LodeRunner

This is my first post, but I've been reading this site now for the last month (great info). I bought a 95 V6 4wd automatic about a month ago for a good price, but it had a bad vibration. And after reading this site, it appears I'm not alone. The vibration started at about 50mph and got REAL bad about 70mph. I read every thread on this site and others that could cause vibration. It seemed that many were caused by tire-wheel balance issues (lug-centric). Well, I took off my wheel and found that it's hub-centric, so all the issues with improper wheel balancing do not apply. It appears the lug-centric issue started with 3rd gen 1996 and on. Still I'm thinking to get the wheels balanced, but I'm not convinced that this was the problem. Other info pointed to the driveshaft, u-joints, slip yoke out of phase, etc. After reading in my FSM, it says a potential cause of vibration is a stuck slip yoke. So, I removed the rear driveshaft and wow was surprised. The slip-yoke was definitely stuck, and the front u-joint was very rough and jerky; the rear u-joint was not as bad but still rough. Also to my surprise was the staked nut on the companion flange on the rearend of trans was LOOSE. I have read that this is a cause of vibration too. Now what caused what to go bad - I don't know. But I bought 2 new Toyota u-joints, and replaced them. But I had to hammer apart the slip-yoke. The guy who owned this truck before me must have used the wrong grease, because once I had it apart, the spline was covered in this hard, plastic-like grease residue that was baked on. I then cleaned it up and greased it real good. I then tightened the nut on the companion flange, restaked it, and reassymbled the driveshaft with new u-joints installed. I said a long prayer and then conducted my test drive, and hallelujah, the vibration was gone.

Now as I said before I don't know what caused what to go bad, but I know I had 3 things contributing to the vibration - loose nut on the companion flange, bad u-joints, and stuck slip-yoke. Thanks to everyone who educated me with all the info I gathered from this site regarding this problem.

One last thing I'm still puzzeled over though is the loose nut on the companion flange. This nut was finger loose and the companion flange would wiggle. The nut was properly staked. So my question is - How did it get loose? Very mysterious, but thanks again to all - my vibration is fixed - hallelujah!

SwampThing

Ahh congrats. Thats a good idea. Think I might check out my yoke. Got a bad vibration too, thanks for the idea!

mt_goat

Welcome to YT

Sounds like to me the crush sleave got crushed more after the nut was staked, but I've never messed with that myself (I run solid spacers in both my diffs and don't have to worry about that). Try searching about crush sleaves or spacers.

Edit: Here's one thread:
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/show...t=crush+sleave

ewong

Was the pinion nut an OEM "stake" or a rebuild stake?

vibrating shaft sure would loosen the pinion flange tho...

LodeRunner

I bought the replacement nut from Toyota. The flange that was loose was on the trans side not the diff side. I thought there was no preload or crush sleeve on the trans side. I torqued the nut to factory setting of 90 ft.lbs.

Thanks

mt_goat

Oh the tranny side huh, I don't know then.

dirtroads_33

I just took my '92 3.0L Automatic to a transmission shop to have a vibration looked at. The tech found the big nut on the flange on the tranny side of the rear driveshaft was LOOSE. Tightening it got rid of the vibration, big surprise there! This sounded similar to your prob so it can happen to '92's as well.

ROBOTSWEAT

Hi, I am working on replacing my the transfer case seal between the t-case and the front driveshaft, and I'm looking for recommendations on what I can use to un-stake the staked nut on the companion flange - have been to Cambodian tire and I didnt see anything I thought would work - it seems like they 'keyway' is about 3/16" and the smallest flat edge punch I could find was 3/8". I ended up picking up a 1/8th" SOLID AUGER PUNCH but that was less successful than the 3/16" screwdriver bit that I tried first. (I admit I'm a noob).

Any suggestions? In my haynes manual they show a guy using what looks like a 1/8" round punch, but that isnt going to fly in my case.

Thanks for any help.

InternetRoadkill

I used a blunt chisel to stake mine.

ROBOTSWEAT

its not so much the staking but the UN staking that I need to get dialed. Thanks though .

ROBOTSWEAT

For anyone reading this thread in the future, probably the best way to UNSTAKE this nut is to zip it off with an impact driver. 6'er of beer to bribe the guy at Cdn Tire to let me use his impact and I'm laughin.