Pulsing/droning vibration at highway speeds (3 Viewers)

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AlpineAccess said:
That spindle is wrecked.
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In another life I would really want to see how far I could go on it, with the crappy bearings regreased. Just to know how long you could keep it going. I have some in DR and Haiti that just drive the crap out of these things and dont maintain anywhere near what people here on mud do and they just keep going. But wheel freezing up on the interstate doesnt sound like a good time so I picked up whole spindle/knuckle, and hub assembly from a salvage yard for $80. The spindle bearings in good shape, though I do have a new one coming in. such a good deal I picked up the drivers side too.
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Pretty much all my fault. Re-used a seal (mistake number 1), used axle with chewed up splines (mistake number 2), re-used a claw washer with a weak tooth (mistake number 3), forgot to bend the tabs on the lock washer (mistake 4). After the axle slipped because bearings spun loose after lock washer did nothing and claw washer easily jumped the groove and snap ring came off I put in a new axle and half did a wheel bearing repack for the outer bearings and didnt grease spindle because I was 3 hrs away in my wifes cousins driveway and just got back on the road (mistake number 5). I could tell from the grease color that seal wasnt doing much and my water crossing were washing it out, so I made a mental note to re-pack the bearings and clean all this up after our beach trip.....8,000 miles later I still havent done that the repack or cleaned it up (mistake number 6) and 8 or so more wheeling trips through mud and water holes (very fun but also mistake number 7), so all in all it totally makes sense that this happened and the vehicle was actually awfully forgiving for going this far and only making a slight droning hum and no vibrations.

I think all of the smaller mistakes could have been forgiven had the splines on the CV not been so chewed up and rounded and everything
 
LXKevin said:
Salvage yard are interesting places especially one's that let you roam around on your own.
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Actually this one was crazy nice, I'd never seen anything like it. Its in Frederick Va. it was super clean, most of its inventory is kept inside a warehouse out of the elements and have a nice service desk/lobby. Usually these places it’s in a grass field and they point and say I think that truck is over in that corner, knock yourself out.
 
All things considered (based on your description) it held up well - especially considering the mileage put on them and the numerous issues.

It's great you found such a good deal on what looks to be some quality used spindles.
 
Spent all of thursday and all of this morning cleaning the heck out of the new-to-me spindle/knuckle and every bolt. New wheel bearings and races, 48 ft lb on adjusting nut to get 10.5lb breakaway for preload. Used a new "B" snap ring to achieve a snap ring gap of .15mm. No difference to sound lol.... 🤦‍♂️ drove it to work because who cares and life is meaningless. Cant believe it. So I'll check passenger side now. Then front drive shaft. Maybe drain front diff, should make for a fun friday night.
 
You drained your diffs right to clear any water?

Inspect your front or rear driveshaft for dents or u-joints for play? I'd start there.
 
Passenger side spindle bearing looked about the same. Put the reconditioned one on and new wheel bearings. Noise gone, sooooo much better. Quiet as a church mouse again.
 
marcfj60 said:
Over that past couple months I've started to notice a strange pulsing vibration at highway speeds. I start to feel it at about 60 mph and up. It doesn't feel like a typical tire balance issue but maybe it's tire balance and worn out shock combining to give the strange behavior. It feels like it's in the chassis/driveline/frame, and not in the steering wheel because the steering wheel stays steady while the rest of the truck is vibrating.

The general behavior is at a frequency of about 4 seconds, there is a vibration that maybe is better described as a droning. It goes from no vibration, builds up to something noticeable, then goes back down to no vibration. I'm planning to have the tires balanced and rotated soon. I'm also going to lube all the U-joints and the slip yoke (which I've been doing about every 5K since I bought the truck 3 years ago.)

The truck is a '99 with about 105K on it. It doesn't get driven much since my wife is the primary driver and she stays home with the kids. It's not noticeable on surface streets because we aren't going fast enough. Mostly I'm just looking for anyone who has had a similar problem and find out what their eventual solution was while I slowly eliminate possible contributors.
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I'm here to chime in...
I drive a 1982 Chevy K20 with a 350 motor and a TH350 transmission.

I had the same problem as described above of a vibration at about 55-65 mph that would build and dissipate over several seconds. As time went on, the period between vibrations got shorter and shorter resulting in about one second between vibrations. Additionally, the vibration would go away if I accelerated and would get more pronounced if I let off the gas, especially going downhill. The vibration was in the floorboard and was really hard to tell where it was coming from. The vibration was not in the steering wheel or the gas peddle. It got bad enough that I addresses it myself after my mechanic replaced the u joints with no success. I checked the front wheel bearings and there was a lot of play in a front wheel hub assembly. I replaced the bearings and it got a little better (not the main problem). The steering components were marginal but I took no action there other than grease. Next, I replaced all the shock absorbers with no results. Finally, as I was under the truck looking around for some problem, I discovered that my transmission bolts connecting the bell housing to the block were loose. I replaced the bolts and added a bit of Loctite and some toothed lock washers. It is like a whole new truck, the problem is gone. Check your transmission bolts!

If that is not the problem for you, I have another idea. If you have part time four wheel drive with a transfer case and locking hubs, perhaps your front axle is spinning caused by a sticky locking hub. If the front axle is spinning at highway speeds but not engaged at the transfer case, it could do some weird stuff. For example, the u joints on my front axle shafts do not have grease fittings and have quite a bit of play in them. If they were spinning at highway speeds they would probably vibrate a lot.

I hope this post helps everyone with this problem.
 
gregnash said:
So for me I had a vibration that started at about 50-55mph and would fade away around 70mph. This was something that could be gotten around by accelerating slowly in that range. After greasing the driveshafts a few times the vibration did not got away which pointed me to the hub flanges and axles.
Since I did have the tell tale P-R-D clunk I knew that my Diff bushings were part of it.
When the Diff bushings were replaced (just main, front) and the clunk and vibration only slight lessened I moved to the axles.
I did such last weekend with OEM axles, new seals, new flanges and repacked everything and brought up to spec.
The cheap LAPS axles that were on there ended up being Tripod style instead of the RZEPPA 6-ball type. When the new OEM were installed the vibration is now 100% gone!!!
So if you have aftermarket axles on your truck they may be the culprit.
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when we said "axles", it means front CV axles, right?
 
AlpineAccess said:
In this case yes, CV's are what Greg is talking about.

The drive shafts/propeller shafts can also be a part of the clunk.
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Thanks, I will put this in my maintenance list. it became to be a very long list now...
Funny story at this moment, all the maintenance I already did is up to 3800 USD now...and I just saw a 2002 Musubishi Montero limited on Criaglist last weekend, looks clean and they ask 3800...so at this time point, adding on the original purchase cash, my LC could buy almost 5 of that thing...
 
zhloea said:
Thanks, I will put this in my maintenance list. it became to be a very long list now...
Funny story at this moment, all the maintenance I already did is up to 3800 USD now...and I just saw a 2002 Musubishi Montero limited on Criaglist last weekend, looks clean and they ask 3800...so at this time point, adding on the original purchase cash, my LC could buy almost 5 of that thing...
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You are slowly learning the well guarded secret of the LC ownership cult 🤑
 
And also that Montero, while nice, is only a v6... so the land cruiser has it beat by two cylinders!!! LOL
 
Bardiya said:
Been having a vibration through the car from 50 to 70 mph.

-Dropped the rear driveshaft and drove on the front diff, Vibes are gone.

-Replaced rear driveshaft with new OEM and vibes are back

Has anyone here done transfer case or diff bearings?
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Are you sure your rear tires are not out of balance?
 
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