honing/vibration at 60mph+

hoorders · July 12, 2006

Hey everyone,

My truck has developed a honing noise/vibration that you can feel on the floor board while at highway speeds......60mph+.

Seems to be worse if I don't accelerate and just maintain speed....almost just backing off the throttle a touch at speed. If I get on the throttle it seems to go away some. Im thinking it might be a u-joint on the front shaft or maybe a wheel bearing.......I really hope it isn't the transfer case.

I wanted to know if I will wreck anything if I test drive my truck with no front drive shaft??

I've got auto trac.

Thanks......

redvett · July 12, 2006

Cant be driven without it. Oil will leak out of diff. If you take it out you should be able to diagnoise a bad joint.

bobcat5544 · July 12, 2006

most likely it is a wheel bearing, pull off your front tires then remove the brake rotor, grab the lug nut studs and wiggle it up and down if it moves then there is your problem.

Also, yes you can remove the front drive shaft and drive around with out it, just dont drive it in 4x4 mode

hoorders · July 12, 2006

Cant be driven without it. Oil will leak out of diff. If you take it out you should be able to diagnoise a bad joint.

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Thanks for the quick reply...........are you sure fluid will leak out of front diff??......ive had the front shaft out before(never driven with it out though) and its only held on at the diff end by the 2 retaining brackets over the u-joint.

bowtie_pasta · July 12, 2006

Maybe it's even simpler, how are your tires?

J45p3r · July 12, 2006

The front shaft doesn't spin unless 4x4 is enganged does it? So if you have the vibe in 4x2 it isnt' the shaft.

J45p3r · July 12, 2006

Also, when I had a wheel bearing go bad in my S10 I could put a jack under the lower control arm and grab the tire and wiggle it all around, try that.

hoorders · July 13, 2006

Just came back in from pulling both front tires off........the wheel bearings seem tight....I certainly cannot get any play out of them up and down and side to side.

I grabbed hold of the front drive shaft to see if I could detect a bad u-joint......they 'seem' fine as well.

A couple of things I did notice........one is I can't spin the front drive shaft.......im not sure if I should be able to or not........and secondly if I grab the back of the front drive shaft, the end that goes into the transfer case, there is some play there......seems like the shaft coming out of the front of the transfer case has play in it up and down and side to side........is this normal???????

hoorders · July 13, 2006

Maybe it's even simpler, how are your tires?

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My tires are actually in reaaly crappy shape............ive been meaning to get out and replace them......just been mad busy.

Could the tires cause that sort of vibration????? Ive had plenty of bad tires throughout the years and normally just get that out of balance shake going on when they are bad.

Raymond S. · July 13, 2006

I have an '06 5k miles and I have the SAME problem. At a constant speed from like 50-70 it almost like a harmonic balance vibration. You can feel it in the floorboard but not the wheel. Which makes me think it's nothing to do w/ the wheels at all. My dealer told me it was the running board. But sometimes it does it and other times it will go days w/out doing it. Talk about a ball buster

hoorders · July 13, 2006

I have an '06 5k miles and I have the SAME problem. At a constant speed from like 50-70 it almost like a harmonic balance vibration. You can feel it in the floorboard but not the wheel. Which makes me think it's nothing to do w/ the wheels at all. My dealer told me it was the running board. But sometimes it does it and other times it will go days w/out doing it. Talk about a ball buster

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Well........just pulled the front drive shaft out and went for a little stroll down the road. Its seems much better. While I was under the truck I was trying to figure out why I could not spin the drive shaft by hand. I dropped the front of the drive shaft off the front diff and I could spin the shaft no problem while it was still on the transfer case.....which means the transfer case end is spinning freely. I grabbed hold of the front diff (where the drive shaft bolts on to) and I could not turn it......so my front diff is engaged which leads me to beleive the vibration i was getting is because my front axel is engaged and with my drive shaft in, its spinning not only the front axel but also the transfer case.

Just got to figure out why my front diff is not disengaging.

Maybe your '06 is experiencing intermitten problems like this?