Still need help after reading - Take Off Vibration

Can you tell me how thick the spacer is in the OME CB Drop Kit?

I'm at 2" lift and think I need to do this...

 

Took my tacoma to a reputable 4x4 shop to see if they could address the issue last week and their diagnosis of the vibration was due to a failing driver side dakar leaf spring. They said it must have been a defective leaf from the start and upon acceleration it was causing some axel wrap. I have about 10k miles on the Dakars and have never had a load in the truck bed. Long story short OME was great to deal with and decided to warranty the driver side leaf. The new leaf spring should be in tomorrow and then installed by the end of the week. I will provide an update to share if that was the solution or not. Sounds a little strange to me but let's hope it works.

 

Interesting, thanks for sharing. I too installed a Dakar leaf pack and have about 10,000 miles on them. I was even chasing down the same vibration. But I have to say that what worked for me was to add a 3 degree shim under the axle. I even removed the supplied OME carrier bearing drop shim completely. Much better now. I have a DCSB. I recently loaded the truck up for a 4000 mile trip to newfoundland and labrodar, so mine are def broken in at this point. These things are so touchy...

 

Thanks for sharing -- I think messing with my shims (removing and trying other degree shims) and driveline angles will be my next move if the replacement dakar does not fix it. I find it hard to believe the driver side leaf was "failing" as I could not tell a difference in the two.

 

Update:

Got my truck back from the shop and they said the best setup was best without the shims and without the center bearing spacer (so exactly how it was from the factory). They did replace the driver side dakar leaf for free, however, it did not make any difference in the take off shudder. They did suggest the TSB transmission mount and I was able to get one from the local dealership and instal it myself. Cost about $80 and did make a difference, but there is still a noticeable shudder.

Back to the drawing board. Going to try the angle finder and mess with different degree shims and center bearing drops until I can nearly zero out the driveline angles to hopefully eliminate these vibrations.

 

good luck. im in the same boat as you. I have a take off shudder and put in axle shims that made it a lot better but was still there. then put in ome cb drop and that made it worse so took them out. now 3 days later of have a loud squeak when I take off or going less then 10mph. its a rotational squeak and im not sure where from yet.

 

Hmm. Haven't experienced the squeak.

I did make some progress today.

Recap: when I installed my lift initially, I had the 3 degree shims and had bad vibrations. I later installed the CB drop with the shims and it was better but still annoying. The next step and biggest help to date was the TSB transmission mount, but vibrations were still there. The TSB transmission mount shortened the span of the vibrations as they only lasted for a few mph as I accelerated rather than a span of about 5-6 mph before. As stated earlier in this thread, I took it to a shop and they had me run it without the shims and CB drop with the new tranny mount. The take off vibrations were better, but still there. They were very brief at take off and went away as soon as I got over 10 mph. I then decided to try the only combination I had not tested and that was the OME carrier bearing drop with no shims. This eliminated the vibrations!

After messing with my Tacoma and all the reading I have done, I am convinced I could have saved myself a lot of time by simply getting an angle finder and figuring out where I needed to adjust the angles of the driveline. All of the trucks seem to respond differently to lifts and the angles all seem to be different. Some Tacomas don't need the shims or a CB drop and never experience vibrations. Others need just the shims or just the CB drop. Trying different degree shims or different sized spacers based on the angles may be the best bet for someone who has had the same issues.

 

thanks Bennett I will have to try this. I have the shims in now. the guy who put my leafs in put the shims in at the time of install. I had the same take off shudder as you and when I put in the OME cb drop it made it worse so I took them back out. I will have to try this set up next.

 

also I stopped by Midas and they changed my u joint and my squeak was gone. still have the shudder.

 

Glad you got that fixed!


Update: Went to Colorado for the weekend and my truck sat at home for a few days. When I got back and drove the truck the vibrations were GONE! I had to run some errands and was out for about 30 minutes. The more I drove it, the more I noticed the vibrations coming back and slowly getting worse at each successive take off. By the end of the trip, the vibrations were back to normal and seem to get worse as the truck warms up/loosens up.

What could be the cause???

Is this a bad carrier bearing that gets loose once it warms up? Is this axel wrap that occurs once my leafs aren't stiff from sitting over the last few days? I also noticed that when I stop at a light my rear end seems to clunk or settle now. Is this axel wrap? I have new dakars and everything is tight.

 

Possible slip yoke issue? Anyone think fixing driveline angles and a new driveshaft will cure it?

 

I have this same issue with a 3"ish lift. I have a Expedition Leaf Pack in the rear from All Pro that added 3 inches, and Icon coil overs in the front raised to level it out with the rear. I have shims in the rear. I do not remember the angle amount.

I am driving a 2011 Dbl cab TRD with 61k on it. Trans fluid was changed last summer. I also had the drive shaft modified / lengthen to accommodate for the lift and correcting the spline engagement. It was shortened due to the lift. But, this did not correct the vibration.

I also had the carrier bearing dropped at one time with no corrections in the vibrations on take off. It has been removed at this point. I am going to remove the rear shims, check the results, and if not fixed, I will start again after measuring angles.

So at this point having lengthened the drive shaft did not correct the vibration, but it did correct the reduction in spline engagement.

 

Thanks for sharing the information. I don't have an accurate angle finder like the Wixey one so I am taking it to custom off road in OKC on friday morning to have them measure my driveline/pinion angles. If fixing the driveline angles doesn't help, I will look into lengthening the driveshaft. I will post a report when I learn more Friday.

 

Looking forward to seeing your results. Nothing wrong with having your drive shaft lengthened
to accommodate your current lift and get the full spline engagement. But it is certainly not a must.

 

Bennett do you want to lengthen the drive shaft or put on a 1 peace shaft?

 

OP- How far out is your slip yoke from the transmission? It needs to be pushed back in (ie longer driveshaft or driveshaft spacer). Mine was pulled out about 3/4" so I got a 3/4" driveshaft spacer from 4crawler and it solved my vib at take off problem. heres a link to his site.
http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/ForSale/DriveshaftSpacer.shtml#Note3

 

Doesn't matter as long as it fixes the vibration honestly. I am having angles measured friday and will report back. By the way, thanks for all the help from everyone.

Thanks for the suggestion and including the link!! I will go measure it tomorrow. This definitely makes sense. How hard is this to install?

 

Takes like 15 minutes to install. But take your time measuring your flange bolts because there are 2 different sizes for tacomas, 65mm and 66mm.Most take 65mm but some take 66mm (mine did and I know a few others that did too) Its easy to mess up (since only 1mm difference) and he tells on the site how to measure properly. pm me if you have any questions when measuring.

 

Update:

Took my truck to a shop in OKC on friday to use their angle finder and measure my driveline angles. Their report was that my truck was best without the shims or CB drop and the angles were within .6* and that I wasn't going to get it any closer. They then checked for axel wrap and any other possible issues that could be causing the driveline vibration and they simply suggested replacing the carrier bearing and the u-joints. They seemed to think there was too much play in the CB (although I am not sure there is).I am barely getting 3" of lift. I will replace the CB and U-joints this week and then report the results.

 

Update:

Took the driveline off and had the CB and u-joints replaced and balanced. Put the driveline back on and made sure everything was tight and there wasn't much improvement. The CB feels tighter but the longer I drive the truck and things seem to warm up, the vibration gets worse. The slip yoke appears to be in the driveline between the CB and the rear diff because I cannot see where to measure it as if it were coming out of the transmission (see above) so that I can add a spacer (too cheap to buy a one piece).

I stuck a go pro under there today to show how bad it shudders under acceleration.

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