Drivetrain vibration, please help

Hi guys,

My 01 double cab with 166k on the clock has developed a vibration and I am struggling to figure it out. The vibration only occurs when I am maintaining a constant speed. If I am accelerating or let off the gas pedal completely the vibration goes away, but as soon as I lightly tough the gas pedal it comes back. This happens at any mph above about 25. At first I thought it was the drive shaft carrier bearing/bushing, so I replaced that over the weekend but no difference. I also thought it could be a u-joint going bad, so I checked all of the u-joints and greased them but no signs of a bad joint. I am running a set of mud terrain tires with about 7-8k miles on them, so I thought that the tires might be wearing in and causing the vibration but the tread wear is (mostly) even across each tire. I'm not sure what else to check at this point. Given that the vibration only occurs when I am lightly hitting the gas pedal I am wondering if it could be a transmission or transferase mount going bad? Any other suggestions?

thanks,
Dan

 

There are soooooooo many vibration threads... to search through.

Get your tires balanced.

 

When you say vibration, does it shake your truck, or just an audible drone? That may help clarify which "vibration" you're having.

 

it's a vibration that shakes the truck. For example, I can see the rear view mirror vibrating. I've spent the last few days checking everything I can think of and nothing seems broken. I'm going to have the tires balanced this weekend. I've searched thru various threads about vibrations and have checked everything that people have mentioned as potential sources. The only thing left is to check my tires.

 

I forgot to mention in my previous post that the vibration is not a droning noise or any other type of noise. My tires are Dick Cepek extreme terrains so I think the vibration is coming from the tires (I hope). I've had a similar vibration from various mud terrain tires on my Jeep TJ.

 

I had similar vibes too. I replaced the front and rear u-joints and center bearing. I also had a droning sound that completely went away. The vibes lessened but I think my tires are causing some of it. Gonna re-balance soon and see what happens.

 

Thanks for the tips oldschool. I finally figured out the problem. My rear u-joint was going bad and I didn't notice it until I removed the drive shaft and felt it binding. After replacing that joint the truck is 100%, no more vibrations.

 

Great to hear. I didn't know my rear u-joint was bad til I got the driveshaft off the truck as well. Glad I bought em just in case.

 

which u joints did you guys buy? OEM? Spicer?

 

I used oem u-joints and center bearing.

 

I bought OEM joints and used a different brand for the center bearing. I got the center bearing from rockauto.com... I've also used Spicer u-joints in my Jeep TJ which has a built Dana 44 front axle. The front axle u-joints take a major beating off road when rock crawling with the front locker engaged, and I've never had an issue with the Spicer joints (in case you were wondering about quality).