Hi,
New member and first post here, however, been using this site for a almost 2 weeks now and found it to be very helpful, thank you!

Vehicle in question:
1995 Toyota 4runner 4x4 w/ rims, tires and shock upgrades. No body or suspension lifts or any serious modifications.


My question is: Can I remove the front drive shaft and drive the vehicle this way without any problems? I don't use the 4wd on this suv, so is it okay to remove it?
I've got vibration problems and don't care to spend anymore on trying to find the problem. I've done tire balance, front cv axles, brakes, rotors, a-arms, pitman arm, and still the same. I now think it's the front driveshaft or something in the transfer case. When under the vehicle, the front drive shaft has a slight play, is this normal?
Thanks,
DJ

 

Normal for slight play yes...
But you will be fine removing it if thats what you want to do...

 

Hey scuba,
Thanks for the quick reply! I think I've found the problem. I got under the 4runner today and found a bad U-Joint at the rear driveshaft. I was always looking up front for the problem and it never occured to me that the problem could be towards the rear. After reading most if not all the posts on vibration here, I'm 96% sure this is the problem. Thanks again and do you know if the rear driveshaft from a manual trans is the same as one on an auto trans 4runner of same engine and 4wd?

DJ

 

No, they are not the same length. The auto tranny w/ transfer case is about 6" longer (or more) than the manual w/ transfer case.

 

Manual and auto rear driveshafts are different. Just change the bad u-joint... it's a pretty easy job.

 

Wish I could change just the u-joint, but since I drove the car for about a month in this condition, I've also damaged the smaller end of the 2 piece rear driveshaft. The friction, clanking, banging, vibration, cracked one side of the mount, so that needs to be replaced. Thanks for the reply! I'm heading off the junk yards now and will look for an auto trans v6 4x4 4runner.

DJ

 

When you find one, make sure that you replace the u-joints before installing the "new to you" driveshaft.




Fred

 

Hey Fred,
Can you believe none of the MANY junk yards out here had the parts for my 4runner? Well, my mind went into overdrive and I finally decided to call 4x4 shops to see if they had any laying around and lo and behold!, my search is over and the owner of the shop (DH Built) only charged me a case of drinky, drinky. How cool is that? $10 for gas, $20 for the yoke and flange assembly and $20 for the new u-joint and the 4runner is running like a champ with absolutely no, out of the ordinary vibrations. Many thanks to yotatech and all that helped with the valuable information to help me save some money and the DIMyself project vibration. Till next project, Thank you!

Aloha,
DJ