First Week of Ownership Update & Brake/Vibration Questions

It's been about a week since I purchased my Tundra. A 2002 AC 4.7V8 4WD. And I have to say, it is fun as hell to drive and runs so smooth. However, after the first few days I started to notice a couple of things. None of these symptoms seemed present during the test drive or the first couple times I drove, but have now progressively become more noticeable.

1. About 1/4 of the time that I drive it, I notice that after getting at about 40-50mph there is a fairly violent shake of the whole truck (the chassis, and all the way up through the steering wheel). If I let off the gas then it intensifies. No audible sound or clanking, or jerking, and does not feel to be transmission struggling or engine misfiring, etc.
2. When breaking and coming to stop, the front of the truck vibrates and the steering wheel shakes until I stop. Breaking doesn't feel great, but not completely terrible and pedal is not tight but not overly soft or mushy. and the rear doesn't feel like it's lifting up/or that I'm being rear ended.

I'm aware that # 2 is likely warped rotors (even though seller supposedly put new brakes and rotors on) after scouring through all the incredibly detailed and helpful threads this community has created on this topic, I plan on lifting the rear this weekend (weather permitting) and doing a rear brake and ebrake/PB adjustment. Just last night I tested my ebrake--threw the truck in drive (with PB on) and it easily moved without even hitting gas. Same result with putting in reverse. Today, at a different parking spot I could only replicate this in reverse only. Both on level ground. This leads me to believe that rear shoes are probably not engaging with the drums even though I get 8 clicks when pushing down the PB to floor. Seller supposedly replaced the shoes and drums as well, but likely never adjusted properly leading to the fronts being used more heavily causing overheat and warping.

For #1, I'm thinking it is possible it could be related to the rear brake issue not being adjusted properly. I also realize the driveshaft needs to be greased which may help with the shaking/vibration. Other possible culprits: U joints, carrier bearing, wheel bearings, wheel alignment or tire balance. Tires are new and I have record of alignment provided from seller. I plan on buying a grease gun and NLGI No.2 to grease properly.

Today I quickly rolled under the truck to briefly see what everything looks like before I dropped it off to get the frame treated with woolwax and took some pictures. I will lift the back and take a closer look after I get the truck back. My takeaways so far are that I may need to replace the U joints as they are bone dry and some look rusted up pretty good. Also, I saw zero sign of any zerks anywhere on the driveshaft and on the points shown in the diagram below. I am wondering if they could possibly be on the top side of the driveshaft facing up since I did not have it in neutral nor spun the shaft to check...I'll post pics but it does have me concerned that I didn't see any on this quick check up.

While I was under there, I checked the bell cranks (though I did not remove the ebrake cable off them to see if they pull back) and they look pretty rusted up, even the springs weren't too springy but they weren't all the way frozen up either. Bell cranks didn't move at all when I pulled on them so I'm thinking they should probably be replaced? But again, that's without me disconnecting the PB line from them. I also checked all pivot points and turn buckles as outlined in other threads. Equalizer and bushings dont seem to be in great shape. The PB line itself didn't seem too stretched or really rusted. But I did notice the passenger side was very loose when the PB was not engaged while the driver side stayed taut. But it did become taut again once the PB was engaged.

I'll have better updates to answer some of my own questions that I posed here after I get the rear on stands and get a better look. For now, I will post all pictures I took to get everyone's thoughts and any of which would be much appreciated.



Here are the other threads I already read through in their entirety on each topic fyi(with absolutely invaluable info btw):
https://www.tundras.com/threads/black-hole-zerk-wtf.93630/
https://www.tundras.com/threads/2005-tundra-limited-shudder.101609/#post-2602844
https://www.tundras.com/threads/jolt-when-stopping-at-a-light.60699/#post-1590947

https://www.tundras.com/threads/e-brake-cable-slack.41681/page-2
https://www.tundras.com/threads/2006-tundra-e-brake-slack.49687/
https://www.tundras.com/threads/1st-generation-tundra-parking-brade-adjustment.39544/
https://www.tundras.com/threads/rear-brake-adjustment-theory-and-practice.99575/

 

Pictures of drive shaft

 

Another good one:

https://www.tundras.com/threads/grease-your-drive-shaft-you-lazy-sods.55067/

 

Pictures of PB line, turn buckles, equalizer, and bell crank








Mine does not look to be in as good condition as Aerindel's was taken from his post here:

Back to mine:

 

You appear to have a spacer on your carrier bearing? Also some fresh bolts there for some reason.

