Drive Shaft Vibrations Solved Step-by-Step

Picking up a new drive shaft with a double cardan today, hope vibration is gone with this DS.

 

EUREKA!!!!!
vibe free fellas, well 98% enough for me vibe free!! installed 4 degree shims which got rid of the high speed vibe. still had 20 mph vibe. played with some washers, took a few measurements. ended up flipping the carrier bearing upside down, which i had tried before, but i guess with the new shims it made it work. tscot, have yet to get final measurements but will post soon.

so.... luckily for whoever needs them, and thanks to TSCOT.... i've got (4) 1.5 degree shims, slide in not bolt on, which can be stacked for 3 degree shims, and i also have toytec 3 degree shims to add to the pack, bolt on to leaf pack, to whomever is in need of them. only ask that you'll do as TSCOT and i will do, use them, replace with what you have, and send them to the next guy, for free!!! we're all in this together.

 

I have a 2011 AC Prerunner 4 Cyl 4X2 with the vibration/shudder issues all you folks have been fighting with. I had the low speed TSB done, all the dealership can do with the 4 cyl is change out springs, no optional engine mounts available. Anybody have any luck with the 4 cyl AC and modified rear driveshaft with CV joint?

 

A 2-piece? let us know how that works out, I've just put back my Tom W. so I can send out the factory to Slee...

 

dmeko0, ....... YA FRICKIN HOOOOOOOOO !!!!! About time. What was that, how many months of beating head against asphalt? I hate this stuff, so frustrating at times. Ok, so, high speed vibes were due to rear diff angle and shims were the solution, and lower speed vibes were due to CB drop and washers / CB flip were the solution.

Fedz, when you install that double cardan two piece, you'll want to point the rear diff directly at the second drive shaft, which is usually UP in angle, contrary to what the rest of us are doing with our shims and stock shafts. Your idea is to have the double cardan take all the heat, while all other components point directly at the double cardon. Not possible with our factory trans / xfr case mounts, but at least we can mess with the rear diff. That said, my double cardan is set: CB in factory mount, factory position, factory hardware, no adjustment whatsoever; rear diff is pointing slightly down still, as I never changed it from messing with the shims, and I still on occasion crawl under there to mess with things as people on this and other forums present new problems.

There IS hope out there, fellow forum members!

 

no go, picked up the drive shaft, installed it, and guess what, truck vibrates in all the gears, with the factory DS it vibrated between 1st gear going into 2nd and that was it, now it vibrated in any gear, WT.. it must be the truck, since it is not lifted.

i paid 1200 for it, what a waste, any one with a lift wants to buy it?

 

I installed it yesterday but did not mess with the rear diff and it vibrated like crazy through all the gears. Do you think adding a 3 degree shim at the rear diff will fix the vibs? my truck is stock.

 

Fedz, before you yank that cardan shaft, do you have the opportunity to drive it, installed and vibing the way it is now, back to the guys who made it for you to have them check it out? Could be a simple fix, hopefully. Very very very unusual that going from a stock shaft to a double cardan would create any vibrations whatsoever, gotta be something else going on there. Please remind me again of your truck.

Edit: prerunner? 4x4? long bed or short bed? etc.

 

Well heck. Stock truck, just swapped two piece shaft for two piece double cardan? But vibed from day one huh? I doubt if your driveline is out of balance, unless the shop messed up when they made it the first time, which does happen on occasion but kind of rare. Nice of them to run it (again) on the balancer, as they should have balanced the shaft before they gave it to you, but very nice of them to double check. For Nissan trucks with the factory vibes, it's all about rear leaf shims. Toyota hasn't gone there yet, but some local mechanics are shimming the heck out of stock trucks with success. And your double cardan wants to run pinion up anyways, but I don't know the degree shim you need without some measurements. If you do end up needing shims, like after they run the balance test today, contact dmeko0 for his kit, or see if bacontaco has any spare shims, they both have some of my leftover parts.

Ok, I gotta ask. Vibrates while accelerating? Decelerating? No change accel / decel? How about under braking? Feel like a front end wobble shimmy shake (usually changes under accel / decel / brake)? Or a rear end steady, more subtle vibe at very specific set speeds, able to reproduce the vibe every single time you hit that speed regardless of accel / decel / brake? When you say it vibes through all the gears, are to saying it's a constant vibration through an entire range of speed, say, 20mph all the way up to 65+ with no changes, or you get little pockets of vibration, say at 20, 35, 50, 65+ through all the gears?

 

with the stock DS only during accelerating and very noticeable at the end of 1st gear right before it shifts into 2nd 15-25 miles , then it is gone, comes back at 60 Miles when the RPM is at 2K. i can reproduce it every time.

with the double Cardan it vibrates also during acceleration through the whole range of every gear.

both under acceleration

yes Stock, i took it to the dealer a month after the TSB was done as it still vibrated and they said it is a drive line issue they felt it, but nothing they can do, and Toyota does not have a fix.

