Strange Vibrations

[Axion]

Well, I did a search and found a bunch of information. I am hoping the culprit is u-joints (small $) vs a transmission or transfer case issue (big $). Here's my story and I appreciate any help and advise.



I'm not sure exactly when the vibration started, but I noticed it a couple of days ago when towing my 5th from Edmonton, AB to Trinidad, CO. The vibration starts off pretty severe from a dead stop, varies a bit while accelerating to a cruising speed of around 65 mph. While at cruise, the vibration is still there but not as bad. Any time you let off the throttle, the vibration disappears right away.



Once I arrived at my detination and parked the RV, I tried to isolate the vibration. When unloaded the vibration is pretty much the same. The only difference is that now I can hear a distinct "clunk" when you reapply throttle. I tried to replicate the problem with the truck in 4HI. When accelerating everything remained the same, the difference is that the vibration does not go away when throttle input is removed. Return to 2HI and vibration goes away with no throttle.



I have the truck booked into the local dealer to have it looked at on Friday. Any speculation and advise from the members here before I take in it will be greatly appreciated. Knowing what to ask and also what replacement parts to ask for (sealed vs greasable u-joints) will make a huge difference.

 

[jelag]

You don't list the total number of miles... but my 04 & 05 went about 45-50K miles before the main drive shaft joints went out... and I was at about 75K miles when I lost the joints in the front drive axle at the knuckles... .

U-Joint vibration usually gets worse under acceleration and lessens when coasting... . so you seem to have the right noises for u-joints... .

At the time we were not able to find greaseable joints and had to install the sealed units... we actually found ones with grease fittings but the body was so large that the body of the joint wouldn't fit into the yoke... .

Because we have several trucks, we just did the work in house...

I've got a long thread posted here on the joints in the front axle...

Hope this helps. .

 

[Axion]

I'm around 112000 km's (say 65000 miles). From what I can tell, thats prime time for a u-joint intervention. I'll keep this thread up to date as things progress.

 

[Axion]

Got word back from the dealership today. Rear u-joint on the rear driveshaft was toast. Apparently, in the meantime, the u-joint damaged the yoke on the driveshaft. And, you guessed it, the yoke is not a serviceable part. And just to top it all off, the two piece driveshaft can only be purchased as an entire unit.



So, I'm getting a stock replacement driveshaft installed. The OEM unit comes with all new u-joints so the search for better joints is delayed. If I had more time and didn't need the truck for work I would probably spend some time finding a better replacement option than OEM. I might look into if I can the original unit rebuilt somewhere and have it installed before the OEM replacement decides to tank.



Still, I guess the $650 repair bill is better than what it could have been.