Shutter

[Prairie Dog]

Hey all, my truck has what I can only refer to as a bounce that starts at about 30 MPH and is at its worst at 40. After that it smooths out. It also has a bad shutter when taking off ~ especially in reverse. It also seems to be worse when everything is cold and gets better after I drive for awhile. I plan on replacing the U-joints and was wondering if perhaps the center support bearing could be adding to the problems. I have 62K on the truck.

FWIW I had the wheels & tires (all stock) checked & balanced, even had them lift the truck and run it in the air to check for problems. Nada.

I'm not sure how to tell if anything is worn out ~ any suggestions?



Here's a few pics ~ does anything look bad?





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I noticed the drive shaft sits on the bottom of the rubber instead of floating in the middle but I figure thats normal:

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Thanks,

Scotty

 

[CoastyAV8R]

I've noticed it's hard to tell when the ctr bearing support going bad unless it really come unzeus'd as I've replaced them before chasing a similar vibe problem and they may look servicable but in fact are worn out. Mine turned out to be a drive shaft that had a small dent in it that I have no idea where it came from. Have you inspected the drive shaft for dings or missing weights? I've had vehicles that get a bunch of road crud (usually tar like stuff) that builds up on the inside of the rims that causes an vibration as well but it sounds like your on the right track by looking at the u-joints and carrier bearing. When you drop the driveshaft you should be able to tell fairly easy if you have any binding in the u-joints.

 

[Prairie Dog]

I haven't looked at the shaft that closely, mostly because it never see's any off roading so I haven't suspected anything like that. But, I'll take a closer look.

I've actually replaced my tires and gone to stock aluminum rims which I painstakingly cleaned both front and back ~ they look so much better when they're clean all the way through. Maybe I should have the driveline checked out while I have it off. Whats the chance the drive shafts just been out of balance all this time?

 

[CoastyAV8R]

you would have noticed it. I don't offroad my truck, the only thing I can figure is something may have gotten kicked up going down the highway and ricocheted off the drive shaft. The truck would hit some weird harmonic around 50-60 mph and as long as I drove faster or slower it wasn't that bad but if it was out of balance, it would have been doing this for a while unless a weight just fell off which can happen. you can pull the driveshaft and take it to a driveshaft shop and they can check the balance and straightness for you at a reasonable price.

Has your truck done this since new or just recently?

Does it make a it difference when the truck is in 4wd? I seem to remember someone else having a vibe issue but when it was in 4 wd it didn't do it or not as badly.

If I were a bettin' man I would guess U-joint but when you pull the shaft you can check the u joints and take it to a driveshaft shop if you want the balance and straightness checked.

 

[Prairie Dog]

I hate to admit this but its done it since new but not this bad. Not really a vibration but more of a "bouncing" action, just like a wheel is badly out of round.

I rarely get a chance to use 4WD but when the tire shop had it running on the rack, there was no vibration in either 2 or 4WD and the tires and wheels ran perfectly true. I wish I had looked at the driveshaft spinning!

I can get it to bounce with the clutch pushed in and coasting FWIW.

 

[CoastyAV8R]

I remember there were quite a few trucks in 03 and 04 that had similar issues right off the showroom floor, some to the point Dodge bought them back. I want to say most were related to the driveshaft but I know there are others who know more about this than me. Do a search for "vibration" and I imagine you will bring up quite a bit of info.

 

[CoastyAV8R]

Dodge Ram: Vibration between 45 and 55 MPH | ShopTalk

This has some good info as well, the guy's truck has only 4000 miles and has a similar vibration.

 

[Prairie Dog]

interesting reading - thanks.

I'm going to check and see if there's any shops in the area that can check the shaft while it's out.

I remember the bad axle shafts from the 04's ~ I think they were aluminum? Mine is steel thankfully.

If I remember correctly, they fixed them by adding a big piece of heat-shrink to reinforce it.

 

[Prairie Dog]

Well I wrestled 3 new Precision 351A's into that one legged mechanical octopus but it made no difference. I did find one joint with two failing bearings so it wasn't a complete waste of time. FWIW, the carrier bearing checked out fine. I wanted to take the shaft to a local driveline place to get it balanced but that 7' long beast wouldn't fit in our other car.

I guess I need to find a driveline place that can pull it out of the truck themselves so I can just leave the whole rig with them (I hate doing that) .

The saga continues. .

 

[CoastyAV8R]

Since yours has been doing this since it was new, I think it's much deeper than U-joints. I cant' remember what the fix was but there were quite a few new 3rd gen Rams (03 & 04) that had similar issues from the factory. Some were driveshaft related, some were, rear end related.

 

[CoastyAV8R]

I read the other thread about the shutter and saw they mentioned chaning the pinion angle on the drive shaft with shims and it reminded that I think that was one of the fixes Dodge used on some truck for the problem. I think by taking it to a driveline shop, they would be able to look at all the factors and have atleast a general idea. I take it your truck is out of warranty?

 

[MrFixit]

To help with my shudder and pinion angle, I added air bags so I can maintain my near stock height when I load my 5er. Not perfect but helps quit a bit.

 

[Prairie Dog]

Yep, it's a few months outside the warranty. I don't really have a launch shutter problem outside of what the clutch causes (dang CON/OFE). If I let out the clutch at idle, and then power away, theres no shutter at all now so the joints did some good. Now I just have this strange vibration starting at 30 or so and climaxing at 40. After that it's smooth as can be.

 

[Prairie Dog]

Well, I thought I would dredge this up again because it looks like I have finally resolved the bounce issue.

For the record, I have replaced; Tires (with more stock Mich's), Wheels (1 was out of round so I installed factory aluminums) and even went to a 1 piece drive shaft but none of these things solved the problem. Today I installed 4 new TOYO 285/75 17's and the bounce is GONE!!. I'm amazed at how nice these tires ride. They're at least as good as the stockers and maybe better.