Drive Shaft Vibrations Solved Step-by-Step

Full tank of gas (100lbs), bike rack + bike (75lbs), + a 60deg morning cured my vibes




No but seriously the difference between a 95deg afternoon and an empty tank and this morning is night and day

I guess the 180lbs of rear squat plus the cool temps were enough to alleviate any high angles and stiffen up the CB enough

 

I'd like to add what fixed my vibration issues on my 2007 Tacoma. It always vibrated slightly when stopping in the 20 to 30 MPH range. A little annoying when new but I got used to it. Love the truck and plan on keeping it as long as I can. A few months ago I noticed that after stopping, on acceleration I was getting a thump from the rear. Did a little research and determined that the cheap Toyota leaf springs were shot, and the axle was sloping down while braking and torquing up on take off. The springs were basically flat with little to no curve to them at all. Shopped around and found a nice pair of 4 leaf (3/1) springs from GeneralSpring Kansas City. Ordered the pair with U bolts. These springs are beasts, and heavy as hell. The stock 3 leaf (2/1) springs looked like they went on a small car compare to these. I was working by myself and on a driveway so I did the swap over two days.





I ended up with a nice strong rear end with extra load capacity which I needed. This remedied the thump issue but I had a nasty vibration below 40 MPH. Nothing bone shaking, but super annoying. Did more research and found this thread and a few others. Problem is, so many people have different set ups and their descriptions are almost the same, not the same, completely different and so forth. So this is what I ended up doing. I ended up with the back of the truck gaining about 3 to 4 inches due to the extra leaf and thicker leafs and the springs actually had a curve to them which all contributed to the height being different. I've never done anything like this in all the years I've been working on cars and trucks. Hey, always a first time. I knew that the transmission and first shaft were angled up as they are attached to the frame/body which is now angled up in the back. The differential remained the same. So I knew I probably had to angle the differential yoke upward. I purchased an angle finder from Harbor Freight. My numbers were all over the place and I didn't know which to use and which to adjust. I found this document on line and it answered all of my questions. There are a lot of great answers here, but all of the drawings I saw were of single shaft set ups which does us no good as we all have dual shaft with carrier bearing. Here is the document:


The link to the web page and whole document is here: http://www2.dana.com/pdf/J3311-1-HVTSS.PDF

What is important are the first shaft and the differential yoke for small lifts such as mine, larger lifts one will need to take into consideration the U Joint angles. Its all explained in the document.

My first shaft was 7.8 degrees down, my differential YOKE was 3.7 up. A difference of 4.1 degrees which is unacceptable.

I ordered 2 2 degree axle shims, and I installed them to get that differential YOKE up.

I took new measurements and now had front shaft 7.8 degrees down, and differential YOKE was up 6.3 degrees. So close! My ride was almost perfect though. I had the shake on take off and a faint vibration between 30 and 40 MPH just like when it was new.

I needed to get the first shaft and differential to within 1/2 degree then the second shaft would have equal U Joints and everything should be perfect.

I had done all I could to adjust the differential YOKE. So I had to move to the carrier bearing. I flipped it as it had to go up to reduce the angle, and placed the bolts in a few threads. I measured the angle of the shaft while tightening the bolts until they were within 1/10th of a degree. (My bolts were just barely long enough.) I inserted two thick and one thin washer on each side and snugged it all up.

Now first shaft is 6.2 degrees down, and differential YOKE is 6.3 degrees up.

She rides like a dream. No vibrations, no shaking. Problem solved. Hopefully, with your set up you can do the same and align the first shaft with the differential YOKE to have the same angles and your problems will go away. No need to calibrate the angle measuring tool at any point as long as its calibrated before you start and doesn't change during the process, no need to measure the transmission case angle and no need to measure the differential case or second shaft.

 

So you didnt measure off the pinion flange? you measured off the yoke... Can you take a picture of where you measured from? I have slight vibe on take off..Thanks

 

Rebecca I measured off the Yoke Flange using a strip of metal.


I drove it through its paces this morning for several hours trying different things. If I take off hard or take off while turning hard left or right I get a slight stubble like vibration. I attribute that to the rear differential being a locking type and my new springs are super stiff so I get no flex of the rear axle at all. All other driving is smooth all the way up to 80 MPH on the expressway.

Dave

 

Thanks Dave thats the same place I was measuring my angles just need some slight adjustment. edit: when we first put in the 2° shim my vibes were gone but now I have a slight take off vibe again
R

 

If anyone wants to waste 10 minutes of their life:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fE3qCdUkgU&feature=youtu.be

You can see some axle wrap on heavy acceleration

 

Pretty cool to see it in action rather than through imagination. Thanks for posting

 

For sure! My goal was to look at how much my "angles" are changing dynamically when driving, since when I measure when parked, they're actually pretty good!

