Fixed 90% of my takeoff shudder and vibe for $3

Having the 5100s and TSB, I had a little takeoff shudder and 25mph vibes. However, the vibes existed before any mods done...

I went to Home Depot and got some washers, stacked them about 1/2" high between the carrier bearing housing to lower it (I'll get the exact washer type/amount because I've been experimenting for the last two hours and got it pretty good) and 90% of my vibes are gone. My takeoff shudder is nearly gone and the 25mph vibe is much much better. Size of the wrench is a 14 metric...

FWIW, this is not the common 25-45mph vibe that occurs after a lift that switching into 4wd cures...

 

Nice!

 

I did the same thing about a week ago! Used about 1/2" worth of washers. Caution: Please use longer bolts when stacking the washers.

Note: The carrier spacer from toytec is only 1/4".

 

correction- should say 1/2", had a early morning/long day

lanninja- did you find the need for longer bolts? i had no problem threading through the entire bracket?

 

I already had longer bolts from the carrier spacer kit. I'm just saying if you have the stock bolts, then they will be too short.

 

Maybe try some axle shims. That should take care of the rest of your vibes.

 

On my 08 Tacoma they put in 3 degree axle shims and the shudder at take off was gone.

 

Instead of shims, first try some helper springs. You can find them at autozone. Easy to install and they help with shudder when coming to a stop.

 

Which direction did you place the shim?
Thick (my guess) or thin facing the front of the truck.

 

..or you can buy this for $10.99 alot of people don't know that its NOT included in the toytec ultimate lift kit yet makes a huuuuge difference in drivetrain vibes

 

So what is actually causing the vibes when you do 5100's and the AAL/TSB?? Is it a camber/caster issue up front or what?

 

The driveline angles are changed when you lift the truck.
The angles need to be brought back into the same angles they were at.
Angle comming out of the trans. cannot change, The carrier bearing can be moved down with spacers, and the rear diff can be rotated with wedges to bring the angle back into a better angle.

Finding the exact amount can be a bit of a job doing a trial and error process.
I have spaced the carrier bearing down about a quarter inch. Still have a slight vibration at about 25 mph.

The wedges are a lot more work than the carrier spacers so I may try to drop it another quarter inch before trying the wedges.

 

could post a picture of the fix mentioned, I am totally ignorant of where the placement of the washers/shims would go. When I think of carrier I think of the rear pumpkin. I have the exact sysmtoms after installing the 5100's and AAL in the rear. I did not think with the 1.75 setting, I would encounter any significant change in dive line angles, but here is the shudder on take off up to about 12-15 mph then gone, no other vibes are evident. thanks for your help.

Update I found it here: http://www.customtacos.com/tech/index.php?article=27 , learning new terminology and locations everyday, sorry to be of trouble.

 

I tried this for my takeoff shudder and it cured the shudder but made the vibes worse at hwy speed.

 

Weird that it would do that. Maybe the diff. drop would do the trick.

I used to have really bad take off vibes which I just now figured out- thank you very much! Actually this makes perfect sense because when I installed my new 17" tires and rims the vibe disappeared. I guess the smaller tires had a bad angle to them which was messing up the drive shaft. Awesome!

 

I did this yesterday using washers. After I was done I drove around the block and the problem was still there...WTF...so I decided to look under the hood for some reason. I realized that my K&N filter had come a little loose and was banging on my fender under accel from a take off....

 

Same, I actually used the 1" diff drop spacers to drop the carrier bearing. The vibs at freeway speeds were awful. Guess maybe that was a little too much of a drop

 

Well I put in the 3 degree wedges in.
Big end to the back to raise the nose of the diff up a tad.
With my 2" AAL already in the U-Bolts are now at their limit on length.
I removed the washers to get the threads all the way through the bolts.

So far with just a bit of testing the 20 MPH vibe is gone.
I will be ordering some longer U-Bolts from Toytec to put the washers back in.

I am taking angle readings on the pinion, both drive shafts, and trans output flange before and after to try and understand where it is at.

The dang extra U-joint and two piece driveshaft kind of makes the process a bit more interesting.

More to come.