What have you done to your 1st gen Tundra today?

Gotcha. Just out of curiosity, are the driveshafts on a 4WD FGT double-cardan?

 

Middle joint is

 

Understood. Hopefully the spacer solves your issue. It's funny how I loathed geometry in school but became a quick study when I wanted to understand my Jeep.

 

I deal with a lot of driveline vibes on tacomas at work. But it’s almost always take off vibrations. Never one like I’m experiencing. It almost feels like wheel/tire balance. But it doesn’t change even with other wheels or tires.


May even be shaft balance. That’s my next thing to tackle

 

i fought that lightbar for hours yesterday, gently. this morning, like magic, just slipped it through, first try. In the same orientation i’d tried a hundred times. Swish.

 

That's beautiful, but to this city boy - it just looks like death. I'd expect the Donner party, murderous escaped convicts, trapped by flash snow storm w/o supplies.
I may have just discovered a gap in my life education.

At east I have a fleet of Toyoti 4X4's to get me there when the cities implode one of these days.

 

and they'll tighten up a little more with some time in the sun too.
My truck had one that was about 17 years old & pretty done. Velcro was 'eh, then one release cable broke, then a month later the other one broke & I just took the whole thing off.

I prefer a tri-fold soft top for the simplicity of quickly opening it, but these roll-ups do a better job of getting out of the way.
Now I have a hard fiberglass bed cover that I absolutely loathe.

 

Shake it out - high speed off road adventure. Need some take off / all-air / full suspension travel landing episodes - Be The Duke Brothers!

 

Well towing the vibration disappears. Hence why I believe the slip joint is the issue

 

I went through this...replaced u-joints, carrier bearing, drive shaft balance, etc. Checked the tires, wheels, high speed balance, fronts to rears, and even different tires, etc. Felt the vibration under my foot, and made a "whump whump" sound that varied with speed. Turned out to be the front hub bearing!

 

This is seat of the pants whole truck vibration. Driver side wheel bearings new. Driver rear wheel bearing and axle is new (those were damaged) I do have a whomp. Whomp noise too. But that’s the diff bushing I keep putting off till I get a new OE axle

 

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Personally, Ive notice these first gens can be overly sensitive sometimes.

I’m not saying this is your issue, but I once had to deal with a highway vibration on my truck for two years only to find it was a balancing issue on one of my tires. In order to correct it, the road force had to be set to 1/2 the value of typical truck tires. Tech thought it was something in my front drivetrain because he disconnected the rear drive shaft and ran the front tires in 4wd and it vibrated horribly according to him. Maybe he was right but I wasn’t about to spend over a thousand bucks to replace the front differential and CV axles out of a hunch.

 

Road force is a wee bit Hugh on mine. But they balance great. But I put the street tires on it and it’s still there. It’s Definitely in the rear area and most likely shaft related.

 

I've been fighting driveshaft vibrations too. My last one-piece driveshaft would vibrate really bad at 65mph. After I had my one-piece aluminum one made, the highway vibes show up at 90+mph. I still think the cause is just poor balancing because I shimmed the axle in every different way possible and nothing changed the vibration at 90+. I even inflated my airbags to extend the suspension to no avail. I've been living with it because I rarely exceed 90 unless I'm passing. I absolutely plan on rebalancing mine when I find a shop around me.

Have you tried shimming the rear axle by a couple degrees yet? Maybe when you're towing, the geometry of the axle and everything squat and straighten out enough to not vibrate.

 

Decided to go back to my original mirrors from the dodge style flip-outs since they shake and are crappily made. Hate the chrome so the mirror caps are getting a treating of black raptor liner. Was lucky to get the caps off without breaking any clips too!
Scuffed with 220 grit


First coat

 

Do the caps come off from the outside with a pry tool or do you tackle from the inside?

 

Inside. 6 clips. Basically just push the mirror around to find them. One was hard and had to be unclipped from the outside

 

Dang that’s crazy! I own a house down by perdido bay from when I was stationed here. I’m between renters and needed to fix some drywall that was damaged during that hurricane. Now that all the work is done I’m picking up the wife and kid from the airport later and we’ll be beach bums for a week before the family road trip back to VA. What’s bringing you down this way?

With the car seat in the backseat the 3 dogs are going to have to ride in the camper so I’m going to try filling pool noodles with foam insulation to fill the gap between the camper and the cab and hope that the AC can reach back there for them, I’ll be monitoring temps with a Bluetooth thermometer that I use for grilling.

 

Sounds like you got it squared away in short order! We are staying at Fort Pickens on Vaycay. The exfoliating properties of the sand are excellent for a dirty, greasy, 3rd shifter like me. Most of the family is down here as well.

I posted some in the lunch table thread from this morning at day break, and before.

I've never done that, but sound like they'll be good for the drive. You'll keep a close eye on everything, I'm sure of it.

 

Also, thanks for your service!

 

I consulted with a knowledgeable friend of mine re: double-cardan driveshafts and although the other items you're mentioning may be contributing to vibes, he says the rear axle yoke/pinion shaft must be pointing directly at the output shaft/yoke of the transfer case for proper geometry, unlike a conventional driveshaft, so I would encourage you to be certain the geometry is correct first and then see if any issues remain. An added benefit of shimming the axle to correct the geometry will also force the driveshaft to accept more of the splines.

 

Happy fourth weekend everybody. Loaded a whole pallet and drove 25 miles on stock rears with no issues.
Just another reason why first gens rule!

 

How would you perfectly align it for unloaded/loaded ride heights?

 

Got a party going on or do you normally buy a pallet when it’s on sale?

 

Are you referring to driveline angles? If so, unloaded/loaded ride heights become moot so long as the geometry is correct. The u-joints and shaft/spline travel take care of the rest.

 

mine looks like it would point directly at TC output pretty close to sitting on bumpstops. So i should shim the front of the diff up a degree or 2?

 

I actually check it all today. Everything angle wise seems to be in check. The play in my slip joint is definitely something I’m not happy with though


I will say the 1/4” spacer seems to have GREATLY reduced the vibes. I may try an 3/8. But it’s livable now

 

Maybe these will help. Arguably two of the most authoritative sources on the subject. The video from Spicer is dated but worth saving.

https://4xshaft.com/blogs/general-tech-info-articles/slopes-vs-angles

https://spicerparts.com/videos/measuring-driveline-operating-angles

I picked up a cheap magnetic angle finder at HF years ago. Nice to have around.

 

Good to hear. Sounds like you're on the right track. Diagnosing and isolating driveline vibes is one of those things that can drive a person nuts. And unnecessarily drain the wallet.

 

yea im still probably going to have the drive shaft balanced. but it seems to be much better so far. once this is sorted im going to focus on the front diff bushing and my aftermarket axle being swapped for an OEM