Wanna start off by saying this forum rocks! Ok so I hade my ujoints replaced on my 97 4runner 3.4 last year because of a skweeky noise. Noise went away and all seemed well until I went of of town and got up to higher speeds. Now there is a heavy vibration at about 65mph. Checked to see the ujoints were in there place and looked good. Had tires balanced and all good. I'm wondering what the probability of the shaft getting unbalanced would be...being that people usually have to heat up the ends and bang the joints out. i don't have a local place that checks or balances shafts and was told to just buy a new one... is there any way to check it myself before buying a new one?

 

Buying a new one is dumbarse advice.

Get it checked by someone competent.
Unbalanced or ujoints out of phase are simple fixes.

:wabbit2:

 

http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTri....shtml#Phasing

 

yeah I know...that's what I was thinking! It's like spending money for nothing....i wish I were sassy with these type of things but that phasing looks a little over my head.

 

It is simple, make sure the u-joints line up end to end (see the light blue line - runs from the center of the top bearing to the center of the lower bearing):

 

i'm going to try it...but I remember seeing a balancing tab on the shaft, and it looks to still be there. With the tab still there, is there a way to know if it's balanced? Is this phasing process just a troubleshoot or should this usually take care of the vibration?

 

1. Run it and see or 2. Have a shop test it. Obviously, you have done #1.


Well the shaft *MUST* be phased properly before it can even be checked for balance. If it is not phased properly then it *WILL* vibrate even if it is perfectly balanced. And if one orientation does not run smooth enough, try rotating one half of the shaft 180* and try it that way, some times one alignment will work better than the other. Ideally, the shaft halves should have been marked prior to working on them so that you could put it back on it proper orientation after working on it.