Drive Shaft Vibrations Solved Step-by-Step

IIRC the op eventually had a driveshaft shop install a double cardon joint & that solved everything .....

 

I’m going to be getting a Tom Woods drive shaft soon. Should solve all the vibration issues.

 

That should do it as well , prob a little more $$$ though...

 

I’m sure it wouldn’t be too far off from a shop making one. Plus, I don’t have to give my truck to a shop. You just measure from flange to flange, buy it, and install it yourself when it arrives in less than 30 minutes.

 

I had a double cardan joint installed at the transfer case and all vibrations are gone. By installing a double cardan joint at the TC I was able to exactly match the angles of the carrier bearing U-Joint and differential U-Joint. The CB U-joint and Differential U-Joint angle now cancel each other out and the double cardan joint is a self contained unit that cancels its own angles.

 

Could you post a picture and let us know where you sourced the joint?

 

Here are a few pictures. One picture has the part number for the double cardan joint. I took the driveshaft to my local driveshaft specialist to get the work done. Let me know if anyone has any questions!

 

Part of the post-lift vibes fam. I recently put on Eibach pro truck stage 1 lift + deaver single AAL in the rear (2in front lift + 1.5in rear lift). Immediately after install I started to experience vibes at both acceleration/deceleration and at various speeds.

1) I did the 4hi test, which kind of reduced the vibes so I figured I’d replace the needle bearing w/ the ECGS bushing when getting an alignment. Vibes still persisted

2) After quickly researching next debugs - I installed the OME cb drop spacer which resolved some vibes. But vibes at deceleration under 25mph still persist

3) Finally found this thread and measured my driveline angles. Tbh, used an app on my phone so not sure how accurate these are - but I took them 3x and came up with this:

Front shaft near TC: 4.4
Rear shaft near rear diff: 4.7
Rear Diff: 6.2

Def not an expert when it comes to this, so would appreciate any insight on next steps/recommendations.

 

You need your TC angle. Without the TC angle your not going to be able to figure out the working angle near it.

 

In my experience, as well as reading several experts methods for measuring and correcting driveshaft angles, I determined there is no amount of spacing and shimming one can do to the stock Tacoma driveshaft to fix vibrations. The simple way to think about U-joint angles is the negative working angles added to the positive working angles should be close to zero degrees. IE -4 + -2 + 6 = 0. Also, ideally working angles under 3 degrees result in maximum longevity of a U-joint. In your case your working angles do not equal zero when added together (-4.4 + -4.7 + 6.2 = -2.9 degrees). Also, your rear axle could benefit from 2-3 degree pinion shims to reduce the working angle. But, if the differential working angle is reduced the overall sum of all angles dives deeper into negative.

In my case I installed a double cardan joint at the transfer case. A double cardan joint working angle equals zero no matter the angle of the double cardan joint. Then one can add pinion shims and CB shims to equalize the remaining 2 U-joints. In your case if you were to add a double cardan joint at the TC as well as add 2.5 degree pinion shims (4.7 rear differential as a result) then your resulting overall sum of angles would be zero degrees, (0 + -4.7 + 4.7 = 0).

Some folks go with a one-piece driveshaft to fix vibrations. I have never ran a 1-piece shaft so I have zero real world experience with that. But, I do know with a one piece shaft the transfer case angle and rear differential angle should match resulting in working angles canceling out. But, the only way to match those two angles is to install pinion shims with the fat side forward, not ideal. And a 1-piece shaft is more susceptible to trail damage because it hangs lower to the ground.

My vote is on a double cardan joint at the TC to fix vibrations. My Taco has zero driveline vibrations at any speed. I hope I thoroughly confused you!

Spicer has a good tutorial on measuring angles.

 

Question about this diagram. Isn't the angle from the transfer case and the first shaft kind of extreme? Looks like you have 5-6 degrees of angle there. I thought that the working angle for the first shaft should be 3 degrees or less or else the u joints wear out really fast? Am I wrong on this?

 

Update: all vibes gone! Realized when I installed my lift kit that I accidentally flipped the OEM axle shims. Flipped them back to the correct orientation (thicker end towards the rear). See pic for setup that was causing vibes.

 

Im having issues with vibration definitely drive line vibration when rear shaft is removed all vibrations are gone. so with that I am a little confused on how to calculate my angles properly this is the steps I followed with measurements:
1) zero on TC and measured rear pinon flange: 1.0 degrees down
2) measure 1st (front) shaft: 6.4 degrees down
3) measure 2nd shaft: 7.1 degrees down
4) zero on 2nd shaft and measure rear pinon flange: 6.5 degrees up.

TRUCK currently on king 2.5 ext travel front and rear JBA UCA's and deaver stage 2 leafs.
any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

If I read this correctly, you have 6.4 degrees across the Ujoint at Tcase, less than 1 degree across the Ujoint near the center bearing and 6.5 degrees across Ujoint at differential.

The general rule is A - B + C should be 1 or less where A is angle across Tcase Ujoint, B is angle across Ujoint at center bearing and C is angle across the Ujoint at differential. General opinion is best way to achieve this is to get angle A equal angle B and set angle C to 1 degree.

