Just fixed driveline vibration!!!For free!

That's exactly what happened to me earlier in this thread when I shimmed the rear pinion down 3* to match the TC output angle and aligned the first and second shaft to .5* Vibration got way worse not just a shudder so I had to remove the shim. My u-joints are greased and seem fine on inspection, no slop and removed drive shaft to check for smooth operation of joints on bench. Thought of changing all 3 just to be sure cuz I've run out of ideas aside from a one piece...

 

ill be honest.. my vibrations are almost non existant before i changed anything.. I did have a sligt shudder on takeoff but that was it. I feel like my truck has a hop in in.. more like feeling every bump.. i think im comming to realize that my expo spring rate is just to high for my truck with only 2-300lbs in the back.. im considering taking out a leave or 2.

 

i grease them every 5k with oil changes.. so about 1k ago.

 

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Thanks for all of your hard work. I spun my carrier 180* and my vibes are gone!!

 

Fixed My DriveLine Vibrations for $92.98​

for many months now i have always had a vibration at around 60 MPH and above, and have always contributed that vibration to a dented driveshaft as a result from being on the trail. over time, the vibration got worse at speed and started happening at lower speeds. i contributed the newer, lower speed vibration to a bad worn out carrier bearing. i was wrong, partially at least ...

2 weeks ago while on my way home all of sudden a LOUD clanking noise was coming from the area of the rear end, and also a slight constant vibration was felt. raised the rear tires of the ground with a floor jack and allowed the wheels to spin with the motor running and while in L gear. i can tell the noise was absolutely coming from the rear driveshaft. my girlfriend Jasmine says it's the u-joint that is making all of that noise. sure enough, it was the u-joint!!!

so we removed the rear drive shaft from the 3rd member and find the u-joint was destroyed. one axis of movement the u-joint would not move freely and when it did it felt like it was indexing metal to metal. and on the other axis of movement it moved too freely with out any resistance. i replaced the u-joint myself and was shocked that the cap literally fell from the the bad side..

there were no more needle bearings left in the cap, they had allturned to powder!!

how did this happen?

i remember 2 years ago while on the trail i scrapped over a pile of rocks that destroyed the grease fitting. and because of that i wasn't able to grease my rear u-joint.

now that i have replaced the bad u-joint i have no more vibrations at any speed! i also relocated the carrier bearing assembly by pushing it as forward or closest to the transfer case as possible. and by doing that i have decreased the amount of shudder i sometimes get while first accelerating from a dead stop. soon i will be replacing the other 2 u-joints and carrier bearing.


here are some pictures of the old u-joint:

 

I have not read this ENTIRE thread but a good chunk of it. Sorry if I missedsomething.

I have TSB + AAL + 5100's in the rear. Picked up vibs at 20 and 60 MPH afteradding the AAL and 5100s. It was perfect with stock and then after the TSB'stoo.

The logic of the posts about the measurements make sense, but I’m not sure Ihave interpreted my brothers gage correctly. Here is a video of taking themeasurements. If I did it bad, let me know and i will do another one. Hopefullythis will help others who are trying to figure out what to do before randomlyadding shims and flipping bearings.


http://youtu.be/ddo1zrptXUY


I am hoping someone who has done this a few times can tell me what I’mlooking at. Thanks to everyone’s contributions to this thread. it seems to be achronic issue after lifts.

 

I'm not sure if measure where you did on the axle housing correlates well to the actual pinion angle. Your shafts seem pretty well dead on. You need to measure t-case output angle and differential pinion angle. They need to be the same. IE 2* or whatever. I haven't measured from that point on the axle housing to see if it's the same as the pinion so IDK if it works or not. I measured right off the yoke of the pinion. You'll have to turn the shaft 180 degrees to get both the t-case output yoke and the pinion yoke to drop down correctly. Optionally pull the whole shaft and place the angle finder right on the flanges. OR stick a socket up into the yoke onto the u-joint and measure. Not all yokes are flat there but mine was and the measurements off the yoke and off the u-joint were the same.

Your shafts also need to be very similar, not absolutely at 0 though. Then you need to have them lined up left to right which is harder to do.

 

dont even bother.. all this bullshit physics doesn't work anyway... just drop your CB untill the problem disappears..

 

Told ya they were beating a dead horse, nice job buddy..

 

Why the hell is there a 2 piece drive shaft on the truck in the first place? seems to me just replace it with a one piece drive shaft and be done with it. most of you are calculating angles and stuff. doing 6 hours of work only to find out you made it worse to do 6 more hours of work to undo it. Drop the CB, or get a one piece drive shaft. glad i found out what my problem was though will be dropping the CB soon.

