Rear *driver* wheel visual wobble, no vibration.

Hey all,

First time posting here, I’ve had my truck for about 2 months now and it’s been brought to my attention my rear ***driver***wheel has a noticeable wobble to it while driving. I swapped out the wheel with the front and that didn’t fix it so it’s not a bent wheel. While I had the wheel off I rotated the drum and it was visually off by about an 8th inch when I was rotating it. I consider myself familiar with front end work but I don’t know jack about rear drum brakes. Could it be the drum isn’t seated properly? When I get off work I’m going to check it out again and follow up with some pictures but I would like an idea as to what the potential culprit could be. Can’t find much info online so hoping someone has come across this and fixed it.

Thanks in advance and happy to be a part of the Tacoma family!

 

Sounds more like more like a bent axle .
Too big a load or hit something hard.

 

I’m not so sure... I pulled the drum off and it appears to be warped so that leads me to believe the wheel is sitting on it lopsided creating the wobble. I’m just speculating I plan on taking it to a shop and see what’s up.

 

You could swap the drums from side to side and see if the wobble goes with the drum. If it does, get new drums. If it doesn't, it sounds like your axle flange is bent.

 

Could the axle flange have bent from normal use? I don’t tow or haul anything with it and it didn’t wobble when I bought it. I will swap the drums when I get a chance

 

You by chance have any driving-age kids? I find this the usual cause of “unexplainable” vehicle problems. Lol.

 

The title of this thread mentions ‘no vibration’...I can’t understand how a rear wheel could have a wobble and not vibrate or ride horribly. I hope you find the source of the problem.

 

No I definitely don’t have any driving age kids, I’m only 20 haha. Also yeah it baffles my mind how there’s no vibration at all yet I can look in my rear view and see it wobble. Gonna try and find time to swap the drums today and see if that switches the wobble to the other side and if that’s the case I’ll be a happy camper it’s only a drum

 

Might be the tire

Edit: just re-read the original post. Assuming you swapped the wheel with the tire from front to rear so obviously not the tire...

I second swapping pass and driver drums

 

So I just swapped the drums and it’s still wobbling on the driver rear side. Damn. I’m assuming it’s axle shaft related at this point.

 

Anyone got an idea how tough it is to do rear axle work? I’ve done my front wheel bearings before and I didn’t think that sucked or anything, is it pretty comparable to that or should I go to a shop.

 

So you swapped the rear drum and it's wobbling on the drivers rear now? Your original post suggested passenger side rear... typo? If not, there's your problem.
Jeff

 

Need to take drum off and let the hub spin. You can check the hub for runout visually but a guage is preferred. If the hib flange is bent, good chance the shaft is bent. Easy to replace, just not cheap.

Where do you live? I bent my axle housing AND both axle shafts and went through MONTHS AND MONTHS of troubleshooting before giving in and replacing the entire rear end assembly. If your local in SoCal i could certainly help since i am quite familiar with the entire rear end of these trucks from the gears to the brakes, inside and out.

 

Yeah that was a typo... thanks for pointing that out for me haha. It’s been the driver side and is still on the driver side after the drum swap.

 

@ProForce I live in Northern Washington haha, I appreciate the offer though. Not cheap is a bummer, government shutdown has been affected income and I’ve been trying to keep it cheap haha. I’m not feeling any vibration at all nor am I hearing any sort of strain while driving so I can’t imagine it’s causing any serious damage right now (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong). What’s a whole rear end assembly swap usually run? I’d rather just start fresh than Just replace one side.

 

Entire rear end from a scrap yard would be 1000-1400 parts only. You won't feel vibes from the rear end unless it's really bad. Remember the sightest bend of even 1° will look much worse visually because the wheel is much bigger then the shaft.

If it is actually bent, there's not much to be immediately concerned with in terms of safety as you could go awhile without breaking anything. But, a sight bend will put stress on the carrier bearing in the third member as well as the wheel bearing. Both could ultimately break causing catastrophic failure, or at a minimum put the bearings out of round and cause problems once the shaft is replaced.

You probably don't need to replace the entire housing or third member. Just the shafts and flange. Those are easy to swap if they are preassembled and you have the right tools and time. Could also just be a bad bearing and not a shaft at all. Although that have the opposite affect and damage the shaft if neglected.

Best way to know for sure is measure runout and compare with factory tolerances. You'll need time and experience and tools for that though, or waste hundreds in labor for a shop to troubleshoot for you

 

Keep in mind that some runout is acceptable and within factory tolerances. A video would help us see the magnitude of the issue. Even after replacing my entire rear end it still has a very sight wobble and i determined this is normal and it doesn't do it when on the ground with weight. It's not going to be perfect, but close. If it's truly bent, your tire will be cupping as well

 

I will try and get a video of it if I can. We have a shop on base that I have access to so tools aren’t so much of an issue, time YouTube up how measure run out now

 

This basically is how you want to check it. Although this is a front hub, the principal is the same. Even though this guy is kind of an idiot, it shows the process.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4JWLNw_fD8

Here's the search I did. You can look at a few more videos. However, there's no need to have the vehicle running.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=dial+indicator+bent+axle

I don't have any idea what acceptable run out is, but I would guess .010"-.015" is probably acceptable. If it's up near .030" or more, that's probably something to worry about. There may be a few thou end play in the axle, so make sure you have constant inward pressure on the axle when checking.