 

Thank you, sounds like it was a U joint that fixed his, however mine seems to be the opposite effect--when I lay off the gas it vibrates even more instead of going away. Regardless I think replacing mine at this point is a good idea and hopefully solves my issue as well.

 

Likely from when the frame was replaced (recall replacement in October from when seller took to dealer to get done)--I'm guessing the previous bolts were too rusted to put back on and were just replaced with fresh ones.

 

Could be an optical illusion, but make sure the carrier bearing is bolted to the frame with no spacers between it and the frame. You appear to have no rear lift, so no spacer is needed.

 

Yeah just stock height for both front and rear and no lift kit added. So you mean both this washer and spacer where the bolt is right? Here is another angle of what you pointed out.

 

If you are driving in the 40-50mph speeds and it starts to wobble, i would venture to say a tire might be out of round, like the belts have buckled and the tire is becoming a big egg.
I have had a tire or two do this to me over the years, and also seen plenty of vehicles driving the road with an out of round tire. You can see them on the road by seeing the tire hopping up and down while driving down the road. This also forces the suspension to bounce up and down, which if its on the rear of a vehicle you can see the bed dancing around as the frame flexes as well.
One easy way to check would be jack the vehicle up and spin the tires by hand and see if you can see one that looks out of round, when the belts separate and a tire starts to get egg shaped, it will normally grow 2-3" in one direction so it literally will wobble as you spin it and be pretty visibly out of round.

Also, cheap tires are not great tires and even cheap tires can and will have run-out on them even new. I wont buy walmart tires not even for a trailer, even their goodyear car tires have been out of round straight off the shelf. I bought a cheap tire from a tire shop while i was on a trip once cause i had one get a 1/4" air chuck in it. I had a spare and put it on to get to a tire shop and bought a new tire that matched my size and continued my trip with the new tire on my OEM wheel. Within about 500 miles that new tire must have busted a belt and it egged and was wobbling so bad i had to stop and put on my spare. First thing i would do is check to make sure the tires are round, an easy way is to jack up each corner and spin the tire by hand. If one looks suspect for being out of round you can put it on the rear and with the rear end jacked up you can put the truck in gear and let the tires spin faster and see if one is "wobbly"
If one has runout, you can pretty much forget about it feeling smooth, even with a good balance, you'll still have it bouncing up and down every rotation.

 

Your rear brakes are definitely out of adjustment. I'm also guessing that your parking brake equalizer and bellcranks are seized. I was able to free up my equalizer pivot pretty easily, but I replaced my bellcrank assemblies instead of trying to get my old ones unstuck. Yours don't look too bad- try sticking a long screwdriver into the end where the cable attaches to get some leverage. Sometimes you can get the rear brakes properly adjusted with lots and lots of parking brake use, but that's only if the cable is properly adjusted. You mentioned that you get 8 clicks- this makes me think that your cable is pretty far out of adjustment. I believe you can adjust the cable via a turnbuckle below the drivers seat area.

You'll be shocked how much better your truck stops once your rear brakes are set correctly.

As for your driveshaft, try greasing the U-joints before you buy any parts. I use a grease gun tip like this:

$6 Grease Needle Nozzle, Needle Nose Grease Dispenser, Grease Gun Fittings and Gun Tips, Narrow Needle Greaser Adapter with 1/8" NPT Threads (1 Pack)

https://www.amazon.com/Dispenser-Fittings-Greaser-Adapter-Threads/dp/B0BBVKFGRS?th=1. You'll have to jack up the rear axle and put it in neutral to spin the driveshaft and get all the zerks, but it isn't too tricky.

 

The center joint (double cardan) calls for a Moly based grease, this usually costs more money but you can use it on every joint in the drive shaft. This is one @shifty` recommends

$11 Valvoline Moly-Fortified Gray Full Synthetic Grease 14.1 OZ Cartridge

LINK

 

Thank you,I'll give the tires a look for sure since Ill be jacking the rear for rear brake adjustments anyway. I'm leaning towards this more having to do with the driveshaft not being greased and/or bad U joints since the truck only vibrates at 40mph only on occasion and not every time. But going to check every possibility I can regardless. They are new tires but I suspect they are cheaper. Just pulled the service records he sent me: they are Advanta HTR-800s he ordered from TireRack--no experience with these so I'm not sure if they're considered cheaper quality b looks like they are readily available at Walmart so maybe that answers it.

