With in the past six months I have spent a lot of $$$ on this truck and still haven't cured my vibration issue. The truck has 110k and this all started at about 90k. Since then I have replaced ball joints, every tie rod end and bar, shocks, steering stabilizer, transmission, torque converter, rear drive shaft universals, front axles, front universals twice, 1 front wheel bearing, and just put the third set of tires on my truck today. Its seems that every time that I have tires balanced and rotated it makes a little difference in the severity of the vib. I stood beside the guy as he did them and watched and only one rims had a slight hop that he said is normal and probably from a pot hole. The vibration is pretty severe from 62 mph and at about 80 it gets a little better but still has a really horrible vibration. Under 35 I can't really feel it and its not like I can feel it in the foot petal getting up to speeds. Guys its really bad, to the point that you can't see out the rear view mirror which is pretty annoying to deal with day after day at high way speeds. The vibration is coming from all over the truck and dosen't make a difference if I'm holding it wide open or just drifting down the road at highway speeds Before you could really feel it on the transfer case from the 4x4 stick but not as much now. The problem is a lot better if I can take the front drive shaft off and thats what I did until it started snowing. But thats not a solution by any means. I have had the front and rear diffs looked at and they said they mesh great. Have seen no unwanted wear on the front axles but it might be eating up universals now bc I can start to hear 1 going out again. I'm about out of things left to replace and told that I could have bent one of the diff. tubes. Has anyone heard of someone that had done something similar? I'm out of options and not really sure what to do next. Any thoughts would be greatly appriciated. Thanks

 

I'll try taking you through an analysis if you have the patience.
The vib starts around 60 and is mostly gone at 80.
It is a vertical shake all over the vehcile.
In addition to mirrows shaking, you can see hood moving, and steering wheel vib up and down.
You do not hear the vibration to any real extendt. Not a drumming in the ears. The vib shakes your body to some extendt.
have I described your issue? _________________
First request: Find a set of stock wheels and standard tires on a buddy truck and temp install on your truck. Road test.
What is the result? _____________________________________________

 

Yes you are close. At the vib is the worst from 60 to 80 but you can hear something. I didn't mention it in the book I wrote up top bc it would take me a lot to explain the noise. The noise is a low rumbling sound and I can't tell if its in the front or the rear. It is louder than I think and if somebody new rides in the truck they are just amazed that something is not seriously wrong. I guess I got used to it but I always wanted to know if others that I am passing can hear it? The stock tire theory is one of the first things I tried. My buddy bought a new one and pulled it the next week and wanted my tires. Just worked out I was looking for a set of stocks to experiment with.

 

have you had the front drive shaft and transfer case looked at?? the front driveshaft has a ballkit in it that may not have a grease fitting causing premature wear to it and a major vibration, but the transfer case does have a tendency to fail easily

 

Pull the front D-shaft, drive it and see what happens.

The only way you can check to see if the housing is bent is take it to a shop that has the proper equipment to check the housing. That requires taking the front end completely apart and have it checked with a jig bar and the proper pucks for that housing. There is a shop in Sacramento the builds custom housings for rock crawlers, D-44, D-60, Ford 9, and Toyota. So you might look for a shop in your area that does the same.

 

Yes I had done most of the work I listed myself except for changing the Drivers side front axle seal. Of course it wouldn't come out the tube and has to be disassembled to replace. He said the front drive shaft looked fine and that the gears looked good and meshed fine. While he had it apart he noticed something with the passengers side and replaced it as well. He did mention that the drivers side was a pain to get out and he had to use a punch to turn the old on out. ???? I have taken the front drive shaft off as a test and it is much better but still there. In fact before it started snowing I was driving with out the shaft to make highway speeds a little more bearable. I should mention that when I put it in 4 high the vibration is really extreme and can be noticed as low as 5mph and is really bad and I would only run it when it was a must. I never really thought transfer case bc it still goes into 4 wheel drive the same as new. Coming out of 4 wheel I almost have to come to a stop for the 4x4 to disengage and I was guessing that was a problem caused by the vib. Thanks guys I really do appreciate your suggestions.

 

Don't know which transfer case you have. Many TF cases are not designed to run in 4wd on solid surfaces.
Part time = off road only in 4H or 4L. Sometimes have to back up to disengage.
Full time or AWD = can run on solid surfaces as desired. Has a viscious coupling, or a differential in transfer case. The viscious coupling can fail, then vibrates.
From previous descriptions, suspected tire/wheel issue.

 

Ok... Who was the moron that jacked up the truck from the front diff?

I had a tow truck driver attempt it on the back of my truck. I chewed him a new ****.