 

Discounting issues such as loose engine mounts, loose transmission mounts, etc, as I'm sure the dealer has addressed these already. Reproducibility is good, makes it a little easier to troubleshoot. I don't think RPMs have much to do with it, as I was able to reproduce my vibes at any RPM by manually shifting (using the 4-3-2 positions on the trans).

I would jump immediately (for the stock axle configuration) on the axle wrap / rear pinion angle train of thought. With a lifted truck, the 20mph would be carrier bearing drop, and the 60mph would be leaf shims, but yours is stock..... and the acceleration factor kind of points towards that rear axle changing pinion angles under load. The 20 & 60 vibe range is classic, most of us are fighting exactly that, give or take a few mph's. With stock axle, rotate rear pinion down about 1-2deg, and possibly add about 1/8 inch drop to the CB (a few washers would work).

Now with that double cardan, you get constant vibes, meaning the entire thing is just wobbling around loosey goosey under there. Great. What joy. Could be that it's out of balance, I guess you'll know that by end of day today from the driveline shop. If it's ok, nicely balanced etc, with the double cardan configuration I would rotate rear pinion up 4deg, and drop CB by 1/4" or so.

You could eliminate a little bit of blind guesswork here by crawling under your truck and looking at the rear pinion flange, small round plate about 4 inches in diameter where driveshaft bolts to rear differential, and see if that plate is vertical, leaning gravity down, or leaning gravity up. You could tie some washers on a string and use it as a plumb bob next to the flange for comparison, the string will hang perfectly vertical. We usually call down or up when comparing the angle toward the front of the truck, pointing toward the drive shafts, in other words, that flange angle will either hit the ground down under your front tires or shoot a hole up through your roof. Without using a digital angle gauge, that would at least get us going in the correct direction I believe.

 

Thank you very much for the info, i will know tomorrow if the double cardan DS is balanced or needed rebalancing, i appreciate the info and adding shims to change the pinion angle may fix the vibs but between the stock DS and the Double cardan i do not know which DS i want to install and trouble shoot, i do not have the time or expertise to add shims to the axel . I thought a double cardan would compansate for the angles and this vib nonsense . Called the sales man i will trade it in. Might go for a tundra or a 4 runner.

 

no go, picked up the drive shaft, installed it, and guess what, truck vibrates in all the gears, with the factory DS it vibrated between 1st gear going into 2nd and that was it, now it vibrated in any gear, WT.. it must be the truck, since it is not lifted.

i paid 1200 for it, what a waste, any one with a lift wants to buy it?


Fedz

If you decide to sell - post some photos/measurements of what you have - if it fits my truck I may be interested

 

i am unable to post pics, keep erroring out.


Total length of DS 67 3/8, from t case to center of CB is 22 3/8 and from CB to pinion it is 45 .

 

Fedz - why did you get a two piece DS? Seems that a one piece with the double cardan is the preferred solution.

 

tscot, you're right. about 3 months of on and off frustration. didnt see the light at the end of the tunnel when i started it but let my testimony be told, if you have the time and patience and dont feel like dropping that cool $1000 for the quick fix double cardon, it can be done. you will hate doing it for as long as it takes and you will be madder than hell, but it can be done. thanks again tscot, seriously couldnt have done it without your help, and for the rest of the members of this thread.

 

To clarify, a one piece shaft is like a solid soda straw, no flex in the middle, with one u-joint on each end to connect to trans and diff respectively. A two piece shaft is like a flexible soda straw, it has a flex section in the middle. For our trucks, Tom Wood makes those one piece shafts, one solid tube front to back with a single u-joint on each end. Toyota provides us with a stock two piece shaft, meaning two individual tubes, joined in the middle by a single u-joint near the carrier bearing, plus the required u-joint on each end. A double cardan is a modified two piece drive shaft, where the center single u-joint is replaced by essentially two u-joints a few inches apart, plus the required front and rear joints, for a total of four u-joints over the stock three u-joints.

One piece, one tube two joints. Stock two piece, two tubes three joints. Double cardan, two tubes four joints, the center two joints inches apart.

Ignore the fact that on almost almost all drivelines there is a sliding splined section that allows for expansion and contraction of the driveline as the suspension flexes, which technically makes a single piece shaft two physical tubes. Everyone assumes the presence of that sliding section and refers to the number of "pieces" as the number of tubes separated by u-joints.

Clear as mud now, right?

 

Dmeko0, you nailed it. Thank you for sharing your experience. I hated it. I made up new swear words. I had to buy floor jacks, jack stands, air wrenches, torque wrenches, stupid angle gauges, box after box of shims, box after box of bandaids, more washers than I can count. I dropped my truck sideways off my hi-lift jack and dented the heck out of my tailgate. Learned to chock the front wheels better. Learned what all those drive components were called. Learned about rotational physics. Learned several ways to solve vibes on my truck. Learned I really really really like my truck. These are good machines. Frustrating as heck sometimes, but if you have the time, and are mechanically inclined, there's no end to the possible modifications. Thanks again for sharing your experience dmeko0, and congratulations again!

 

I wanted to copy Toyota's design.