Vibration at highway speeds....did I put my driveshaft back up wrong?

[76Nick]

Hey all....not sure if I should have posted this is this category or not so I apologize in advance. So my 2003 Z71 Hoe has a pretty good vibration when I get up to highway speeds. I did a lot of work to her all around the same time. 4 inch NTD rough country lift in front and pucks in rear, put on new rims and 33x12.50 tires (balanced with balancing beads) and I put a low mile Junk yard rear end in. I never marked the front or rear drive shaft yokes when I dropped them to make sure everything went back in the same exact position. I didn't fully drop the shaft, just disconnected from the rear dif, and then did the same when I removed the front dif to install the drop down bracket. I suppose I should start by checking for play in my u joints, but could the vibration also be caused by putting the front or rear driveshaft yokes back in the wrong position? This may or may not be a stupid question...Any help would be much appreciated! Thank you!

 

[Scottydoggs]

dont think you can clock the drive shaft wrong in these trucks,,,, but them balance beads, ive had issues with them before, aka i think they suck and will never use em again. i see no reason why a 33 tire cant be balanced the normal way. ive had 33's balanced it in the past.

 

[Scottydoggs]

now the front shaft does have a slipper shaft in it, that one needs to be clocked so they are in the same direction on both sides of the slipper shaft.

 

[76Nick]

How do I make sure it's clocked right? Also I'm going to be putting 35x12.50's on soon so I will have them balanced with stick on weights. Hopefully that will help. I've heard that any moisture inside will clump them together and throw the balance off.

 

[Scottydoggs]

you want the drive shaft ears of the u joints even

 

[Doubeleive]

Hey all....not sure if I should have posted this is this category or not so I apologize in advance. So my 2003 Z71 Hoe has a pretty good vibration when I get up to highway speeds. I did a lot of work to her all around the same time. 4 inch NTD rough country lift in front and pucks in rear, put on new rims and 33x12.50 tires (balanced with balancing beads) and I put a low mile Junk yard rear end in. I never marked the front or rear drive shaft yokes when I dropped them to make sure everything went back in the same exact position. I didn't fully drop the shaft, just disconnected from the rear dif, and then did the same when I removed the front dif to install the drop down bracket. I suppose I should start by checking for play in my u joints, but could the vibration also be caused by putting the front or rear driveshaft yokes back in the wrong position? This may or may not be a stupid question...Any help would be much appreciated! Thank you!

you can try disconnecting the shaft and flip it 180deg, then bolt it back up. that's about all you can do "easily" to see if it makes any difference.

 

[76Nick]

you want the drive shaft ears of the u joints even

Ok gotcha, I will make sure they are. thank you.

 

[76Nick]

you can try disconnecting the shaft and flip it 180deg, then bolt it back up. that's about all you can do "easily" to see if it makes any difference.

Yeah I was thinking about that when I go out to check for play in my joints.

 

[rockola1971]

Can you tell if the vibration is coming from the front or rear of the vehicle?

 

[76Nick]

Can you tell if the vibration is coming from the front or rear of the vehicle?

It's honestly hard to tell for sure but if I had to guess I would say it seems more like the rear.

 

[rockola1971]

It's honestly hard to tell for sure but if I had to guess I would say it seems more like the rear.

If your driveshafts are original to the 2003 vehicle AND the Original ujoints are still installed then your Ujoints need replaced! No doubt about it. The easiest way to tell if the Ujoints have been replaced is look at see if there are C-clips holding the Ujoint cups in place. If not then the original injection molded plastic is holding the originals in. You may have gotten a little crazy on the lift and made the driveshaft angle too steep also which will really put stress on a already well worn Ujoint if its original. What kinda angle are your driveshafts at? The problem could be of course in the tires/rim and maybe even the rearend. Doing all this stuff at the same time is going to make it hard to figure out.

This is definitely one that a person in the know would have to drive your vehicle and even sit in different places of the vehicle while someone else is driving to figure out which direction to go looking.

Might try throwing the original tires and rims on it and see if the vibration goes away.

 

[Rocket Man]

You should definitely replace the u-joint clamps with new if you didn’t mark them. They conform to the exact shape of the u-joints when first installed and should never be put in different locations.I failed to do that once and had one break. I got lucky and wasn’t going too fast (although WOT with a blower and cam) so the end of the dangling driveline only took a corner off my oil pan. If I was going faster it would have been a disaster. They could also cause vibration before they let go.