Drive shaft out of phase

Are you suggesting that the old grease is enough to put the shaft out of balance? It's certainly worth a shot...

 

Not out of balance but unable to slip in the spline which, in my case an AWD Land Cruiser, was felt even after u Joint replacement. The bottom of the slip tube was caked with dried grease.

 

I'll try it. but I know that it moves quite freely...

 

so did mine, but it wasn't able to move all the way down into the tube. Just an idea.

 

I had a thump in the rear end every time I went over a speed bump or a dip in the road. Thought it was the spare tire bouncing off it's mount but I finally removed the spare and thump still there. It turned out that the slip yoke could not move far enough and was slamming the rear diff - probably not too good for the diff. I don't even think it was too much grease, it was just that the air could not escape past the splines. I noticed this when I greased it, the joint expanded. When I removed the driveshaft, I could push the yoke into the driveshaft Ok but met with lots resistance - felt like I was compressing air.

If you take apart this joint make sure you paint marks and put a good matchmark at the grease seal (you may lose the paint when you clean it) because my yoke has very large balance weights spot welded on. Don't know if this is to balance just the yoke or the entire driveshaft but you don't want to find out.

I had to use a screwdriver wrapped with paper towels to dig out the grease, no solvent I had will dissolve it.

I just lightly greased the splines so air could escape and problem solved. I wouldn't even use the grease nipple, just grease the splines.
I think Toyota did a good job on this design because they have a grease seal for the spline which keeps it fairly clean but down side is that if air can't escape past the splines it may limit travel.

I never had a driveshaft vibration on this truck even with 3" rear leaf spring lift.

 

Well, after this weekend, I pretty much want to throw in the wrench here.. I measured the drive line angles according to the thread floating around here, and installed some shims accordingly and then tried to fine tune via the carrier bearing. That thread is slightly misleading in the sense that he first installed a 3 degree shim which corrected 6 degrees of pinion angle. I, unfortunately, found out the hard way, that it was a direct ratio on my setup (which doesn't surprise me). I had 4.5 degrees of difference, and only 1, 2, and 3 degree shim sets. My center pin was long enough to temporarily stack the 1 and 3 shims, but I think the added height from the stacked shims made the pinion angle worse. 4 and 6 degree shims are on the way.

I cleaned out the slip yoke as suggested, and yeah, there was 20 years of grease in there- that's for sure. But I was able to slide the yoke in and out without an extreme effort.

 

Comes a time you just need to replace the entire assembly. If the assembly has be balanced and the runout checked and the alignment between the tranny and diff are good a new shaft assembly is the next step.

 

I'd take it to a driveline specialists and have them do it.

 

Yeah, you missed the part where I tried that- apparently the only guy in my area is a bit tough to work with, and I didn't know that before calling him.

 

Whoops I did, sorry

 

No worries..

 

Well ? It's a year later...How did it all turn out ?

 

I chased the vibration around for quite a while. I even got a new drive shaft (from Drive Shaft Pro). It wasn't the drive shaft in the end (it was poorly turned drums causing the vibration). I will fill in a few things I found out related to this thread- At least the shop (Drive Shaft Pro) I talked to, balances the drive shaft as one complete unit- not as two separate units as was suggested in this thread. So altering the original orientation of my drive shaft made things worse. Once I reverted back to my match marks with the technically out of phase yokes, it was back to the original vibration. I then changed a bunch of other things (wheels, tires, leaf springs, shackles) while searching for the culprit of the vibration.

 

WHOA! thats a new one.

 

It was the drums and vibrated while just braking or also while driving?

 

No difference between braking/non-breaking.

Yeah... I wouldn't have thought it would be bad drums either... but when I was rotating the wheel I could hear intermittent contact between the shoes and drums, or the high and low spots in the drum. Couple hundred bucks ($280 I think) for all new rear shoes, drums, and springs from NAPA, and an 1.5hr start to finish time later, no vibration.

I had a local tire shop turn the drums last year... Guess they don't do it that often...

 

Yeah scotty says dont bother turning rotors or drums on modern imports....
those are not beefy enough like the big gm's, ford, and chryslers of the past....
Quality after market ones are fine.....

Hes says if turned they warp....quickly.....

 

So true. I could turn rotors on older vehicles 2-3 times, depending on how much meat I had to remove each time. I used to work on Saturdays just turning drums and rotors for DIY'ers, cash money. Now, don't even bother. Some rotors are at or near their minimum spec right out of the box. Maybe its all part of the goal to reduce weight.

 

And I turned my Power stop rotors 6 months after I bought them...I'm still chasing the vibration,but at first, they looked a little burned...I just learned here about that. .I'll go bad to a solid rotor soon.... I'd been told about the drums also...I did go in and sprayed the good with brake cleaner, which helped...But they're shot anyway....I pretty much need to start with my drivehaft ...The first time, my friend marked everything and I removed, rebuilt it , and reinstalled the thing...I'm thinking I reinstalled it wrong ...It had a different vibe also...So I'm gonna rent the tool necessary and rebuild it again...Maybe I can wrap my head around the yoke being my mistake...But then I'm gonna take it to Knoxville Driveline and let them do their thing...I would definitely go with a 1piece shaft, but mine is a 2WD and I haven't found one online at all ..For some reason, unknown by me, they don't offer those at all...

 

I haven't had an issue getting a single turning out of my rotors over the years. I will generally get new rotors, and then turn the previous set when they are off the truck so they are ready for the next brake pad change. I retire them after that.

This was the first time I turned drums.

Blanket saying you shouldn't bother turning rotors and drums is ridiculous. This is a relatively isolated case. No need to scare folks.

There could also be outside factors (possible bent axle shafts or housing) causing the uneven brake contact on the drums that only additional miles will reveal. It's easy to blame the turning, but I'll only rule that as the primary cause if after a year the aftermarket drums are still round. It's easy to jump to conclusions.

oooo boy.. I'll take a stab at this..

You bought power stop rotors, which you warped in 6 months.
You have a vibration you are chasing.
You sprayed something with brake cleaner?
This is somehow related to your driveshaft??
A friend made match marks on your DS, and then you rebuilt it?
You're going to rebuild it again?
Even though you're going to spend money trying to rebuild the DS you're going to take it to a shop anyway?
You think your (3 piece) shaft is an issue and you want a 1 piece shaft.

So.. lets unpack that...

If your rotors are warped after 6 months (you didn't mention milage, but that's a relative small point) you might need to circle some other bridges. Ensure that the wheels are installed with the correct (and more importantly EQUAL) torque spec is critical. Ensure that the wheels and tires are balanced. If possible have them road forced balanced.

I'm not sure why you are associating a warped rotor issue with a drive shaft issue. If your rotors are warped, you will feel the vibration in the brake pedal/steering wheel/cab. If your drive shaft is out of phase or balance you will feel that through the body, seat, and transmission shifter.

In my case I completely ruled out the drive shaft by replacing it with a new drive shaft, but the vibration remained.

I don't know what you were spraying with brake cleaner.. but if it was your brake pads or shoes, that's a dumb idea at best.

I would highly suggest you drop off your drive shaft to a professional if you think you've already made mistakes on it.

Tom Woods will make any drive shaft you need, single piece, etc. You measure, they build. A one piece drive shaft will not solve your problems- if anything it will just mask whatever was causing the issue in the first place. Your truck rolled off the line nice and smooth with a 3 piece drive shaft. Something has happened since then to compromise that.