After 15 months finally got rid of the vibe

[2broke2smoke]

we tried everything ...

had a dealer that did everything i asked at his expense

we took off the driveshafts on the lift and still had the dang 70 mph vibe



real rhythmic ... .



well read a post on DTR and loosened the 2 transmission mount bolts and 2 engine "mount through bolts" as the shop manual calls 'em



viola!



no more 70 mph vibe Oo.



the odd thing is that this truck is GLASSY smooth now up to 75, even at low speeds the wife and i were amazed at the improvement



got a little hummin' at 75+



maybe the 35's? they've got 16k on 'em now with 1 rotation at 10k ... very little wear showing



gonna run it for a few days then may loosen 'em all up and place a piece of mine belt under the transmission mount ... we don't speed too much it just would be nice to get the truck perfect ... what the heck it'd be a 5 minute job anyway ... if you've got the vibe grab a 15mm deepwell (transmission) and two 18mm deep wells (motor mounts) and loosen 'em up now



it is AMAZING how smooth this thing is now even with the 35's can't imagine what it would be like with the stockers

 

[BSchulte]

could you be more explicit in what you did to loosen you transmission bolts? Is there a torque setting? My 04 vibrates @ 70-75 mph. Drives me crazy! I'm ready to have the whole truck taken apart to fix it. If there's a quick fix, I'm under my truck tomorow

thanks,

 

[bpenrod]

Did you just loosen them and let everything "fall into place" and re-tighten or did you manually realign something??

 

[Joseph Donnelly]

see John Holmes' articles in Issues 45 and 47 (p. 109, Ranch Dressing).

 

[2broke2smoke]

missed the article Mr Donnelly but that's exactly it ...



i loosened the motor mount bolts and the two 15mm transmission mount bolts that you can get to easily from under the crossmember ...



didn't align anything ... just drove 100' foreward and back a couple of times ... then shut truck off with transmission in neutral so nothing was in a bind and torqued everything back down ...



5 minutes of work and i can't emphasize it enough ... it is GLASSY smooth ...



gonna rotate the 35s this weekend and test drive it to see about the 75+ humming



but none of the rythmic vrammm-vrammm-vrammm at all



give it a shot ... even if i'm wrong it'll be 15 minutes of quality time with your trucks underneath ... look for leaks ... check u-joints ... whatever ... good luck

 

[Kry226]

Did you just loosen them and let everything "fall into place" and re-tighten or did you manually realign something??

The thread on DTR stated that the "discoverer" of said phenomenon loosened the 4 bolts, started the truck for a second then shut down and tightened everything back up.



Vibration thread here...



How crazy would it be if the fix to all our problems was 5 minutes and 4 bolts? DC would probably have a hormonal disturbance. :-laf

 

[WStoops]

The thread on DTR stated that the "discoverer" of said phenomenon loosened the 4 bolts, started the truck for a second then shut down and tightened everything back up.



My dealer told me about this last June. That was the first thing they tried on my truck. Unfortunately for me, no improvement.

 

[Kry226]

The thread on DTR stated that the "discoverer" of said phenomenon loosened the 4 bolts, started the truck for a second then shut down and tightened everything back up.



My dealer told me about this last June. That was the first thing they tried on my truck. Unfortunately for me, no improvement.

Well shucks. OK, so it's not a blanket fix.



Here's what I don't understand: We have had several members fix their vibration, in one way or another. But when it happens, and that member posts about it, the post draws very little interest. However, if a member posts a thread complaining about the vibration, we are bombarded with more complaints about the vibration and DC and we get pages and pages of cussing and speculation about it's cause, etc. Now do we really want to fix it? Maybe, but it seems some members are more interested in complaining than helping.



I am not talking about the members who have applied for and won their lemon law suits, and RIGHTLY SO.



Not looking for flames here. I agree, a $40k truck should come without the vibration option and DC should ante up in fixing these trucks. But come on now, members are so engrossed with the problem they have, they see what is a fix for one member as sorcery and tomfoolery.



I for one am excited for 2broke2smoke, but at the same time disappointed for WStoops. I just wish we had more helpers than complainers.



Again, not trying to start anything, but flame away if you must, because it'll just make my point all the more clearer.

 

[Mike B.]

I dropping off my 05 on monday for the 70 mph vibe. I'll try this over the weekend and see if I can cancel the service apt. I'll post my findings.



Mike

 

[LFalconer]

Good News

2Broke2Smoke - good news on your fix.



I posted this yesterday in the other forum [non eng / trans] hope this might help others.



All, I have been following TDR forum for sometime as a non-member. The level of discussions on this forum are far and away more technical / information than most other diesel truck forums!



Anyway - I have followed WStoops saga - sorry about your truck. Mine had similar vibe 68 to 72, buzz in steering wheel - an at 6000 miles I took it in. The dealer in Leesburg VA is excellent, and called DC Zone rep that day - no work was done. 10 days later the zone rep came and drove and verified vibe. He recommend to the dealer to use a just released Service Bulletin [ I did not get the number yet] that entails raising/ lowering the transfer case to change rear pinion angle.



After 2-3 attempts, the vibe in the 68-72 range is reduced / gone. I can't tell the difference from 50 mph to about 73 or so. What I do notice is that at 74 to about 77 there is a bit of "strumming" like a beat frequency recurring every 1 second or so. Especially noticeable when pulling 5000 lbs up 7% grade at WOT.



This was 1 week ago - so far the vibe has not recurred in the 68-72 range.



Next time the zone rep is in town, I have an appointment for him to ride with me and observe the 74-77 mph issue.



But all in all, Leesburg C/D has been an excellent dealer and these guys understand this problem, and want to help fix it. They did buy one truck back for same.



Luke

 

[WStoops]

... . I for one am excited for 2broke2smoke, but at the same time disappointed for WStoops. I just wish we had more helpers than complainers.



Again, not trying to start anything, but flame away if you must, because it'll just make my point all the more clearer.



I agree. I would say that what we are seeing here is a fairly intense level of anquish and frustration due to the fact that, although the symptoms are similar, there does appear to be one fix for all. Seemingly, what works to completely cure the vibration on one truck, fails to make any difference on another. It really is up to DC to find the common thread. They designed the thing and they screwed up. Even at this late date I would still prefer a fix to a buy back, but DC claims, as recently as my hearing on 2/24, that there is no problem. It's just the way they are. When they insult our intelligence like that it is no wonder there are frustrated people out here. There are some great minds here and some tenacious mechanics who will fix the occasional truck but, unfortunately not all. I think we need to keep DC's corporate feet to the fire.

 

[EErmert]

All - Is this vib just on autotran's, or on manual tran's also; how about LB vs. SB, 4X4; any commonality... Thanks in advance



'03 HO QC SLT 6SPD LIMITED SLIP SWB SRW 3500 WHITE Major MOPAR stuff

Eric

 

[tkerrigan]

On my 04. 5 6spd quad cab long bed, I put the truck up on a rack, turned the u-joints so that they were square with the floor and used my $49 costco lazer alighnment kit to shoot a line through the very front and back u-joints, the center u-joint was 1/4" to the driver's side. Loosened the center bearing mount bolts and slid the u-joint until it lined up, and got rid of the launch shudder it has had since new. This was at 5700 miles. The same thing could be done on the ground with a string, a plumb bob, and 3 guys. This could explain why loosening the mount and driving back and forth works only sometimes.