get it driving perfectly.. thanks so much for the encouragement!!!

 

Because these trucks are light and have little weight in the tail they do tend to bounce more over wash boards then a heavy Tahoe

 

Did you check driveshaft U joints? Easy to check and cheap to replace before spending big$$ elsewhere. Jack up one of the rear tires and put the truck in neutral (chock front wheel for safety). Crawl under and twist the shaft looking for any play in the joint, there should be none.

 

That for sure sounds like the rabbit hole I need to go down... there is definitely something going on with the play on the steering and the subtle knock in the wheel when I hit major bumps. That’s the thing that’s been stressing me out the most actually. thank you so much for the info!! Dying to get to the bottom of this.

 

Okay well this is kind of what I’ve been hoping someone would say all along I’ve been hoping that part of my problem was switching from driving a Honda SUV to the Tacoma and not being used to the bumpiness. I used to drive a t100 but it was about ten years ago and I can’t remember. These jitters are obviously still an issue but I’m suuuper glad to hear some bounce on washboard is normal!!

 

Yes, thanks to a thread on this site I saw someone mentioning jitters/shakes because of a broken u joint, so when I took it in two weeks ago that was the first thing I had them check. They said it was super dried out but not broken, the greased it and said it was good to go... thank you so much for mentioning it though bc from what I’ve read a broken u joint is no joke!!! Thanks so much.

 

It's nothing to really be concerned about. I've done nothing to mine yet and beat on it very hard. Almost feels like a hammer drill.

 

I have a Tahoe too, big and heavy and it glides over wash boards and bumps, my Tacoma tends to bounce me around a lot. The Tacoma is a small frame truck and light.

 

Okay well that’s super reassuring to hear!! I do think part of this is me getting used to the truck. Thank you... gliding sounds dreamyyyy

 

Yea, but the Tahoe is boring
I’m in my Tacoma 95 percent of the time