2005 Tundra novice build - "The Rez"

[tennesseewj]

Nice! I've always been annoyed by the tail pipe exit on my Tundra as well. Word of caution, though, I have had a poorly routed exhaust melt the tread off of a spare tire before on a Tacoma. If you end up making a cut further back, you might consider adding a turndown or heat shield just to make sure you protect the spare.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

 

[Kpack]

Nice! I've always been annoyed by the tail pipe exit on my Tundra as well. Word of caution, though, I have had a poorly routed exhaust melt the tread off of a spare tire before on a Tacoma. If you end up making a cut further back, you might consider adding a turndown or heat shield just to make sure you protect the spare.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

That's a great point. I don't think that will be an issue though because I doubt a full size spare will fit under there. I was planning on having the spare in the bed until I get the rear bumper, because it will be dual swing out with tire mount.

If the spare still fits in the stock location then I will probably need to put a heat shield next to it anyways.

 

[Kpack]

Got the new BFG KO2's on.....and they didn't solve the vibration. So I guess it wasn't tires after all. Bummer.

Next up on the list was to check the drivetrain. I pulled the driveshaft, which was really easy. Never done it before. All the u-joints felt fine to me (at least from what I've read u-joints should feel like). Since it was off I took it to a driveline shop and had them take a look at it. They said the u-joints felt fine but they would throw it on the balance machine to double check that. I'll get it back in a couple of days.

For kicks I drove the truck around without the rear driveshaft in and noted that the vibration is less pronounced, but definitely still there. So my thought is that it is something in the rear axle and is getting transmitted up the driveline to the front. No noise in wheel bearings at all, no play in the wheels, and both rears go straight and true when up on jack stands...no wobble.

I'll figure it out eventually.

 

[trailscape]

What a pain in the ass that vibration must be... No pun, for real...

 

[Kpack]

Success at last!!!! At least 80% success....better than nothing!

The driveline shop found that my driveline was out of balance. As soon as it hit 1200 rpm on the shaft there was some decent vibration behind the double cardan joint. He got the right weight on there and I picked it up today. Installed tonight and the vibration is MUCH better....almost gone now. Just a very small amount left. I haven't felt the truck this smooth in a year. Still have to test it at freeway speeds though.

Interestingly enough I noticed while I was getting the driveshaft back in that someone before me had assembled it out of phase. The front of the driveshaft is opposite the back, which is not what the Factory Service Manual says to do. I left it as is for now, but will separate it at the middle this weekend and correct it. I'm curious if that will take care of the last bit of vibration??

 

[tennesseewj]

Good work! Vibrations definitely suck the enjoyment out of vehicles so I'm glad you made progress.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

 

[smokeysevin]

Trick for making sure you get the shaft back in alignment is to mark it with paint pens/ spray paint, claw or tooth marks. I made that mistake once before and it drove me crazy.

Sean

 

[Kpack]

Trick for making sure you get the shaft back in alignment is to mark it with paint pens/ spray paint, claw or tooth marks. I made that mistake once before and it drove me crazy.

Sean

I marked with spray paint before I took it off and got it back on the way it came off. It wasn't until I was re-installing it that I noticed that the two halves were out of phase. I checked the factory service manual and sure enough my driveline was wrong. It was like that before I touched it (confirmed with before picture) so at some point a shop messed it up. It looks like the offroad shop that did my rear-end rebuild and locker install only took off the rear half of the driveshaft....my guess is they put it back on wrong.

I'll correct it this weekend and see if that makes any difference. My concern is will changing that mess up the balance at all??

 

[smokeysevin]

If it was balanced the way it is setup currently, clocking the rear section will throw off the balance.

Sean

 

[Kpack]

If it was balanced the way it is setup currently, clocking the rear section will throw off the balance.

Sean

That's what I thought. I didn't end up changing it around because I didn't have the right tools to get the bolts out. There's no space for a socket on the double cardan joint, so I needed two long 14mm box end wrenches, which I didn't have. Plus I didn't have time.

 

[Kpack]

Tire fun!

I've had the BFG KO2's on for a little over a week. While they are overall better mannered than the Duratrac's on the road, I noticed some vibration at 70 and above. Some shaking in the steering wheel and from the rear of the truck. Not consistent, but definitely noticeable when it was happening.

