Vibration around 50-55

MrTeak

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So i get a slight vibration 50-55 and then goes away after that speed. I recently had front u-joints installed, front trackbar, control arms and complete front end align. It has a sye with adams driveshaft, rear trackbar and control arms were also aligned. I feel the vibs right under my seat and body so last week I took the front driveshaft which is still stock off and took the jeep for a ride and noticed that I would not get the vibrations anymore so I ordered a new front adams driveshaft. Today I received the driveshaft and installed it and I'm still getting the vibrations. Any thoughts on what it could be or where to look next?
 
There is a lot of experience on here with similar situations-

You did the right thing by pulling the shaft- I would talk to Tom Woods- They will be very well versed in the other things that contribute to that and helping people sort that out.

I wish I had a quick answer for you but I don’t but I can tell you if you’ll be persistent typically you can get something like this resolved-

I will I add that If you stop and think about the system you remove the front driveshaft and that breaks the connection between the front differential and the transfer case so that vibrations can no longer travel through the drive shaft- You might want to rotate your tires and see if you could be getting a tire vibration that moves to the rear.
 
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@Shawn at Tom Wood's Is a member here and the symbol I just put in front of his name will let him know you’re trying to work through this.

It does stand to reason if the vibration was there before and after that most likely the problem is coming from the front and not the driveshaft- It would be pretty freaky for both shaft to have a similar imbalance.

Keep us posted- Solutions to things like this help all of us.

It could also be in the transfer case-

It would be interesting to know what it does when you put it in four-wheel-drive high And get up to 55 or so-
 
This vibration started after the installation of front control arms? Sounds like your pinion angle is off. Do you have adjustable front control arms?
You need to measure your front pinion angle and your front driveshaft angle.
 
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If you feel the 50-55 mph vibrations through your steering wheel it's most likely just a bad or imperfectly balanced tire. Feeling the vibrations up through the seat indicates a drivetrain issue. My bet, since it's speed sensitive that it's just a tire or two that needs to be better balanced. Even if they were recently balanced since few tire shops give their balance guys enough time to get them perfect or even just good enough.
 
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If you feel the 50-55 mph vibrations through your steering wheel it's most likely just a bad or imperfectly balanced tire. Feeling the vibrations up through the seat indicates a drivetrain issue. My bet, since it's speed sensitive that it's just a tire or two that needs to be better balanced. Even if they were recently balanced since few tire shops give their balance guys enough time to get them perfect or even just good enough.

It goes away when he removes his front drive shaft.
 
So i get a slight vibration 50-55 and then goes away after that speed. I recently had front u-joints installed, front trackbar, control arms and complete front end align. It has a sye with adams driveshaft, rear trackbar and control arms were also aligned. I feel the vibs right under my seat and body so last week I took the front driveshaft which is still stock off and took the jeep for a ride and noticed that I would not get the vibrations anymore so I ordered a new front adams driveshaft. Today I received the driveshaft and installed it and I'm still getting the vibrations. Any thoughts on what it could be or where to look next?

Tire balance is what you are describing.
 
He removed the front driveshaft and the vibes went away.
I saw that but he installed a new one and still has vibration. I have never seen a driveshaft vibration go away at a higher speed. Driveshafts will usually increase with speed. Tire balance will usually go away. My thought is the vibration was still there.
 
I had the vibration before and took it to a reputable shop in my area and had truetrac front and rear, regear, adjustable control arms, front trackbar, Currie correct lynk, front u-joints and had it everything aligned by them. I don’t feel the steering wheel vibrating I feel the vibration coming through it. I’m going to try the balancing of the tires. I keep getting that one mentioned and I haven’t done it since I installed my wheels over a year ago.
 
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I had the vibration before and took it to a reputable shop in my area and had truetrac front and rear, regear, adjustable control arms, front trackbar, Currie correct lynk, front u-joints and had it everything aligned by them. I don’t feel the steering wheel vibrating I feel the vibration coming through it. I’m going to try the balancing of the tires. I keep getting that one mentioned and I haven’t done it since I installed my wheels over a year ago.

Personally, I'd flip my tires front to back real quickly in the garage, and see if it makes any difference, with the drive shaft in place. Just because I could do that right away. I'd still take it and tell the guy you want it really, really balanced, not just quick turns.

The advice folks posted above is good on this, If that doesn't change anything, then you've eliminated the tire/wheel variable easily.

I'd then follow the pinion angle advice (caster angle, whichever you want to call it). Hopefully you have double adjustable with all you put on, I'd crank it down to like 3 or 4, and see if it goes away. Then you have the area, and you dial back up until it isn't there, and drives well. If this does nothing, go back to exactly where you were, because you've eliminated this variable too.

That's how my mind would work.
 
