thumper

I recently took my truck in for some service. well, I was pretty darn sure my tires were causing this vibration in my truck and a wierd noise that had just started a week or so ago. To my surprise I had the same problem on the trip home (60 miles or so).

The truck has this bad vibration once you hit 75 mph ( 2,000 rpm). It starts to come on at 70 mph (1900 rpm) and gets worse at 75 mph then stops at around 80 mph ( 2100 rpm) . I would of bet it was my tires. They were a bit wore had over 60,000 miles on them. It had also started this wierd kinda sounds like the hub cap is loose. It's a hollow kinda sound. Not real sure how to explain it. But it mostly happens when I'm on a bumpy road. The rougher the road the more likely you are to hear the noise. Just started making the noise about a week ago. So , I figured I really needed to get in for new tires and decided to go ahead with a few other services while I was there.

I didn't mention the problems to Ron ( service guy) cause i didn't think it needed mentioning. Any ideas on what it could be? Do I need to go back to the dealer?

Thanks

KATOOM

If what your feeling is a harmonic vibration instead of a wobble then I would say your feeling the front u-joints going bad. First off, when you look at your front differential housing from under the front of the truck, do you see what looks like a bulky collar on the left axle tube? Or is it the same as the right axle tube but longer? If theres no bulky collar then you dont have the CAD vacuum axle disconnect system that was excluded on most of the '02's. This means that your front drive shaft is spinning all the time, which a lot of guys with '02's have found will give them a vibration that starts about 65 mph. Especially when the u-joints are going bad. There is other design reasons which cause them to go bad, too but non the less they are probably bad. The only real way to tell is to remove the front drive shaft all together and see if the vibration goes away with it.

thumper

Just so I'm clear on this ..... Are you talking about the Universal Joints on the axle shaft or the drive shaft? And Yes mine turn all the time I guess it's more of a harmonic vibration cause I wouldn't consider it a wobble. Do you think it's possible it could be a thrown weight in the drive shaft? Had an old chevy 4/4 and threw a weight on the drive shaft on that one. Similar feel to that.

Thanks

thumper

took the truck to my local shop ( Gary's Driveline ) and they got it fixed. Seems to run fine now. Apparently from what Gary says it was the Universal in the front drive shaft. A fairly painless fix.
Just thought I'd post the outcome.


Thanks all