Armalite

I have a 1988 pickup 4x4 standard cab 22re. The problem I have is the left rear of the truck will shake mildly at 55 ish and get worse at 65. When I say shake I mean it vibrates like an out of balance tire. I know its not a tire because I have balanced them 5 times and the 5th time was with the haweka adapter. I also don't think it is a tire because I have swapped the rears and the vibe stays on the back left and I swapped the left rear with a spare on a different rim with the same results. Accelerating or coasting doesn't change it.

Things I have checked
1. Replaced both rear ujoints
2.Found slop in the xfer case flange/was a loose flange nut so I tightened it and the slop went away.
3.Rear flange has no slop
4.Wheel bearings feel tight with no wiggle

Things I am considering
1. drive shaft balance/Would this cause only one side to shake?
2. bad carrier bearing/Would this affect it or am i crazy?
3. bent axle shaft/My brain thinks this would be bad at all speeds but I am not sure.

This problem is making me crazy...any thoughts on the next step to solve this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

CJM

Bent axle shaft.

driveshafter

the front driveshaft is on the driver side so it could be what youre discribing is textbook need rebuild on driveshaft look at my name and perofile and pm me with a more detaild information

Innocent Fool

Put it on stands and put it in drive.
Makes it easier to see if anything's bent

driveshafter

it might not look bent and the ujoints will feal good with tyhe wiggle shake check . look for rust on the seals of ujoints

driveshafter

if the ujoints or the center yolk on a cv are bad it will shake or the slip yoke and stub are loose that will vibr alsdo what i do is put in neutrasl yhis takes all pressure off dline and check for runout

Armalite

I put the truck truck on stands and in drive. If I let the wheels free spin the right rear will spin and the left rear will stop... open diff = power to the wheel with less resistance. If I hold the right rear in place the left rear spins but i can feel an intermittent drag or burst of resistance through it. Feels like a bent rotor would on front brakes as it rotates it drags once each revolution...

I think i will tear into the drum brakes. Could this still be a bent axle shaft? How could I tell if it was a bent axle?

Armalite

I changed out the entire left rear axle and brake assembly and still have the same issue. Tomorrow I will throw some u joints in a spare drive shaft I have and bolt it in.

VTToy

good luck ! I had a 87 {my first yota pickup} it was about 2yrs old when I bought it I drove it for maybe 4-5 yrs then had a set of new tires put on and that's when mine started to do the same thing . the place I bought the tires from replaced them 4 times thinking it was the tires which it wasn't , they checked the whole truck pulled everything apart but couldn't find anything after that I took it to another garage that I had gone to a lot the went back through everything again pulled everything apart replaced anything that looked so-so but never got it to stop , couldn't find a dam thing wrong with it all weights were on the shafts,no big amounts of rust on anything rear end was straight etc. ended up driving it like that for another 3 to 4 yrs like that never had anything go wrong with it but that always pissed me off ! miss that truck ! wish I could tell you what caused my problem but I cant I hope you find out what is wrong with yours.

driveshafter

if youre spare is bad youll still get a vib

Armalite

I finally got around to swapping the drive shaft and it still shakes....
When its on stands and in first gear I can see the drive shaft rotating a little bit out of round. I tried to wiggle it and the only play I can find is the xfer case output shaft flange. If I push on the drive shaft you can hear a faint click at the xfer case. It is very minor play.
Is that enough to throw the whole thing out of balance?

Armalite

Thanks
I am almost to the point where I want to push it of the cliff......but its my baby and couldn't forgive myself if I did it.

Armalite

True but I feel like after balancing them 5 times, rotating tires, and swapping in a spare all with the exact vibe it couldn't be tires.
Will stick rims from a 2013 tacoma fit on my 88? If they do I could swap out all 4 for the 4 on my tacoma which I know ride smooth.

Armalite

I bought an angle finder and found out the difference from xfer case and pinion is 5 degrees. Who votes that as my problem?

driveshafter

i still think if you replace the ujoints and re ballance the ds youll fix the problem like i said . check the runout on the flance if its offg even .005 degrees then it will vibrate it might be small but when you extend a straight line 4 foot .005 turns into 5.00 like a fulcrum point

driveshafter

i misspelled flange sorry

MaK92-4RnR

getting a drive shaft balanced is very cheap. Locally here in sacramento they do it for about 75-120 bucks, depending on what needs to be done. They'll also rebuild your driveshaft with new U joints for a bit more.

if you've rotated and balanced your tires more than once and you have a vibration still. definitely not the tires.

to see if you have a bent axle shaft. jack it up. put it in first gear. and let it roll. be sure to chock your front tires so nothing moves. if your tires rotate all goofy theres your problem.

cant really be anything other than those. unless your gears were installed wrong, if you're geared.

Armalite

Thanks for the replies. I dropped the driveshaft off at a local shop this morning and wont get it back till thursday or monday. When I get it back ill let you know how it rides and go from there.

rhill

Sorry if I didn't read everything clearly enough...but have you tried driving around in front wheel drive while the rear driveshaft is off? I guess you already took the shaft to the shop...but if the vibration goes away you know your problem is somewhere back there.

Polaris2012

you mentioned that you had a little play in the transfer case. A little play can make a vib. I had hardly any play at all in my pinion end and I had a bad vibration. Ended up having the rear end rebuilt and the vib went away. i was shocked that the little play I had caused the truck to shake as bad as it did.