Driveshaft balancing question

Okay good info. Uhhh well I mean I’ve had these lug nuts on these wheels for quite a while now. I guess I’ll be swapping those out

 

Interesting, yeah usually you have to account for something happening from what you did when you worked on a vehicle when experiencing a difference right after. I could possibly see wheels not being centered on a hub leading to shaking because it's basically an unbalanced tire. You putting the wheels back on in a different fit (even slightly) to the hub could cause big changes at highway speeds. I posted an ebay listing to some I bought for my truck. 3 years without shaking.

I can't remember if they're regular or tall, based on looks they're the tall.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/383209094669?var=651742505686

 

Don't overlook plain old wheel balancing. I have a trail set of 32"s on american racing 16" wheels and a daily driver set of street 265/70/16's mounted on OEM wheels i bought 2nd hand. Had a good vibration (steering wheel shaking) at highway speeds with the oem setup and noticed it completly went away last time i threw on the 32's and went camping. Gonna have the street wheels/ tires re-balanced next week.

did you use a OEM or aftermarket carrier bearing? First time i did mine i went with a cheap $20 ebay deal and 10k miles later i sprung for a OEM one cause i still had vibration and it made a world of difference!

 

Went with the OEM carrier bearing and had all 4 wheels balanced right after the driveshaft.

I found a post about a similar sounding issue and the guy ended up having a store turn his new drums to fix the issue….hopefully that will be it.

https://www.toyotanation.com/threads/2001-tacoma-4x4-front-end-shaking-shuttering.397902/

 

Wheel balancing doesn't matter if they're not concentric with the hub.

 

I agree, I honestly wonder how much the mag nuts will make a difference. They’ll be here end of next week. But I’ve taken these tires off and put them on a few times now and never had an issue like this before. The other wheels I’ve had on without issue are these.

 

That's good data. The brakes seem to be the thing that potentially is causing it with the new parts / fitment on the drum then.

Mushy brake pedal seems related. If the system wasn't opened up hopefully it's just the poor fitment with the new parts / drums too.

 

so you're basically saying if his wheels are perfectly centered in the hubs he doesn't need any wheel/ tire balancing at all basically no weights?!? LMFAO

what an ignorant statement.

 

That’s not how I read that comment. He was saying if the wheels aren’t perfectly centered. Then there’s no point in balancing them. Because they’re not centered on the hub. (Incorrect lug nuts). But they still need to be balanced. There’s a difference. Relax

 

This . But yeah obviously wheels and tires need to be balanced. We were trying to pinpoint anything that could have happened to cause a big change in vibration between the time he parked the truck and put it back together again, so unless he knocked a weight off the wheel, regularly unbalanced wheels wouldn't have been a factor.

 

Thinking I need to revisit this as well.

 

At least in the video for the 4runner, he basically just gets the shoes close to good, then keeps pulling on the ebrake handle. I did that method and it worked to the point where the wheels lock up but not as much as my 2nd gen Tacoma. If I replaced the drums I could probably get it better, but it was good enough for me at the point where I was with it.

I know the Tacoma's pull and twist handle is different than the lever ebrake in the 4runner, but I'd imagine it doesn't matter as long as tension's being applied and removed from the adjuster.

 

Adjusting the rear brakes takes a little longer than you think. I’d adjust again you’re looking for slight drag.

Also the new drums might be out of round - this is totally possible with cheaper parts. Might be worth grabbing the NAPA ones so it’s local?

Adjusting the rear brakes will bring the pedal to a better feeling. I had the same issue with mine. If things were fine before and got worse after start with what you replaced. If you spin the wheel and hear it only contacting the shoes sometimes it might not be perfectly round.

 

Old drums are back on while I go get the new ones checked out. Death shudder is gone but some brake shudder for sure still present. Highway vibe still present.

I think I got the brakes adjusted a little better and the pedal feels more solid, back to normal as far as I can tell. I got them close with the star adjuster and then pulled the e-brake a few times with a consistent 12-15 click maximum. This is lower than the 20+ I was getting with the new, fresh out of box drums.

I will go get NAPA drums if the new ones are unsalvageable junk.

 

Did you clean all the rust off the hub and back of the wheels before installing new drums? Thats a common cause for vibrations and a low pedal following a brake job as the true new drum and uneven hub will have high and low spots which will cock everything a bit

 

I hit it with a wire brush best I could and didn’t notice anything egregious, but I’ll go back over it.

Edit to add this truck has spent the majority of its life in the mountain states and desert so the rust isn’t terrible.

New drums are being turned at Oreillys, the only shop I could find in town that would do it on a weekend, much less had the equipment and somebody with the willingness to watch a video and learn how to do it…

 

New drums turned and put on the truck, all mating surfaces thoroughly wire brushed and cleaned, brakes properly adjusted this time (big improvement here). 5-7 clicks on e-brake. Pedal is nice and firm with no death shudder on hard braking. Braking feels much improved.

There is still the highway vibe and steering wheel shake, especially upon braking at high speeds the steering wheel wobbles back and forth. I’m hoping the Bosch rotors and semi-metallic pads will put an end to all of this.

Also hoping I don’t have to mess with the calipers. I do have the wheel cylinders on hand but may return them…there was no sign of leaking and they seemed to operate without a hitch….they are carquest brand and I’d think the OEMs would be superior even after 30 years

OH and to Dalandser, I noticed I have ONE mag lug nut on one of my front tires. I have never seen it before and I surely would’ve noticed it as it is a 19mm hex. I’m thinking the tire shop put it on when they balanced and rotated the tires. It was just a smidge over finger tight. I’m wondering if the tire shop was attempting to send me some sort of subliminal message to change my lug nuts. Needless to say I jacked up the front end and torqued all lugs. Mag lugs on order.

 

Luckily shaking in the steering wheel is a classic sign of something in the front and not what you've done with the rear brakes.

If you do have mess with the calipers might as well do the Tundra swap I did that with the rear drums and it was so worth it.

 

Well, 24 mag lug nuts installed, front rotors and pads done and I’ve still got this steering wheel shake around 70 mph. Brakes feel very nice.

Rear drums and shoes replaced with Raybestos parts. New Toyota steering rack and ball joints installed recently with NAPA OTREs and driver side NAPA CV extended axle. Rear driveshaft balanced and one u-joint replaced. Wheels balanced and rust scrubbed, hubs scrubbed. Tires rotated.

Starting to think it’s narrowed down to wheel bearings, or could it be passenger CV axle with torn boot? Front driveshaft? Rear axle issue? Steering column maybe?

 

Is that in bold still a symptom of or has it gone away yet?