Rear drive shaft balance (1 Viewer)

[Cruising Canuck]

I've got a bj60 and it has some vibration at highway speeds.
I was underneath it today and noticed that my rear driveshaft does not have any lead weights attached to it for balancing.
Are the 60 series driveshafts supposed to have some sort of weight attached to them somewhere to balance them? Or are they balanced some other way

 

[cps432]

I've got a bj60 and it has some vibration at highway speeds.
I was underneath it today and noticed that my rear driveshaft does not have any lead weights attached to it for balancing.
Are the 60 series driveshafts supposed to have some sort of weight attached to them somewhere to balance them? Or are they balanced some other way

Mine has weights. They likely all have weights. But the weights are placed wherever they need to be placed for balancing. Maybe yours never had them? Do you see a spot weld somewhere that looks like something came off?

 

[OSS]

Swap the front wheels to the back and back to front and see if the vibration changes. If it does, then the vibration is not the driveshaft.

If that's inconclusive, remove the rear driveshaft (noting it's original orientation) and do a test drive in 4WD at 50mph on pavement. That will tell you for sure.

 

[Cruising Canuck]

Swap the front wheels to the back and back to front and see if the vibration changes. If it does, then the vibration is not the driveshaft.

If that's inconclusive, remove the rear driveshaft (noting it's original orientation) and do a test drive in 4WD at 50mph on pavement. That will tell you for sure.

I thought about this, but the vibration starts at about 60mph. I can cruise at 50 and feel absolutely nothing.
I don't like the idea of using just the front driveshaft at 60mph. It just seems like a bad idea for somereason.
And the driveshaft is covered in a thin layer of grease so its impossible to find a weld spot.

Thanks for the information though. Exactly what I was looking for.

 

[cps432]

I thought about this, but the vibration starts at about 60mph. I can cruise at 50 and feel absolutely nothing.
I don't like the idea of using just the front driveshaft at 60mph. It just seems like a bad idea for somereason.
And the driveshaft is covered in a thin layer of grease so its impossible to find a weld spot.

Thanks for the information though. Exactly what I was looking for.

I’m assuming you’ve checked the u joints?

 

[Cruising Canuck]

I’m assuming you’ve checked the u joints?

Thats a good call. I did check the u joints. I grease them religiously. But for some reason one bearing always gets starved of grease and causes it to fail.

 

[cps432]

Thats a good call. I did check the u joints. I grease them religiously. But for some reason one bearing always gets starved of grease and causes it to fail.

I wonder if you could get the grease to flow more evenly if you turn the drive shaft over 180 degrees. Maybe there’s something about the direction of the zerk that is keeping grease from glowing to that part of the joint. Who knows?

 

[OSS]

60 mph is fine driving on front driveshaft alone . Just pick a straight stretch of road if you feel squeamish about it. The FJ80 front driveline is similar to the 60 and its front driveshaft is spinning all the time even when going 100 mph