I have searched the site and found some mention of the shakes or vibrations that these trucks get, but I have not found any real answers or fixes. Some say the tires, but I have balanced them at every tire shop around and the truck still shakes. I don't think it is the steering, the whole truck is shaking. I replaced one of the U joints on the drive shaft, the other appears good yet. Looking at the drive shaft, I wonder if this could be the problem. At the midpoint, there is a hanger bearing? That mount that supports the drive shaft. Mine has some play in it, I can push it up. It doesn't seem to be sitting at the mid point, but rather low instead. Could this be the problem? What is the correct name for this mount and has anyone tried to replace it? I am tired of the shake.

Oh yea, it is a 97 extra cab 4x4.

 

its called the carrier bearing and it could cause some shake but its more likely to make noise. Have you lifted the wheels off the ground and checked for bent axles? Had the same issue with an old isuzu and its was the axle, could have bought a new one for what I spent in tire balances.

 

I have not. Not sure how, but I guess it would involve watching the axle for run out? Do you mean the drive shaft?

I did read one post about tie rod ends being the problem. How do I check if the tie rod ends are going bad?

 

haha, isuzu axles always bend. when my mom had her 91 isuzu trooper, she took it offroad once, not very hard either, and bent the heck otu of the thing. now i jumped it and bent the axle like 40 degrees.... hehehhe

 

ok easy diagnostic. jack it up, and if one side is higher than the other, then the axle is bent or the frame is tweaked (i prefer thinking the axle is bent, since frame damage scares me) but shaking.. how good is your suspension? or ah ha, it might be your ebrake on. when i got my brake job done, the mechanic adjusted my ebrake, and it would shake like that, like, really bad. it could be that, have your brakes checked out and have them check your ebrake cable, it might be too tight.

 

I had the same problem with my truck. On the 3rd rebalance the tire guy noticed the tires were out of round. New set of tires fixed the problem. Make sure they use a lug nut adapter on the balancer as the stock rims are lug-centric. By the way, mine would only shake at speeds above 55mph.

 

My tires are new. I am thinking the tie rod ends. If there not bad, they soon will be with all this shaking.

 

A 97 extra cab is a nice Tacoma! When was the last time you replaced the shocks? They will cause your truck to shake like a leaf in a storm if they are wore out or the bushings are shot.
Forgot to ad,...jack up your truck and grab the wheel and see if you can shake it. If so it may be time for bearings .

 

My suspension is all new front and back, even new leaf springs. It shook before I put all this work into it. The shaking is less now, but still there.

 

Even though you had the tires balanced, doesnt mean there cant be soemthing wrong with 1 or more rims. My brother had the same issue with his vehicle. took it to be balanced atleast 5 or 6 times, before they said it was the rims that were bad.

Just a thought, hope you fix the issue.

 

How does a rim get bad? What about the spare, I could probably switch the bad rim with the spare rim. I think it is the same aluminum rim but will have to look. This truck is 10 years old and I just started having these issues.

 

honestly, i would have your ebrake cable checked. my truck did the same thing cuz the crackpot mechanic that did my brakes tightened it too much.

 

maybe a bent rim or curb rash....my tacoma does this to...... i gotta broken leaf, i beleive my shocks are still factory from 97, my one front tire has bad curb rash and a tiny crack.....atleast yours is narrowed down

 

I cant give an honest answer to that one, sorry. Things just happen???

 

THink I am gong to look into the tie rod ends. The E brake is functional and adjusted properly, so that rules it out. I don't really think it is a rim problem. Is there a write up on tie rod end replacement?

 

Well here is the update on this one. I had the tires balanced again at a different place. They put a cone on the balance machine, then mounted the wheel using what looked like a homade contraption that had rods that fit tight into each wheel hole. Long story short, it works fine now, shakes are gone. I do have a tire with a slight wobble I guess. Hit a pothole the guy suspects. Turned out to be less a problem than I was prepared for.