 

i dont think that would matter...them axles are really tough. especially right on the diff.
i honestly dont even know what to tell you on this one...all i can say is good luck, and do you konw if the previous owner had an accident?

 

So what frequency is the vibe?

Is it a da-da-da-da-da-da-da type vibe that's about the frequency of the tire rotation? I had perfectly balanced tires (one was out of round) and it sucked. I felt it all the time.

I also have a higher frequency vibe, kind of a thrum, thrum, thrum, thrum that's rhythmic and starts at 60-ish and goes away at an indicated 73-ish. This is a driveline vibe that also vibrates my mirror.

There are two or three causes for this:

-First, an out of balance drive shaft. Worn, defective or improperly installed U-joints could be the cause. Even a shaft with good U-joints can be out of balance and shake the truck.
-Second, drivel line angles can play into this. I've been told driveline vibes are "normal" by the dealer, and some Cummins-equipped trucks have had this since 1989. There is nothing they will do. I've read (but can't verify) that you can shim the rear axle to help reduce the vibe.
-Third, your transfer case could be suspect. Mine came filled over 1 quart low from the factory. What effect that had on the mechanicals inside I don't know, but I didn't discover it for a couple thousand miles. I've seen reports of transfer case replacement curing the bad vibes. Was it the transfer case, or was it the R & R that cured the vibe? I don't know.

You may want to look in to Balance Masters. They're mercury-filled rings you place around the driveshaft. They will auto-balance the shaft when you're driving down the road. A cheap fix to try anyway, and much simpler than the hose-clamp method. Perhaps they will make the vibe tolerable?

If I had your truck and couldn't get rid of the vibe I'd probably trade it in at a dealership far from a freeway. That way the used-car manager won't notice it until it's too late

On edit-

Sorry about the lame vibe descriptions, but how else could I articulate in print what I've heard and felt?

Here's another thread on vibes:

https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...d.php?t=187411

 

I owned the truck since 18k and had no vibration issues until around 90k. I did run off of a dirt road and into a rock field. I wasn't going that fast but with my luck it split the side wall of the tire and cracked the rim right at the bead. I got a used rim and put a new tire on it. It wasn't until at least another couple thousand miles before the vib started. Before this truck I had a 2001 Ram Diesel and that one took my childhood beatings. I never done any hard core offroading in this one. The only one thing bad I ever done was pulling the truck on a dirt track. My father runs truck and tractor pulls and one time I was playing with on of our Allis- Chamlers at the track and someone talked me into hooking my truck into it. First couple runs went really easy and I allowed plenty of time to cool down between pulls. Every once in a while they change stuff on the sled and that gives us play time while they work with the sled. Any who, the truck never hopped until my last hook and right before the truck started to spin it jumped and made a horrible noise, cracking. I stopped and upon inspection I realize it broke both front universals. I thought no big deal it's just universals and I never replaced them before. Little did I know that when they broke the two yokes came together and kissed. Hard enough that the would not come out through the opening that the wheel bearing bolts to. I cut them out and trying to save $ I bought used ones and put new universals in. I just can't believe that would bend a housing, the shafts were fine it was just the yokes that got bent I still don't think that the vib started right away but I wasn't driving on the highway. About one month after that I then realized I have this nightmare. Are the axles the same on the 3500 trucks as ours? Maybe they mixed them up and gave me them instead. The only thing is the went in like new. After that I also had the rear shaft balanced and they said it was off a little but not much and made the correct changes. Has anyone seen that happen? First for me. Surely we have a couple pullers around with twice the HP as me. I know I never jacked the truck up by the housing but someone else could have. Could that bent one? Has anyone had a transfer case go bad and still work? The only thing left to replace would be the TC or the front diff and both are expensive and time consuming to put in. I didn't know that universals could go in wrong. I marked the yokes to match back up and then pressed them in and then put the clips on. Is that right? I mentioned that with the front drive shaft off the vib is much better. Does that say its got to be in the front end or that with the shaft on it multiplies the vibs coming from the rear? Thanks again guys.

 

I forgot, its def. a higher frequency vibe, kind of a thrum, thrum, thrum, thrum that's rhythmic. What are these mercury-filled rings that you mentioned? Has anyone had any luck with these? What are you talking about, your descriptions were right on. Reading your post I could hear and feel my truck going down the road at 70mph.

 

Les Schwabs does this to hundreds of trucks every day. I don't think it is an issue.

 

It might not be a problem when you're lifting a truck with a small block V-8 by putting the jack under a Dana 60 or 70. But, you should think twice about trying to lift an 8000 lb truck with 1100 lbs of Cummins in it by putting a jack under the center of that AAM. That's never a good idea.

 

It doesn't unless the housing is aluminum like on some Jeeps and Vettes... probably a few others as well.