dcman27

Hi there all. I noticed my 04 dually has developed a shudder at 22000 miles. It is a vibration that is present when I accelerate and sometimes on deceleration. If I push in the clutch the shudder goes away. The engine seems to run fine so perhaps someone has dealt with this and can offer some pointers on what to look at. I did crawl under the truck and grab the drive shaft and it seems to have no play in the joints.
Dan

PourinDiesel

This is exactly what happend to my truck at the exact same mileage.
The U joint at my transfer case froze up and was causing a vibration while accelerating and decelerating.

You wont feel it when the clutch is pushed in because there is no load on the drive train at that point.

This is very common with 6 speed long wheel base trucks (thats what mine is).

If you want to install some good greasable joints go to napa and ask for a 351A precision U joint.

dodgezilla04

i agree with chris. mine did the same thing, only my center joint was seized. take a ride for a few miles. park the truck and then feel the temperature of the joints. One of them will be really HOT. But, change them all.

jdh

Another vote for u-joints. Often you won't be able to feel any play in the shafts, thus dodgezilla's recommendation for checking the temp.

dodgezilla04

yep mine were good and tight(because they were seized ) the only way to pin down which one is the bad one. but for the $30, just do all of them while you have the shaft out.

and..... mark the carrier bearing to mounting bracket for location before taking it out, and the indexing of the flange at the diff. install it in the same orientation, and location as when it came out.

desertdieselboy

Is it like a death wobble front end shaking? Mine does this (and scared the sheat out of me the first time) when I`m accerating hard only. It does need an alignment, but I`ve heard the Dodges & Jeeps have the same front end issues due to the solid axle/coil spring set-up. I`ve heard that the trackbars are a know issue.

What else has anyone found to cause this?
-ujoints?

dodgezilla04

mine felt like a wheel was really out of balance.
you can jack it up(safely) and run it to the speed where you feel the vibes. look at the shaft, it will be jumping around on the carrier bearing. your long bed, 6speed will have 3 ujoints on the back shaft.

DMH

Ever since I bought my truck (August, 04), I have had a very slight "launch shudder" on my truck. I brought it to the local dealer shortly after buying it to have it checked out and they told me that "everything was within specs." So I continued to drive it. It didn't seem to bother anything.

The next thing that happened was a very severe shudder/vibration on deceleration that happened when I came off the freeway on my home from work. I had it towed to the dealer and they found a weight had been thrown from the rear half of the driveline. It got fixed and everything was fine again, except for that very slight launch shudder.

The last couple of days, I noticed that the launch shudder had suddenly got very worse, so I dropped by the dealer yesterday on my way home from work and had a tech ride with me. After the ride, he told me it felt like a u-joint going bad. This morning, the service rep called me and told me they had dropped the driveline and could find nothing wrong with it and it needed further diagnoses, at an hourly charge, and it would take about 2 hours.

I stated that this is something that should be covered under my powertrain warranty and he said he wasn't sure because of the after-market stuff I had on my truck. I stopped him right there and asked him "what after-market stuff". He said, "Well, the jake brake" and I stopped him again and said "that is not after-market. Sure, it was installed after I got the truck, but it is an authorized addition by both Dodge and Cummins." He then said that they have to look at everything. I said go ahead and look all you want, but I have never "bombed" my truck with anything, it is pure stock.

Well, anyway, they will have my truck for at least a couple days now to diagnose what the likely problem is and get it fixed.

But, to try and blame a jake brake for an acceleration vibration? when the jake isn't even operating? I think they are really pulling at straws to try to "void" my warranty. They will have a fight on their hands if they try to blame this shudder/vibration on anything I did to the truck.

I am sure that it is something in the transmission, drivetrain or differential and that it will be covered under my warranty.

Sorry for the long post.

DMH

Bark

PourinDiesel! or one of you other wizards:: Do you know if the Napa 351A precision U-joint is the same for non-dually long wheel base trucks? Also, is it the same part for all of the joints or just the one up front?

belgianmagic

I think you will find that this will be from the carrier barring being 1/2 " too high... they all do it ...but put some wt in the bed and it stops

PourinDiesel

Its the same part for all 3 rear u joints on the 6 speed regardless of single or dual wheel status.

Bark

Thanks..Good part number to write down for future ref.

frankieB

DMH, please update on what your dealer says. My truck does the same thing and I was told its normal for the split driveshaft lwb trucks.

belgianmagic, the weight thing hasn't worked for me on numerous occasions. Can we shim the carrier bearing down 1/2"?

PourinDiesel

I shimmed mine down 1/4". I did try the 1/2" but it made the shafts too straight and I felt that the u joint needles wouldnt get the proper rotation if I left it that way.

Trust me guys when its said and done 3 greasable u joints and you'll be happy as a pig in you know what.
Keep them greased up and they'll last forever and your shudder will be history!

If you want some history on my vehicle:
I originally heard about the driveshaft angle issue and it is documented with dodge. Well I fixed the issue with the carrier bearing spacer I made at home with a piece of 1/4" steel.
This cured the shudder I was feeling for several months....
THIS ONLY MASKS THE TRUE ISSUE!!
One day while driving in town pretty hard the rear started vibrating terribly. I took it to a friend at the time and we changed out 3 of the u joints....
The one at the T case was completely FROZE and black as night. The needles were smoked/gone. The one at the rear was on the way out. The only joint that was somewhat ok (if that) was the center at the carrier.

Oh yeah...the carrier bearings are fine. Many think these are the issue but its not the case...

BEEN THERE DONE THAT GUYS!!
The dealer will always say "we checked the u joints are fine"...what they wont tell you is that there is no way to check a u joint when it is installed to tell its good or not.
Mine all felt fine when installed and when we removed the shaft. When we actually removed the joints to replace is when we discovered they were smoked.
A friend who is a mechanic was amazed that at 22k miles my new truck needed 3 new u joints.

Vinceg99

Mine gets worse especially in reverse.

I think im going to have to look into U joints.