Driveline vibe woes... an ongoing saga.

Ben E

New member
I'm posting this here because I'm ALWAYS open to new suggestions on this issue because I've been fighting it for so long. I've got vibrations on my front and rear driveshafts on my 05 LJ. It has 4.5" of lift and an SYE. I'll describe the issue and what I've attempted for each shaft separately. ANY ideas you guys have for things to check is appreciated.

Front driveshaft:
I bought the Jeep with the 4.5" lift on it, stock front driveshaft and stock control arms. The front driveshaft has always vibrated at interstate speeds. Here's what I've done to attempt to remedy it. The parts were either directly related to attempting to remove front driveshaft vibes, or for another project but related to driveshaft angles, etc...
- Currie upper and lower adjustable control arms. Have adjusted in 0.5 degree increments up and down. No change
- Had the factory driveshaft rebalanced. No change
-Inspected pinion yoke on front diff - solid, no play
-Installed new custom front driveshaft - no change
-Installed poly transfer case mount, just in case the t-case was flopping around. No change, but I can feel the driveshaft vibe worse now (figured as much)


Rear driveshaft:
The issue with this one is really baffling, as it didn't start to occur related to any setup or parts changes. It just started happening one day while driving. The vibration ONLY happens when there is no load on the rear driveshaft either acceleration or deceleration. So if I'm on the highway and I push my clutch in, that's when the vibe happens. If there is ANY load on the driveshaft, there is no vibration. I have an Advanced Adapters SYE and Tom woods driveshaft when this started occuring. Another thing to note is, when I bought the Jeep with the 4.5" lift on it, it had no SYE, just a factory rear driveshaft and slip yoke setup. There were no vibes, since it's an LJ and can handle taller lift with no SYE than a regular TJ.
In order:
-Rebuilt rear driveshaft with u joints and centering yoke after locating bad u-joint. This fixed the problem for about 2 weeks, then the same vibe came back
-re-inspected the driveshaft and found all new components to be solid and not bad
-Installed the new adjustable uppers and played with pinion angle, no changes at any angle.
-Inspected rear pinion ouput, seems very solid with no play in the yoke.
-Inspected output yoke from transfer case, seems very solid with no play in the yoke.
-Had Tom woods driveshaft inspected, rebalanced by a very Jeep knowledgable mechanic from a club I'm in. Shaft was in balance, no changes.
-Bought a NEW Tom woods driveshaft and installed. Vibe reduced by 20%, but still present.


I'm pulling my hair out with these things, ESPECIALLY for the rear driveshaft because of all the work I've put into it, and the fact that it just started one day out of the blue and didn't correlate with any parts changes. That and it went away when I rebuilt the shaft, only to come back 2 weeks later. Tom Woods told my mechanic friend who worked on the rear shaft issue "that may just be as good as it gets with that Jeep and that lift height". I might buy that if the vibe started if I had just installed a lift. but I had the Jeep for 3 years (2 years with the SYE and TW driveshaft) with NO vibes and changed nothing, and then it just started one day.


Any suggestions you guys have is awesome, I'm open to any ideas.
 
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