I know...a vibration issue. I will try to be as specific as possible, but this one has me stumped.

Occasionally there will be an abrupt and very loud vibration coming from my drive line. If I decelerate, it continues until the truck stops and then I can continue on my way. Sometimes it comes back sometimes it doesn't It will not go away if I keep driving or vary speeds and it is much more of a noise thing than a shaking thing. It is dependant on the speed I am going, not the gear or RPM.

It is cold here (-3 low right now) and snow is on the ground so I thought some snow accumulation was wedged between the tire and body, that is what it sounds like (something rubbing on the tread of the tire like a stick getting stuck there). I thought when I stopped it was just falling out. Problem is, I don't have any snow accumulation. The underside is pretty clean, nothing is against the tires and the drive shaft looks just fine.

Any ideas?


1994 3VZE 4X4 DLX single cab

 

to me sounds like u-joints crawl under there and give em a good wiggle

 

I just went out and they seem nice and tight. I will look into that a bit further though. Any other ideas?

 

I have had bad u-joints and it always made a vibration, but not the VERY loud sound I'm getting right now.

 

rear pinion nut?

lee

 

Ever drive thru water?Forget to drain it?Now it's ice?
Bigblock

 

This crossed my mind....ssome ice in the bell housing or something, but I didn't drive through any water since before or since the temp dropped.

I will have to check on the pinion nut.

 

by decelerate, do you mean just let off the gas pedal and coast, or do you mean kick it out of gear and coast (without drag from the engine)?

 

Pinion bearings i bet. Check to see if it is tight

 

It continues until I stop if I let off the gass or put in the clutch. It looks like a couple people think its the pinion. I will get under there this weekend.

 

you have a lift on the truck?

 

No lift. I will get under and check the pinion bolt in the morning.

 

checked the pinion bolt, still tight and staked. Still stumped. I still wonder if there is some ice in the bell housing. I don't have anywhere inside to park it to warm it up a bit to find out though. I will plug in the block heater, that may do the trick. Going back out to crawl all over it in the snow!!!

 

OK, so I did some driving and trouble shooting, it only makes the noise when i turn left in 2WD, shifting into 4WD or stopping cures the problem. Of course it doesn't happen EVERY time I turn left either. AHHH!!!

 

Manual hubs or ADD?

Has the DS ever been apart? Check that the u-joints are in the same plane ... don't ask how I know to look for that ...

 

ADD. The drive shaft has not been apart in years. I have no idea how to check if the u-joints are int eh same plane!!

 

Just look at them - they should both be like +, not one + and one x

 

thre rear is the same, the front is 90 degrees off. How the hell could that happen? Do I need to flip it around? Why would it be fine for the last few thousand miles and not now? AHHH!

 

Here are some pics:

 

bump...how do I fix this? Did it somehow work it's way out of alignment?