Several minutes in when you get to the stop and go traffic part of the video you can see some serious rotation about the axle

 

YeaH I gotta try and fix my vibes

 

I have been trying to fix the vibration on mine for a while. I thought for sure I had it figured out by lowering the carrier bearing to the point where the two shafts were perfectly in line and then shimming the axle to match the angle out of the transfer case. I basically had it set up as a one piece shaft as far as the angles go. I no longer has vibrations when accelerating or around 55-60, but I had bad vibrations at 20mph. I now have the carrier at stock position and a 2 deg shim on the axle with light vibs at 55 and pretty hard vibs on hard acceleration. I have decided that I am going to go with a single shaft; but can't decide which route to go. Most people seem to go with a CV shaft, has anyone went with a single joint at each end? After watching jhcole's video has anyone put a track bar on?

 

I filled my carrier bearing with silicone and it took out a lot of the vibes. When it dies Im going try a solid bearing.

http://www.hendrixmotorsports.com/id7.html

 

!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks, this looks like a great idea and cheap enough to try.

 

I seem to be getting some vibes when decelerating, anyone else have this problem?

When slowing down you feel it in the brake pedal/steering wheel around 20-25mph?

 

I get the same vibes when accelerating even with this mod

 

I gave up. Feels like over the past few weeks I've spent more time under the truck then driving it. In addition, my frustration levels have skyrocketed with each and every drive, finally reaching a point where the overall experience was testing my sanity.
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• Brand new drive shaft made (previous owner had it modified with a disconnect for towing and wanted to remove it and replace the worn slip yoke at the same time). Helped a lot, but take off vibration was still there.

• Modified the rear trans mount achieving a 1.2* front joint operation angle, then shimming and rear end and moving the carrier bearing until both rear u-joints were within' .2~* of each other. Still had take off vibration, as well as highway vibration.

• Matched transfer case and rear diff flange angles, dropped carrier bearing until both shafts where the same angle, then fine tuned from there. Nope. Still vibration.

• Shot the pinion angle up to match the front shaft, made the 1st and 2nd u-joint operating angles the same. Negative.
  
  
• Silicone in the carrier bearing. This made a noticeable change, but also made vibrations much more pronounce when something wasn't right.

• At this point, something should have worked. Move one component to fix something, it compromised another. Constant battle between low end vibrations, or high speed vibrations. I can see on a stock vehicle making it work because angles are less, but once the rear pinion and transfer case flanges are pushed further away from each other, the stock driveshaft can't deal with the drastic changes.
  
  
• As far as some people experiencing vibrations and some not, I think it's not so much the vehicle, but rather the persons perception of what vibration is. My g/f and friends have driven and rode in my truck and didn't notice a thing. I'm not convinced that identical trucks with identical suspension setups will show different vibration characteristics.

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None of my previous vehicles have EVER had driveline problems like this Tacoma has. Thinking back, all of them had double cardan joints at the rear shaft. So this morning, Oceanside Driveline is picking mine up and making it a proper 4 joint shaft.

Thanks to everyone for sharing all their knowledge. I learned a lot and it helped me understand exactly what's going on and creative ways to try and tackle it. I'll report back, hopefully tomorrow when vibrations are a thing of the past and I can enjoy driving the truck once again.

 

Drive Shaft Vibrations Solved Step-by-Step

1. Remove driveshaft
2. Send to driveline speciality shop and add double cardon joint in the middle
3. Install driveshaft
4. Try and contain your excitement now that vibrations are a thing of the past.

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Note: Still have a TINY amount of vibration, but that's because all of my angles are aimed for a 3 joint shaft. But even with it being completely backwards to what a double cardan shaft calls for, it's super smooth compared to what it was.

Big thanks to Oceanside Driveline for the amazing service, product and turn around time.

 

Possible repost. Definitely did not read the whole thread. So for the others who skip to the end as well, this will be for them.

https://youtu.be/Idk3BVDVHq4

 

After a lift and 265/75/16s were added I got a driveshaft vibration. Read this post and that post not knowing the real cause. Couple weeks later the driveshaft fell off.

Didn't have the U-Joints checked. Had them replaced for $225. No more vibration.

 

Just measured my angles after 3' procomp lift with aal in rear. I got 4* on transmission output, 7* on first shaft, 8* on second shaft, and 5* on pinion angle. My question is shouldnt the angle between trans and and first shaft cancel out the angle of the second shaft and pinion since the difference is both 3*? I only have vibration from takeoff so shouldnt dropping the carrier bearing a degree fix everything?

 

By dropping the carrier 1 degree it should put both shafts at 8*? And then would the 3* difference on each end cancel each other out?