 

To the OP:

Brother, although I do applaud all the info you provided, it seems that a few others have just clogged the toilet so to speak with so much +/- 1,2,3,4, degree shim this shim that reshim this reshim that shim up shim down shim all around.......confusing the fuck out of everyone, you get my point here ?

& at the end of the day you still come back to dropping the Carrier 3/4"-1"

Sorry dude, I've done too many 2nd gens (& 1st gens.) to have it be anything else, I have yet to shim ANY 1st or 2nd gens after a susp. lift in rear...

 

Dana Spicer would tell you the same thing, u-joint angles have to cancel out and the two shafts need to be near parallel so the middle u-joint is near 0* operating angle.

A 2* shim in my case took away my vibes.

 

Ha Ha... So....
CB drop kit is $12 + shipping from ToyTec.
3* Shims are $30 + shipping from ToyTec.

Based on this thread, sometimes the CB drop works, other times (like for Max) the shims work. Sometimes neither work.

So try one, if it doesnt work shove the cash up the tail pipe and try the other.

Does anyone have a "tail pipe" shim to hold er' open while I shove random cash in? I didnt see one on ToyTecs web site.

 

Bought some 2* shims from advance auto for $6 and flipped my carrier bearing support, vibes are 10x less noticeable. I made my own CB drop from some metal stock from lowes for $3 but never used them.

 

i have been receiving a few PM's recently asking me about how i replaced my u-joint..

basically my method i chose to use was using a 5lb hammer and a 19mm socket to pound the end caps out. the 19mm socket fits perfectly on top of the cap and inside the yoke. i also soaked the end caps with PB Blaster well in advance. it takes a lot of pounding to get those caps out!! it's a bitch..took me at least 45-60 minutes of steady pounding just to get all 4 caps out of the yoke. plus more pounding the get the new caps back in place.

here's probably the most helpful youtube video explaining how it's properly done!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOEdul7nscY&feature=related

the tools that you will need to replace a u-joint..

PB Blaster:


vice:


snap ring pliers:


socket extension:


19mm socket


5lb Hammer: ..not Chris4x4's ban hammer which is actually pink..


grease gun:

 

Unfortunately my problems are still here..... Wheelers 1.5 aal w/o tsb Bad vibes from 0-40 then 55-65. Lowering the cb like 10x till it 1.25 or so inches down and much farther than level just for safeties sake w/ no change. Then I used the inclinometer across the whole driveline and found that the rear diff was up roughly 3* or 4* so I tried shimming it down to the angle of the tc and made things much worse.... funny thing is when I shimmed it up to like 5* it was better by maybe 50% but still intolerable... Not sure what else to do..... U joints are greased but I was thinking of replacing them just to make sure.... Im running out of ideas! 3 days of trying and buying and nothing has worked

 

Just a quick rebuttal to a PM....

Every member's truck on this list (& a few that aren't on it) have had absolutely NO VIBE ISSUES at all, & if there was a vibe it all went away by dropping the center bearing 3/4"-1".....

feel free to PM anyone of them for info...

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv


Current OMD spring users.....

So far there are these members running my springs:

1 myself 1st gen

2 Recklesstaco (matt)- 2nd gen

3 taco_me_elmo (micah) 1st gen

4 00taco00 (Reagan) 1st gen

5 CSJUMPER2003 (chris) 2nd gen 4x

6 Gregero (Greg) -2nd gen.

7 Donnod - 2nd gen (out of Las Vegas)

8 S.B. (Sean)-2nd gen. is getting ready to do this MOD also

9 Tmectaco79 (Adam) -2nd gen is pending

10 Fiddynut- 1st gen. he just did this

11 Enduromatic (matt) 1st gen (Oregon)

12 goufcustom (michael) 2nd gen

13 Res4cue (John) 2nd gen

 

What are you talking about dude? Chevy 63s?

 

Pretty close, haha , I know about the 63's & thought about going that route but wasn't in a big hurry to start hacking & relocating hangers so I figured before I did I had to try the lazy mans way & just add some better steel to the existing packs, the results I got were so damned outstanding.

Not only did I get the 3" lift I wanted/needed but it made all the stock Tacoma spring issues go away, no more axle wrap, 200% better on/offroad ride, almost 2 years now & still have 3" lift with awesome ride.

In all honesty, I had the typical vibe that can occur after a lift, so I made a couple spacers for the carrier (1 set at 3/4" & 1- set at 1") the 3/4" did the trick ..

I'm using Chevy & Ford truck springs for donors