Drive line vibration caused by too much positive caster?

Do you think it’s possible a high speed drive line vibration is caused by too much positive caster?

 

Sounds more like your tires are not balanced correctly.

 

Ugh I highly doubt moving the wheel up in the wheel well would cause that. @nd4spdbh

 

When you say drive line vibration I assume your talking about the driveshaft. Alignment numbers have nothing to do with a driveshaft vibration

 

Wheels tires hub and wheel berring are technically considered driveline so I figured I’d ask before I rule to much caster causing something out

 

agreed. About the only thing it could cause is the needle bearing vibe if anything and that would go away in 4wd

 

Have you gotten the "driveline vibration" letter yet? There's an extended warranty on driveline/ujoint issues so you could possibly have the dealer look at it.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/new-recall-drive-shaft-replacement.523004/

 

The higher the caster (more pos.) more stability at higher speeds the lower more neg the less. What you can induce with high caster is low speed driving feeling kind of sluggish or weird. To low of caster at highway speeds can feel like the vehicle is unstable or very twitchy. The only way an alignment would cause a vibration would be from toe being ridiculously out of spec and it would want to try and steer the vehicle or act like the Jeeps infamous death wobble.

 

My vibe is at 65 plus tho

 

I just had the driveshaft rebuilt before I got the letter

 

Op, how much caster are you taking about? Actually additional caster can help improve stability as noted above but there is a threshold where too much is too much and apparently the front wheels will start to shimmy. I do not know what that threshold is and it is going to be different on every vehicle.

 

Wheel bearings?
My prerunner would growl and have vibes through the floor at about 60mph and higher. Never had play in the wheels so multiple shops swore it wasn't my bearings but I replaced them anyway and that fixed it.

Also, I have had steering wheel shakes/vibes caused by bad alignment. I think it was a combination of toe and caster. Didn't take much of an adjustment to resolve it.

 

Yes an no to that threshold. The threshold goes either way too much you get low speed steer in and weird handling at low speeds too little and instability at higher speed which can be misinterpreted as a shimmy when in reality it is the vehicle not handling well and unstable. It will want to jerk quickly as you make small inputs into the steering at higher speeds. There are factory vehicles with over 10* of caster. approximately 2-4* is the sweet spot for a daily driven commuter car.

BTW you can modify and make any vehicle handle the way you would like by making drastic alignment changes. His alignment #s are well within spec. I actually have mine set out more pos. and have no issues.

Toe more than likely the culprit. But rarely if ever should an alignment cause or induce vibrations unless it is just totally botched.

 

Off topic but is that dove springs in your avatar?

 

I think It was set to around 3 degrees positive

 

Before that it was set at like 2.5+

 

That’s something I thought about I did the driver side wheel berring when I baught the truck cause it was making noise but no vib

 

Yea and my alignment was pretty much spot on everywhere else I have firestone lifetime alignment so I go like ever trip out to the dez and or every like every 2 months

 

Yea that is dove springs right by the dirt bike road jump was supposed to be there right now!!

Sorry everyone for all the messages I just realized what the multiquote thing was for my bad!!!

 

Ya know Op I hate to be that guy but if this were mine I think I would take a hard look at the condition of the control arm bushings and ball joints (UCA and LCA, both sides) for play and for breaks between the honeycomb-like structure of the bushings.

Also take a look to see that both outer tie rod ends have an equal amount of threads showing on both the L and R side between the jam nut against the TRE and along the tie rod. You can do this by taking a 3X5 card and placing it along the tie rod to just touch the jam nut and marking where the threads on the rod stop, then compare with the other side. A max of 1.5 threads difference between sides is spec. While you are there additionally try to determine if the is obvious slop in the inner tie rod on the other side. I'm curious if there is possibly very unequal lengths of tie rods side-to-side which could lead to bump steer.