Driveshaft Vibration after new carrier bearing

Before you bombard with the obvious question, yes I did mark the driveshaft all the way to line it back in the original spot.
So, my old carrier bearing had pretty good movement in it, so I decided to replace it. I went ahead and did both of my u-joints connecting to transmission and my rear diff. After doing that, I have some bad vibration going around 40-50mph, and a very small but persistent vibration above 55, and enough that my damn shifter knob started to unscrew itself. The thing is, it did not have this vibration before, like at all. Almost wish I didn't f*ck with it. I dropped the carrier bearing with some washers, did nothing. I did the radiator hose clamp trick, did nothing. What can I do before I splurge money on a new driveshaft? And if I have to get it balanced, who would do it? I don't know anybody that has a driveshaft balancing machine.

 

Interested as well, doing my carrier this weekend

 

After reading all of these problems with driveline vibrations and carrier beaing failures... I think I'll be looking in to a 1 piece driveline when I do my 4x4 swap.

 

The flange is timed right? Did any off the u-joints fight you going together? How do you new joints feel when moving by hand?

 

Might find a drive shaft shop in your area and have them look at it.

 

I have seen this response before, and they said they had more vibration from it, which I find hard to believe since there are less moving parts.

 

I actually had a really difficult time taking the ujoints out. Putting them in were much easier. And I don't recall testing the movement of the ujoints. I should have, I'll try tomorrow and see. Thanks!

 

I think it will ultimately come to that. I did order a driveshaft, and I did finally find a driveshaft shop in my area after a few calls today. If they can't fix it, I'll have the new one to put in myself, if they can i'll send that motherf*cker back haha and save me $900 dollars. Thanks

 

Ya... I've read a bunch of comments on it too. I especially love the ones about how difficult it would be to actually do a 1 piece because our drive lines are "so long".

Lmfao... so every full sized, long bed, truck and Suburban etc, that has a bigger motor, moving more weight, and producing more torque with a driveline that's nearly 20 inches longer than ours must be a figment of my imagination.

 

Make sure each one is centered and moves with just a little drag. Hopefully you didn't drop a needle bearing down in the cap.

 

Well guys, I went ahead and took it to a driveshaft shop in Knoxville, and what do you know, it was out of balance. My theory is that there was a lot of dirt, mud, and grime stuck to the old u-joints, and when I put the new ones on I cleaned the yokes and that made a difference in the weight. Because I had to use a heavier weight to the one a previously had, to “counterbalance” the difference. Lol. So good thing is I saved myself $1,200, and second it wasn’t anything I did, so I didn’t damage anything thank god. So to mkorsholm18, putting a new carrier bearing shouldn’t effect the balance. Doing the u joints might. Thank y’all for your suggestions and help. Had to miss a day at work, but doesn’t compare to the amount of days to work for the $1,300 for a new driveshaft.

Edit: sorry for the price confusion, first one I ordered was out of stock and cost 900, the second had it had it in stock and was 1,300. Just called today and canceled both of the motherf*ckers today.

 

What was the cost to have driveshaft balanced?

 

$120. I thought it was expensive for a piece of metal to be welded on there, but still cheaper haha. $75 for labor, and $45 for parts.

 

This local shop I’m around quoted me like $375-400 to put new u joints and carrier bearing on. $120 sounds pretty fair for a balancing.

 

I gotcha. Yeah I’ll be keeping an eye on it. Once it goes bad I’ll put an oem one or spicer. The one I have right now is a duralast one.

 

Yeah. That’s why I replaced my u joints and carrier bearing myself. Haha. And it actually is, I’ve read on other forums that average is 150 or more

 

I’m seriously contemplating the one piece to get away from the carrier bearing

 

Those vehicles you mentioned also use large diameter steel driveshaft versus the very small aluminum shafts in a Tacoma.

If you switch to a 1 piece you are gonna give up a lot of ground clearance, you will have to add shims to the axle to correct the pinion angles, & the u-joints will wear out far more frequent because they are at a much more severe angle. A stock diameter shaft that is 65" & aluminum will explode at high speeds. So if you like driving over 65-70mph regularly make sure that 1 piece is either steel or aluminum with a much larger diameter than stock. And your rear differential isn't gonna like all that extra weight from a heavier shaft, which will lead to more premature wear & extra repairs.

But it's your money. Waste it however you see fit.

 

The OEM is Spicer. And it's by far the best. The only other one I'd even consider using is SKF.

 

On my 2012 I did a Duralast because DHL lost the SKF one I ordered from RockAuto (avoid DHL at all costs when ordering from RockAuto). I also made the mistake of doing Moog u-joints. I had a needle fall into the cap on one, but figured that out pretty quickly. I had an odd vibration at certain speeds and am pretty sure it was due to one of the u-joints not being quite centered. The SKF bearing finally arrived, and it was visibly a better part than the Duralast. Since I still had that vibration, I ordered the Spicer/Dana u-joints, but the dealer had a blue Pro on the lot when I went in to pick up another flange nut . . . so I never got around to re-doing it. The Spicer joints were also visibly higher quality than the Moog parts. BTW, Spicer is the OEM supplier but you can get them from RockAuto for cheaper than the dealer.

Anyway, moral of the story -- go with quality parts on your driveline. And like the OP did, might not be a bad idea to just go get it balanced before putting it back in. And avoid looking at new trucks if you go to the dealer for parts.