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Now i know all of you are going to flame me for this but listen to this ...
About a year ago i didnt have any vibration at all. Then my front seal on my tranny went out. well i took off the driveshaft and dropped the tranny and replaced it (should have replaced the rear oil seal on the engine while i was at it but hindsight is 20/20) when i put it back up i didnt even pay attention to the way the driveshaft was mounted i just stuck it up there. Now almost a year later after dealing with the vibration for a year and not figuring it out i have limited it to 3 options 1 of which is the most likely (i will tell you that one last)
1.) My U Joints are going out.
2.) My carrier bearing is shot.
3.) My dumb butt mounted the driveshaft 90-180* off throwing the balance of the driveshaft off.
Now you see why i say it is an idiotic mistake LOL feel free to flame me as much as you want
That's actually pretty easy to do. To be honest, I haven't paid a lot of attention to this in the past and I haven't had any vibrations appear so maybe I was just lucky.
First I would get your tires balanced. That may cure it right there. I have also had a bad wheel bearing cause vibration. U-joints are a good possibility also. If you check them, make sure to take the tension out of the driveline or you won't get any movement whether they are loose or not.
Does your truck have a lift?
A good way to see if it's the driveline is to put it up on a good pair of sturdy jackstands and rev it up to 45 or 50. Point the truck towards something soft and have someone in the truck just in case. If it's the driveline you will be able to see it shimmying while moving. You might also find an out of balance or out of round tire this way.
No but that doesn't mean they can't go out of balance 5k or 10k after you bought them. Balance weights can come off, too. I've found them lying in the gutter outside my house.
As long as you didn't take the driveshaft apart, it doesn't matter what way you put it back into the truck. It's balanced off the truck, so it won't be wrong when you put it back in.
I just recently cured my highway speeds vibration. I replaced both u-joints and retubed my dented driveshaft and it still didn't cure it. A simple trip to the tire shop and re-balancing of the tires fixed it. Tire shop guy told me the aluminum rims these trucks come with are known to throw weights. Very common in his experience.
Most of the shafts in these trucks have blind splines so that they only go back one way. But if yours is like mine and doesnt have blind splines then you that the u-joints are in-phase, although out of phase u-joints don't normally cause vibration, they just tear up the slip joints and carrier bearings faster for some reason.
yeah i see you guys point i dont have the aluminum rims though i have aftermarket powdercoated steelies with chrome trim. but the balance of those could be my vibration issues
Picked up some vibration after a several K miles & was planning a trip to the tire shop. While doing some detail cleaning, I found several chunks of asphalt on the inside of the rim. Chisiled it off & scrubbed the remainder with acetone. Vibration gone.