Vibration/droning nose at speed, removed drive shaft and gone??

[Forgetful]

Vibration/droning noise at speed, removed drive shaft and gone??

Hello,

New poster but lurking for a while. Finally registered since I just bought a 97 manual 4x4 yesterday.

I'm having a humming/droning noise at 55+ especially when I'm on the gas or coasting up a hill. Vibration too. (some of the vibration might be cured by a balance/alignment which I plan to do tomorrow)

From reading around hereand about similar issues I got the suggestion to remove the rear drive shaft and drive on the highway in 4H. So I did that and got it up to 70mph and the humming sound is gone along with a good about of vibration/shimmy.

So now I'm trying to figure out which part to replace. It's a rear drive shaft model with 3 total U joints.
Could it be my rear diff? Something to do with the transfer case (which by the way is very oily all over)?
Something else entirely?

:EDIT:

Well I bought a brand new drive shaft that has been balanced at 100mph.

Vibration/noise is still as bad as ever. I had someone drive me around while I listeneded in the back and it's definitly loudest/most violent in the back cargo area.

I'm feel pretty sick with myself becasue of this car. I don't know what to do.

 

[BlazeRunner]

It sounds like your driveshaft. You can source a used one from a wreck yard, or just go get yours rebuilt and balanced. With basic tools the rear u joint can be changed out, but you should have a shop rebuild the double cardan joint unless you absolutely know what you're doing.

 

[nissanh]

Try to find a good used drive shaft (with no free play at the u-joints). Grease them and you are good to go.
Replacing U-joints and balancing will never work as good as toyota does. Seems like you got a 4x4 and these shaft are little hard to find.

Just found this on ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/TOYOTA-4-RU...997|Model:4Runner&hash=item35d8461fb3&vxp=mtr

Double check with the seller to make sure the U-joints have NO free play.

 

[Forgetful]

Thanks for the eBay tip. I didn't know they could be had for cheap there.

I have no idea if the shaft or u joints are the cause.

 

[Forgetful]

Well I bought a brand new drive shaft that has been balanced at 100mph.

Vibration/noise is still as bad as ever. I had someone drive me around while I listeneded in the back and it's definitly loudest/most violent in the back cargo area.

I'm feel pretty sick with myself becasue of this car. I don't know what to do.

 

[Andy in Pa]

Maybe its the output bearing on the t-case. Is there any side-to-side or up/down play in the driveshaft in that area?

 

[Forgetful]

Maybe its the output bearing on the t-case. Is there any side-to-side or up/down play in the driveshaft in that area?

I'll have to check later. It was too hot to touch the shaft after driving last night.

Noise seems to be coming from the back of the vehicle

 

[JRZEE2000TR4LTD]

Well it has to be in your differential. Check the fluid level first. I would have said the rear axle bearings as they are prone to failure on these trucks but if you say the noise went away without the rear driveshaft the only thing left is the dif. Let us know what you find.

 

[Andy in Pa]

I'll have to check later. It was too hot to touch the shaft after driving last night.

Noise seems to be coming from the back of the vehicle

That's odd that it was too hot to touch... The driveshaft shouldn't get that hot. Which part of the driveshaft was hot? At the diff end, or at the t-case end? Did you gease the new driveshaft after it was installed?

 

[01yotaman]

I had the opposite issue. My car was making a rumbling noise that vibrated the car starting at 40 during coasting/deceleration if you knew what to listen for and it got considerably more violent as speed increased. At 70 it was scary. Turned out to be the ujoints. $180 for parts and labor later and my problem was fixed. The u joints will probably be the cheapest fix available so start with checking those.

 

[RockenAlex]

I also had minimal vibration but a loud droning especially when coasting (probably due to no engine noise) but the issue was something in the rear end center "chunk", I'm still not sure what the actual problem was but i had a spare center chunk from another 4runner.

When we removed the bad center chunk and set it on the table then manually spinning it with minimal rear end oil on it, it hummed quite audibly.
Then we compared it to the other chunk we were planning on replacing it with in the same fashion and this one was dead silent.

That being said, if the drive shaft is out the process would be exceedingly simple to remove the chunk and give it a spin, but it is quite heavy!!

And just saying i would never drive without a rear drive shaft at ~70 mph and especially in 4hi.....

 

[Forgetful]

I went under the car tonight and yanked on the shaft flanges connections. The diff side was very tight. The transfer case side had play though.

So I pulled the shaft and torqued the flange pinion nut with a lot of force. I got it to move maybe 1/25 of a rotation. Re-staked and re installed the drive shaft. and went for a drive. I'd estimate close to 90% noise removed. (I've only driven 3 miles though)

I'm confused because the flange nut was still staked before I re-torqued it so it appeared to not have moved since originally installed.