In your case 6.4 - 1 + 6.5 >> 1 which is probably why you have vibrations. Without knowing more, I’m going to guess you have a center bearing drop spacer. If I were you, I would remove this first and repeat measurements. That should decrease the angle at Tcase Ujoint back closer to a reasonable 4.5 while increasing angle of Ujoint near the center bearing. At this point you don’t need Angle A to equal Angle B although that is the goal. Now go measure angle between rear driveshaft and differential flange and purchase a axle shim near equal to 1/2 of that angle. Why 1/2? Because when you add the axle shim it will rotate the nose of the differential up thereby lifting the rear end of the rear driveshaft and this will change the angle at the Differential more than the amount of the shim. Unfortunately this also changes the angle across the Ujoint at the center bearing. This is where it gets fun because you have to go back to the center bearing and shim it up or down to get angle A = angle B within 1 degree. Then recheck the angle across the Ujoint at the differential and decide if you need a larger or smaller shim to get this angle to approximately 1 degree.. if you do change the axle shim, then also go back and decide if additional adjustment is required at center bearing. Do a test drive after each step as you may solve most of the issues after first one or two steps. If you need to shim the center bearing up, then trick is to turn the center bearing upside down, which is more correction than you need and then shim it downwards using thick washers or other spacer to some height higher then than where it was originally

Sorry, no magic solution, only trial and error which is why there are so many opinions in this thread.

 

So here is a little more info i do in face have carrier bearing drop spacers installed before today i had 3 deg shims installed fat part backwards and tried every variation of spacers and flipping the bearing as well.. I managed to get rid of all the vibrations in multiple variations but when under a load it felt like pinion was to high felt like the brakes were dragging would have to press gas pedal way further then usual just to get up a small hill and do have 285/75/16 but also have 4.56 gears so i know its not lack of power…. And another thing i noticed is first thing in the morning when going slow it feels like i have a bent wheel feeling and axle wobble All wheel bearings have been replaced less then a 1000 miles ago all new brakes currently have rear drums backed all the way out was making sure they were not sticking or something made no difference… Sorry probably alot more info then you wanted just trying to save time….

Ill give that a try tomorrow after work taking the carrier spacers out and remeasure…

 

Let us know angles after you remove the center bearing drop shim. If you can get first 2 Ujoints near equal and third to be 1 degree, then you should had reduced vibrations but not sure if that will help some of the other symptoms you describe.

Let us know about how many miles on your truck and if problem showed up after gear swap or after the lift.

 

Truck currewntly has 125k miles problem has been there off and on throughout the years couple was there before and after putting gears dont remember if it was there before i lifted it that was way to long ago. But i do know it all goes away with rear drive shaft off the truck and driving it in 4x4 to test..

Here are a couple different Variations i tried today to see which one might work better however did not drive truck to test after each one didnt have time.
without carrier spacer:
1) zero on TC and measured rear pinon flange: 1.0 degrees down
2) measure 1st (front) shaft: 5.6 degrees down
3) measure 2nd shaft: 8.0 degrees down
4) zero on 2nd shaft and measure rear pinon flange: 7.0 degrees up.

Carrier bearing flipped over:
1) zero on TC and measured rear pinon flange: 1.0 degrees down
2) measure 1st (front) shaft: 3.3 degrees down
3) measure 2nd shaft: 9.0 degrees down
4) zero on 2nd shaft and measure rear pinon flange: 7.8 degrees up.

Carrier flipped with spacer
1) zero on TC and measured rear pinon flange: 1.0 degrees down
2) measure 1st (front) shaft: 4.4 degrees down
3) measure 2nd shaft: 8.5 degrees down
4) zero on 2nd shaft and measure rear pinon flange: 7.4 degrees up.

let me know what you think i should do.

 

Your 3rd option is a good start as you have 4.4 degree across first Ujoint and (8.5-4.4) = 4.1 across second Ujoint so those are good numbers. 7.4 at differential is too high so put your 3 degree axle shims back in, fat end pointing rearwards and see how that works. Adding the shims will raise the rear end of the second driveshaft up thereby reducing the angle at the center bearing Ujoint and at differential Ujoint so you may have to go back to center bearing and raise it slightly to keep even angles on 1st and 2nd Ujoint. Also check that center bearing Ujoint is in line with other two. There is enough slop in the holes where the center bearing mounts that it can go off center a small amount and introduce another angle component to all three joints

 

Ok ill give that a tr

Ended up test driving the truck for a short distance with the carrier flipped and spacers(3rd set of numbers) and it actually drove pretty good slight vibration which felt like it was from the carrier bearing (each rotation could feel the rubber part pushing it back) like it was bent or possibly just off center and or just that little to much angle in the one joint… I tried that before with the shims installed well actually i had them installed but only tried 2 small washers for the drop on carrier so perhaps i didnt pit enough drop

I think ill take your advice and gove that a shot and see what happens truck is staying parked until i figure it out minus the test drives…

 

Got the axle shims back on the truck fat end back here are my numbers now
3deg shims Carrier flipped with carrier drop

1) zero on TC and measured rear pinon flange: 3.8 degrees down
2) measure 1st (front) shaft: 4.4 degrees down
3) measure 2nd shaft: 7.7 degrees down
4) zero on 2nd shaft and measure rear pinon flange: 3.8 degrees up.

Numbers are a litle better but you think i should drop the carrier a tab bit more or raise it?