 

Thank you for taking a look. Yeah I think I'll just order replacement OEM bell cranks (heard mixed things about the dormans) they look to only be $25 a piece from local toyota dealers here--Even if I did loosen them up, I think they probably won't last much longer based on the current condition. Are you supposed to be able to move the equalizer pivot by hand with the PB disengaged or just be able to move it no matter what? I'm trying to figure out how I can test if it is seized or not and if I'll need to replace the whole bracket or just the bolt/bushings if it is. I'll try the turnbuckle under the seat as well--soo many factors on this PB brake system to track.

I'll give the grease a try first and see how it feels after, I didn't see the zerks when i checked but I also didn't put it in neutral and spin the shaft yet. Hoping the zerks are in good shape--will order those needle attachments too though

 

I saw he mentioned that. Amazon didn't have the 14.oz cartridge one available so I ordered this

$15 Valvoline Palladium #2 3% Moly, Heavy Duty (HD) Grease 14.1 OZ Cartridge

HD version instead of the full synthetic. It has 3% moly, I thought I read somewhere that the full syn had 3% also, but I don't see that anywhere on the product page/description but if not then I'll just order the tub of Full Syn instead to be safe. And plan on picking up a Holt grease gun (already ordered the Lincoln 90 degree nozzle attachment)

 

I recommend the Palladium #2. It's 3% which is compatible with the UBJ in my SPC upper control arms. There's nothing wrong with the other Valvoline $9 stuff, but it's only 2.5% moly, IIRC, and I can't use it.

There's no reason you can't save $4 buying the cheaper tube. But for me, I only have two grease guns I can use for standard zerks, and I prefer having marine/multipurpose grease in one, and moly-fortified grease for my driveline in the other. I can't load both guns up with moly-based grease.

 

I used the Dorman bellcrank kit when I did my brakes, and I was pleased with the quality. It came with all of the hardware needed, including the mounting bolts. However, if you can get a deal on the whole assembly from Toyota- that’s a better option.

After I got my equalizer pivot freed up, I was able to move it by hand, but my cable wasn’t adjusted correctly, so one side had some slack. Mine looked a lot worse than yours does, but I heated up the nut with a torch until it was very hot, and the bolt came right out. This melted the rubber bushings, but I believe new ones were pretty cheap. Use lots of grease when putting it back together.

The grease fittings are pretty well hidden:


A headlamp helps.

 

I plan on just using one, so I'm going to just go with the moly-fortified full syn instead of Palladium #2 afterall.

 

Good to know, and yup I literally just placed the order a few mins ago for the OEM ones, I'll just need to pick up from the dealer. So if ordered from Toyota directly they are already fully assembled unlike the dormans? Came out to be $55 total. Also I'm wondering if I order the equalizer itself, if it comes with the bolts/nuts along with the bushings, or if those need to ordered individually and everything circled below. Part # listed is 46341-35030 on Toyota but does not specify. Per diagram looking like everything else is separate.

 

I would assume that everything is separate. I only purchased 46304B twice, the bushings. Everything else was able to be saved. Yours is crusty but definitely can be saved. Not sure about the bellcranks.

 

The drivers side front axle, the inner cup can "wobble" in the front diff when the bearing in the diff has slack in it. The tacoma and 4Rs are having lots of problems with the needle bearing in the drivers side of the front diff. They are all using the EastCoastGearSupply isostatic bushing(bearing) in place of the needle bearing. The 40-45mph "womp womp womp womp womp" noise that resonates and you can feel in the pedal is the drivers side inner cup wobbling around in a sort of harmonic vibration.
Seems the quick check on the tacoma and 4R is putting it in 4H and driving and seeing if it stops.

 

Thank you, I'll give this a try also

 

I ended up calling toyota and they confirmed all was separate. I ended up just ordering them though considering everything only ended up being $30. Would rather have the peace of mind of knowing they're new and not have to worry about it again while I'm down there working on it anyway.

 

What kind of grease or lube should you use for the equalizer here and for the other pivot points such as the bell cranks, etc? I plan on using red rubber grease for the bushings as and the rubber boot of the bell cranks but what about the non plastic or rubber parts?

 

I think I used either syl-glide or just good ol bearing grease.

I also sprayed a bunch of Blaster Surface Shield into the rubber boots on the bellcranks to prevent corrosion.

 

I saw that silicon based grease is best for bushing/rubber/plastic, so thats what i ended up ordering and just going to use that for the metal parts as well

 

Sounds good. I'd bet that consistent use of the parking brake to keep things free is almost more important than having the right grease.

 

Yeah, I've always been a parking brake user, its just second nature to always engage it when getting out the car/truck