Vibration at 45mph

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Feb 10, 2004
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I bought a '94 Land Cruiser on Saturday in West Virginia and drove it back to Nashville (550 miles). The vehicle drove great, no problems whatsoever. Sunday I went to get gas and at a speed of about 45mph it started shaking. The shaking lasted for about 30 seconds. I was afraid a tire was about to fall off so I pulled over into a parking lot. I drove it around the lot while my father stood outside the vehicle and watched. The tires seemed fine. He got back in and we continued on to the station (including driving on the interstate at 60mph). As I was exiting the interstate I felt a minor vibration. I probably drove it another 30 miles on Sunday without incident. Does anyone have any ideas as to what may have caused the vibration?
 
where to start ?
first off how many miles on this bad boy and how are the condition of the tires. if they are not a matched set with similar tread depths I'd say thats your issue right there. after that I would say are they in balance. I say this as you have described it as a vibration. your first instinct was to check the tires and was probably on.
after that check over the diff fluid levels and the condition of your u joints.
5 bucks on tires still
Dave
 
Phaedrus,
It has 148,000 miles. The tires are matching michelins with approximately 40 - 50% tread left. Thanks for the advice.
 
Check the shocks and the rubber bushings at the top of the front shocks. Pop the hood and have your dad rock the front while you observe the shock.
 
I had the same problem a short while ago too. Seemed like the tire was about to fall off at 60 mph.
I couldn't find anything wrong with mine.
Could have been something sticking on/in the tread....
Drive it...
 
aside from just drive it try rotating the tires and see if it decreases. ie the fronts to the rear. if that solves it go get your tires rebalanced.
Dave
 
I had the same exact problem with mine about 1 week after I bought it. I freaked out and had no idea what it was. But what I did do is grease the crap out of my u joints about once a week for a month and hasnt dont it since. (15,000mi ago).

I used the mobil one grease. Try it. its good maintnace anyways. Just remember. Ujoints are good to grease until the black gross stuff starts ooozing out and you see the nice pink new stuff. Drive shaft dont over grease that. You will get more vibration from that. the drive shaft is about 4-6 squirts of grease and that should be it.

I guess the technical way to do it is make sure the truck is on level ground and then pump grease until you see the shaft start to move a tiny little bit, then stop. If I am wrong on any of this then some one please correct me. It worked for me, but I dont want to be handing out incorrect information.

Good luck,
Bryan
 
I had a similar problem on my 96...... and found by accident that the right steering knuckle arm had one of four bolts missing and two of the remaining three were loose. Replaced the missing parts and torqued all to specs....... no shaking :D.

Wayne S :cheers:
 
Also did you check your wheel bearings to see if they are loose. Simple grab the top of the each tire with the truck on the ground and shake the tire real hard. If you feel the bearing (may even hear it) the bearing are loose and need service. You make need to check the rear bearings, most are not serviced because the dealers have no service specs on the rear bearing thinking they are like the semifloater. They are bathed in oil not grease, they need service jsut like the fronts. later Robbie
 
Try everything above.

I had the wobble and it was tires, then u-joints.

Also, if it was really beaten on it could be a degraded control arm bushing...same logic applies as the shock bushings or a bad shock.
 
Thanks for everyones assistance. I'm going to check all of the items and I'll report back on what I find. However, there hasn't been any shaking since that one incident.
 
[quote author=Mr.Bryan link=board=2;threadid=11944;start=msg109120#msg109120 date=1077568377]You will get more vibration from that. the drive shaft is about 4-6 squirts of grease and that should be it.

I guess the technical way to do it is make sure the truck is on level ground and then pump grease until you see the shaft start to move a tiny little bit, then stop. If I am wrong on any of this then some one please correct me. It worked for me, but I dont want to be handing out incorrect information.
[/quote]
Driveshaft zerks do not need regular lubrication. I like to pump them pretty good and full, and then remove the zerk, unbolt a side, and compress the driveshaft. This squirts out any excess.
I've seen some pretty nasty d-shafts after being over filled and then a good front impact, it can also result in cracked t-cases.
You may be right Bryan, but I'm concerned that if the shaft was moving, ie expanding, then there is already too much in there.
 
Actually, if you want to do an effective job of greasing the driveshaft splines you need to pull the shafts apart and apply the grease directly to the splines. Once you do this you will see why the zerks are not very effective in getting the grease where it needs to go.

Note: Either the bolts, or the nuts, that fasten the driveshaft to the diff flange are serrated (I don't recall which). If you try to turn the wrong side (that is serrated) you will find that they are very difficult to remove, and you will also ruin the serrations.
 

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