Center support bearing

I have a 2006 DC with 289,000 miles. Noticed a vibration this week. Would start at about 30 mph and continue as speed increased. Would be minimal when no throttle. Found carrier bearing to have some slop and replaced it today. Pulled out of drive for test drive and it made a terrible noise and vibration at any speed. Jacked up truck and watched drive train in D. Without accelerating the drive shaft was flopping around in carrier bearing. Anyone seen this in a new center support bearing?

 

Likely it has nothing to do with your carrier bearing.

It's probably a U joint that has seized up. I had a carrier bearing completely detached from the rubber with no problems...but a bad U-joint will do all of that. Remove your driveshaft and run each joint through its full range of motion. I'm betting you will find one that won't move or is grinding.

 

U joints all appeared to be good. Will reinspect tomorrow when I take it back off.

 

May just replace all u joints just to be safe.

 

Well, some of the U joints are not replaceable....

I would check them again, with the shaft off the vehicle. Its hard to REALLY check them without removing the driveshaft. I have been fooled more than once by U joints that felt fine under the truck but where obviously trashed when removed.

Also, did you mark how the front part of the shafts fits in relation to the rear section? That relationship is critical, you could be 90º out of sync which would cause a sever vibration like you describe. That is a mistake I have made myself and makes the vehicle almost impossible to drive.

 

Thinking about it more, I think misaligned joints are your problem. The front most U joint yoke, the one that bolts to the transfer case, should be aligned halfway between the planes of the cardan joint spiders, or in other words, 45º offset from those U joints.

 

Two wheel drive. Yes I marked as I took it apart.

 

Well, let us know what you figure out.

 

Replaced all u-joints. Turned out the center support bearing was binding. Got OEM and problem solved. Toyota dealer said there were two different bearings for that vehicle. Auto part store did not give me two options.

 

Just as I suspected. Good work on following up with the Fix. OEM is usually the best way to go on our trucks.