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Hello has anyone ever experienced this? Now I know the truck itself is a 70s model but the axles and suspension are correct for this forum. I had this drive shaft built to fit my truck about 2900 miles ago. The other day on the freeway at about 80mph I suddenly got a strong vibration. Before I had time to slowdown much more than about 10mph and only over 1 lane so maybe 10 seconds the u joint at the carrier let go. This was all caused by the drive shaft balancer coming loose. Should I have the shaft rebuilt without this dampener? Is it needed? Axles are 2008 rear leafs are 2020 +5 lift.
Is your truck a long bed ?
I see a lot of superduty long bed trucks , 2 piece driveshaft , have the balancer in place .
the longer the shaft , the more apt it is to need something to keep driveline vibration to a minimum.
Is your truck a long bed ?
I see a lot of superduty long bed trucks , 2 piece driveshaft , have the balancer in place .
the longer the shaft , the more apt it is to need something to keep driveline vibration to a minimum.
well this half of the shaft is destroyed from beating against the truck and road while I attempted to pull over. I’m going to ask the drive shaft shop about ditching it though.
Last edited by justaboutbroke; Oct 12, 2025 at 05:07 PM.
Be thankful it didn't do more damage that that... earlier this year the d/s in my Excursion decided to leave the chat... bent it in a 90 and then ripped it off the axle yoke, bending the pinion gear shaft, had to buy a new set of gears.
Might want to look into possibly lengthening it, mine had a slight vibration you would only feel at certain speeds, once we got a new (used) d/s still had a slight vibration... ended up adding 2" to it and now it's smooth... It had plenty of engagement in tail shaft of trans but... apparently that wasn't enough. The PO had lifted it, and apparently, when I swapped to 5.13's, the d/s was spinning a bit faster.
Be thankful it didn't do more damage that that... earlier this year the d/s in my Excursion decided to leave the chat... bent it in a 90 and then ripped it off the axle yoke, bending the pinion gear shaft, had to buy a new set of gears.
Might want to look into possibly lengthening it, mine had a slight vibration you would only feel at certain speeds, once we got a new (used) d/s still had a slight vibration... ended up adding 2" to it and now it's smooth... It had plenty of engagement in tail shaft of trans but... apparently that wasn't enough. The PO had lifted it, and apparently, when I swapped to 5.13's, the d/s was spinning a bit faster.
Definitely can’t lengthen it it’s built for this truck with this lift it it’s any longer it’ll bind at compression but I think I’ll make a drive shaft strap to catch it in case of any future failure. I’m pretty sure that harmonic balancer failing caused this whole issue. Luckily these rear axles are cheap and easy to find if it gets ruined but you’re right it could have been worse for sure.
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