Driveshaft Angles

Yeah, that's great and all that that worked for you so easily, but I have moved the carrier bearing up, down, left, right... more than you know. I have tried 1/8 inch drop, 1/4 inch, 1/2 inch, 3/4 inch, flipped - you name it - still vibes. I've gone through 2 full sets of u-joints in the last 6 months, new tires, alignments, balancing, new CB, so I am a little frustrated to say the least. So not every fix is as easy as a CB drop, because that's the first thing I tried. Now, there have been some great posts in this thread that have pointed out some things I need to check (like phasing) but still, sometimes the cause for vibes can be very hard to pinpoint. There are a ton of potential causes and it can be a process of trial and error.

 

Why not take the truck to a competent drive line shop? Pay for them to fix and be done with it...

Sometimes it's nice to pay for expert services.

 

If I were you I'd do exactly what @Crom suggested driveline shop...
Maybe you're missing something that they'll be able to see..
Get it fixed and then enjoy your truck instead of being frustrated.

 

In the last few days I think that's what it's come down to. I have an appointment January 4th with a local shop that specializes in lifted trucks, and they pride themselves on their smooth ride after lift. They have a good reputation here. Money has been tight this year so I was trying to figure it out myself... But I think this one might be over my head. It's just frustrating when you feel like you're so close and it should work..But it just doesn't lol

 

Nailed it. The vibration is from the needle bearings. Not the driveshaft. The vibration went away after shifting to 4x4 and there is considerable play in the driver side shaft. Thanks all for the help.

 

Keep us posted after your issue is resolved, it may help other having the same or similar issues.,
Good luck and hopefully you'll be enjoying your truck here soon!!!

 

Thanks man I appreciate it. I definitely will. This site has been so helpful to me in the past so I'll definitely share my results. I cannot wait! I don't remember what it's like to drive my truck and not be stressed about vibes and squeaking unjoints...

 

Well, I have some great news. I gave it one more shot to fix everything yesterday and I am happy to say for the first time in about a year my truck has zero vibrations at all speeds. In hopes that someone else might benefit from my experience here's what we did (with great help from this thread):

1) The output ujoint had some play - we took it apart and one side was bad, another was visibly about to go... The grease nipple was gone! I ended up bringing it back to advance and they replaced it free of charge (since it was only 3-4 months old). The other two were fine. I suspect it must have fallen out recently as my vibes seemed to get significantly worse in the last two weeks. Maybe it shook loose? Not sure. It was in there fine when I started this thread. Either way, this is most likely a huge source of the problem. The joint may have been going for some time now and this is what caused it to finally give out.

2) The phasing was not correct between the output joint and the joint at the CB as pointed out earlier in this thread. It was very close, 1 thread off. So we took it apart, lined it up, and put it back together. Went ahead and re-greased the other two joints while we had the DS out. The others seemed great.

3) Flipped the carrier bearing to what it should be at factory height (two holes up). I made sure to center the CB via string method before tightening it down.

Put it all back together and its smooth as silk. I can't begin to describe how it feels to finally (hopefully) put this problem to rest. Its unfortunate that some of these issues were caused as a result of me (CB flipped 180 degrees, phasing), but I suppose its all a great learning experience.

Thanks all for the input, I truly appreciate it!

 

This is all great news glad you figured out!!!
NOW GO ENJOY YOUR TRUCK!!

 

I just found this awesome thread. Lots of good info in here. Can someone tell me what the max operating angle of the stock 2nd gen u joints is? Also what the torque spec is on the carrier bearing mounting bolts? I didn't see either of those answered here yet, but I apologize in advance if they were and I missed it.

 

Thrilled to hear this!!! Congratulations!

27 ft.lbf

Max u joint angle is a sliding scale depending on driveshaft RPM.

Found the chart

 

Looking at the above chart, I calculated my drive shaft max possible operating RPM.

I did this by taking the Tacoma's 5-speed transmission overdrive ratio of .72:1.

I then divide 5000 engine RPM by 0.72

5000/0.72 = 6,944 maximum possible RPM for drive shaft.

I think the only u joint that won't survive that on my truck is the first one at the transfer case @ 4.85° lol

 

My shaft out of the transfer case has the biggest angle at 4.5 degrees, and that setup is smooth. I measured a friends double cab before I tried to fix mine, he has a very basic model and its totally stock - not prerunner, no lift, and even then his first angle was 3.8.

 

Looking for advice. Ever since installing a Dakar AAL on my Allpro leaf pack (~4" of total lift) I've had terrible take-off vibes. I wouldn't even call it a vibe. It's more of a "wump-wump-wump" between 6-9mph. Every time and at any throttle input.

I lowered the CSB about 3/8", and while it might have made the 'wumps' feel a bit milder or different, it didn't really help, so I took the spacers out and it's back to stock.

I bought a digital angle gauge and did some measurements today.

Zeroed on the transfer case, the first shaft is 1.4 degrees. Which sounds about perfect.

Zeroed on the rear flange, the second shaft is at 6.2 degrees (!!). Soooo, that seems excessive. Just looking at the shaft coming out of the rear diff, the angle is visibly noticeable. When I look at my friends shaft, his is almost perfectly straight. (no homo)

Where I get confused is when @Crom 's chart says that if the rear axle and front shaft are at the same angle, everything else should work itself out. When I zero on the rear flange and then measure the front shaft, it's only at .5 degrees difference. They're very close.

I feel like I'm misunderstanding something here. Or measuring wrong. I'm about to order some 4-degree shims to see if that helps.

U-joints are all tight.

Thanks for any input.

 

PS I've seen some guys really slam their CSB down. I'm not opposed to this, but when I had it down 3/8" I was running out of threads on the bolts and didn't want to push it. To lower further I'm assuming I'd need to go pick up longer bolts.

I've also heard lowering the CSB only ends up putting stress on the first joint.

 

Could you explain how you fixed this in step two? I guess I've never tired to disassemble anything on the drive line so I'm not familiar with how things get connected down there. In the past I've just played guess and check with my carrier bearing spacers.

 

Hoping that someone can chime in on this...plan to Google “fixing drive shaft phasing” but there has been a lot of great info here.