OK, no problem, I'll just take it back to Costco and have them check the balance. After 2 hours of me trying to keep two of my kids entertained in Costco, I finally got the truck back and headed home. It rode worse.

I pulled over to check the tire pressure....46 on all corners. Yikes. Adjusted down to 35 front and 33 rear (did the chalk test back when I first got them). Now I didn't feel every pebble on the road, but the truck still shook.

While adjusting the tire pressure I noted that 3 out of 4 of my brand new SCS rims were now torn up. That isn't going to buff out. Chunks missing, deep scratches, bare metal.

Needless to say I'm not happy. I spoke to Costco after I got home and kindly aired my concerns. They were nice and understanding, and seemed willingly to make it right. It remains to be seen how that will happen. I think I'll give the balance one more try, but I'm going to push for them to replace the damaged wheels. Having just spent ~$900 on them I'm not pleased to see them torn up like this. I've taken my wheels off and on a few times since I've had these and have NEVER so much as scratched them. It's not hard to be gentle.

-Kevin

 

[bkg]

If it was balanced the way it is setup currently, clocking the rear section will throw off the balance.

Sean

You may well be correct, but it still needs to be in phase. If the shaft was balanced out of phase, it needs to be rebalanced and installed correctly. If not, there will always be a vibration, premature joint wear and carrier bearing/pinion bearing stress.

 

[bkg]

Tire fun!

I've had the BFG KO2's on for a little over a week. While they are overall better mannered than the Duratrac's on the road, I noticed some vibration at 70 and above. Some shaking in the steering wheel and from the rear of the truck. Not consistent, but definitely noticeable when it was happening.

OK, no problem, I'll just take it back to Costco and have them check the balance. After 2 hours of me trying to keep two of my kids entertained in Costco, I finally got the truck back and headed home. It rode worse.

I pulled over to check the tire pressure....46 on all corners. Yikes. Adjusted down to 35 front and 33 rear (did the chalk test back when I first got them). Now I didn't feel every pebble on the road, but the truck still shook.

While adjusting the tire pressure I noted that 3 out of 4 of my brand new SCS rims were now torn up. That isn't going to buff out. Chunks missing, deep scratches, bare metal.

Needless to say I'm not happy. I spoke to Costco after I got home and kindly aired my concerns. They were nice and understanding, and seemed willingly to make it right. It remains to be seen how that will happen. I think I'll give the balance one more try, but I'm going to push for them to replace the damaged wheels. Having just spent ~$900 on them I'm not pleased to see them torn up like this. I've taken my wheels off and on a few times since I've had these and have NEVER so much as scratched them. It's not hard to be gentle.

-Kevin

I’m going to throw out a suggestion that is may sound a bit rude:

You need to start going to higher quality shops. And you absolutely need to start inspecting the work prior to leaving the shop.

It seems like every place you visit causes more problems than they fix.

 

[Kpack]

You may well be correct, but it still needs to be in phase. If the shaft was balanced out of phase, it needs to be rebalanced and installed correctly. If not, there will always be a vibration, premature joint wear and carrier bearing/pinion bearing stress.

I wondered if this would be the case. Incidentally the driveshaft support bearing that was installed ~5k miles ago is squeaking now. Could this be related to incorrect driveshaft orientation? I'll find a time to pull the shaft and again and have the driveline shop assemble it correctly and rebalance.

I’m going to throw out a suggestion that is may sound a bit rude:

You need to start going to higher quality shops. And you absolutely need to start inspecting the work prior to leaving the shop.

It seems like every place you visit causes more problems than they fix.

Not rude, and good suggestions.

I wouldn't say every shop has made things worse, but there have certainly been a couple of times where things didn't go as planned. That doesn't help with the frustration though. And because of where I live I'm somewhat limited on choices of shops. I will definitely need to start inspecting things though before I leave.

 

[smokeysevin]

For the carrier bearing have a look at inland empire and hendrix motorsports. Both are much heavier duty. The inland Empire one uses the stock toyota bearing in a big polyurethane damper while the hendrix motorsports uses a sealed ball bearing in a machined aluminum housing that attaches to the mount with rubber isolators. I have been running the Inland empire bearing since I am 2wd (for now) which does not have a slip yoke on the driveshaft but the 4wd driveshaft does which allows me to swap to the hendrix motorsports bearing.

Sean