Bad vibes after lift install - Solved? Solved!

[G_Raw]

FINALLY, four years later, got this BS worked out. After just dealing with the vibrations for a few years I got tired of looking at that Tom Woods driveshaft I bought 3 years ago in my basement and found a different driveline shop up in Ohio. I had them take a crack at straightening and balancing it and lo and behold the vibrations are gone.

It’s a stout driveshaft but it took an extra trip back to Tom Woods, two trips to the local driveline shop, and one road trip up to Ohio to get this thing right. This last shop had to put a bunch of weights on the driveshaft to get it balanced. Would not recommend Tom Woods for a vehicle that sees highway speeds.

Anyway, if you’ve got rear driveline vibrations, and a rear U joint and pinion angle correction won’t fix it, just find a REPUTABLE (ie, builds drivelines for all the race cars nearby) driveline shop and just have them build you a new shaft. It’ll be cheaper than Tom Woods and save you 3 years of headache.

I'm going to take your word on this one and follow suit. I've had a driveline vibe since my lift. I did a conversion then added armor which changed my pinion angle each time weight got added. I have all adjustable arms on the rear axle and have 1.8 degrees difference from my driveline angle and I still vibrate...I'll do some research on driveline shops in my area and see what they can do and report back... stay tuned

 

[Devbot]

FINALLY, four years later, got this BS worked out. After just dealing with the vibrations for a few years I got tired of looking at that Tom Woods driveshaft I bought 3 years ago in my basement and found a different driveline shop up in Ohio. I had them take a crack at straightening and balancing it and lo and behold the vibrations are gone.

It’s a stout driveshaft but it took an extra trip back to Tom Woods, two trips to the local driveline shop, and one road trip up to Ohio to get this thing right. This last shop had to put a bunch of weights on the driveshaft to get it balanced. Would not recommend Tom Woods for a vehicle that sees highway speeds.

Anyway, if you’ve got rear driveline vibrations, and a rear U joint and pinion angle correction won’t fix it, just find a REPUTABLE (ie, builds drivelines for all the race cars nearby) driveline shop and just have them build you a new shaft. It’ll be cheaper than Tom Woods and save you 3 years of headache.

Funny, this is the first negative thing I've ever heard about Tom Woods

 

[thezentree]

Funny, this is the first negative thing I've ever heard about Tom Woods

Same, and that’s why I bought one. They have good customer service and it’s no doubt a strong driveshaft, but they did a shit job of making sure it’s straight and balanced. Both times they touched it.

 

[Devbot]

Same, and that’s why I bought one. They gmhavw good customer service and it’s no doubt a strong driveshaft, but they did a shit job of making sure it’s straight and balanced. Both times they touched it.

Yeah, clearly so. Cool thing you got it figured out. Bet it feels nice to have a smooth ride again!

 

[thezentree]

I'm going to take your word on this one and follow suit. I've had a driveline vibe since my lift. I did a conversion then added armor which changed my pinion angle each time weight got added. I have all adjustable arms on the rear axle and have 1.8 degrees difference from my driveline angle and I still vibrate...I'll do some research on driveline shops in my area and see what they can do and report back... stay tuned

Yeah man, 1.8 degrees is pretty good. I think my double cardan was just worn out and the lift/additional angle was enough to make it buzz. I bet yours is a similar issue.

 

[Spriggs53]

Man, I hate how much time, money and energy you’ve gone through to only just figure out what it is. But, everything you’ve gone through will not be in vain, you may have helped me solve some noises/vibrations I’ve been getting! And hopefully a lot of others. I recently installed a 2” lift on my 2wd and it started giving me very similar symptoms as yours, I thought it was the u-joints on my DS going bad so I replaced it, and though it helped, it didn’t eliminate the noises/vibrations all together. One of the guys at that Texas Driveshaft Specialists place that people here recommend said it might be my pinion angle, so that will be my second attempt. Glad to know you finally got some peace! I’m no stranger to finding, diagnosing and fixing vibrations, I’ve gotten them on nearly all my vehicles I’ve owned, its a pain to work out.

Dumb question: how have you been calculating your pinion angle?

 

[thezentree]

Man, I hate how much time, money and energy you’ve gone through to only just figure out what it is. But, everything you’ve gone through will not be in vain, you may have helped me solve some noises/vibrations I’ve been getting! And hopefully a lot of others. I recently installed a 2” lift on my 2wd and it started giving me very similar symptoms as yours, I thought it was the u-joints on my DS going bad so I replaced it, and though it helped, it didn’t eliminate the noises/vibrations all together. One of the guys at that Texas Driveshaft Specialists place that people here recommend said it might be my pinion angle, so that will be my second attempt. Glad to know you finally got some peace! I’m no stranger to finding, diagnosing and fixing vibrations, I’ve gotten them on nearly all my vehicles I’ve owned, its a pain to work out.

Dumb question: how have you been calculating your pinion angle?

Not a dumb question at all - I got a cheap digital angle finder on amazon, rotated the rear driveshaft so a u joint cap in the pinion yoke was pointing straight down and zeroed the angle gauge on that. Then turned the driveshaft so a cap on the driveshaft yoke was pointing straight down and stuck the angle gauge on that, which gave me the difference between the two. Mine is at 0.5 degrees right now, which is borderline TOO perfect, since the u joint might not spin enough to lubricate the needles in the caps.

Also apologies for any typos, I’m on vacation with my wife and she’s hounding me to get off my phone haha