I had the vibration before and took it to a reputable shop in my area and had truetrac front and rear, regear, adjustable control arms, front trackbar, Currie correct lynk, front u-joints and had it everything aligned by them. I don’t feel the steering wheel vibrating I feel the vibration coming through it. I’m going to try the balancing of the tires. I keep getting that one mentioned and I haven’t done it since I installed my wheels over a year ago.

Stop spending money.
Your diagnosis doesn’t make sense.

Measure your front pinion and driveshaft angles
Measure your rear pinion and driveshaft angles
Swap the front and rear tires.

All this is free.
Report back

I know you removed the front driveshaft and said vibes went away. That doesn’t mean you identified the culprit..
 
Stop spending money.
Your diagnosis doesn’t make sense.

Measure your front pinion and driveshaft angles
Measure your rear pinion and driveshaft angles
Swap the front and rear tires.

All this is free.
Report back

I know you removed the front driveshaft and said vibes went away. That doesn’t mean you identified the culprit..

I didn’t spend all that money chasing the vibes, It’s all stuff I wanted to do anyway, besides the front driveshaft. I’ll check my pinion and driveshaft angles and swap the tires and report back.
 
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I was tagged on this thread so here I am. I only read the first couple posts though so if I'm saying things that have already been said I apologize.

I've put together a guide to troubleshooting drive shaft vibrations, with an accompanying video, here https://4xshaft.com/blogs/faq/diagnosing-drive-shaft-vibrations?_pos=1&_sid=d6ec76a03&_ss=r.

It sounds to me like you have a dynamic vibration, something that is out of balance or rattling around a bit. Because you said the vibration was gone with the front shaft removed it signals to me that you either have a new shaft that could use a little improvement in the balance or that something the shaft attaches too is loose or wonky. Imagine that you have a loose output bearing on your transfer case, or that the nut is loose and the yoke is loose as a result. That yoke might be wobbling or rattling around (if it were spinning) even with the shaft removed but the yoke is only about a pound in weight. Not much potential for vibration. But when you bolt a 22 pound drive shaft to that wobbly yoke, now you have the much heavier drive shaft wobbling/rattling which has a much higher potential to cause vibrations.

I also think you have an example of harmonic vibrations. I think this because you said the vibration happens at a certain speed then goes away at higher speeds. This sounds like an example of multiple things that are vibrating all syncing up at a certain point, only to de-synchronize later. Every single part of your Jeep that is moving is vibrating after all, it is just a matter of intensity and frequency. A little more on that here https://4xshaft.com/blogs/general-tech-info-articles/vibrations-harmonic. Now if you have 3 things contributing to the vibration I'm not saying you have to fix all 3 of those things, usually fixing the 1 thing that is the biggest contributor will have the desired affect. I'm just mentioning this as a reminder that it can be beneficial to remember to pull back a little and look at a broader range of things sometimes. That and because even though replacing 1 thing sometimes doesn't fully eliminate the vibration it doesn't always mean that that 1 thing didn't need to be replaced, just that it wasn't the only thing that needs to be replaced.

You can also call us for more guidance if you'd like. I saw that you got the shafts from Adams, I'm sure they'd be willing and able to help you as well.
 
I was tagged on this thread so here I am. I only read the first couple posts though so if I'm saying things that have already been said I apologize.

I've put together a guide to troubleshooting drive shaft vibrations, with an accompanying video, here https://4xshaft.com/blogs/faq/diagnosing-drive-shaft-vibrations?_pos=1&_sid=d6ec76a03&_ss=r.

It sounds to me like you have a dynamic vibration, something that is out of balance or rattling around a bit. Because you said the vibration was gone with the front shaft removed it signals to me that you either have a new shaft that could use a little improvement in the balance or that something the shaft attaches too is loose or wonky. Imagine that you have a loose output bearing on your transfer case, or that the nut is loose and the yoke is loose as a result. That yoke might be wobbling or rattling around (if it were spinning) even with the shaft removed but the yoke is only about a pound in weight. Not much potential for vibration. But when you bolt a 22 pound drive shaft to that wobbly yoke, now you have the much heavier drive shaft wobbling/rattling which has a much higher potential to cause vibrations.

I also think you have an example of harmonic vibrations. I think this because you said the vibration happens at a certain speed then goes away at higher speeds. This sounds like an example of multiple things that are vibrating all syncing up at a certain point, only to de-synchronize later. Every single part of your Jeep that is moving is vibrating after all, it is just a matter of intensity and frequency. A little more on that here https://4xshaft.com/blogs/general-tech-info-articles/vibrations-harmonic. Now if you have 3 things contributing to the vibration I'm not saying you have to fix all 3 of those things, usually fixing the 1 thing that is the biggest contributor will have the desired affect. I'm just mentioning this as a reminder that it can be beneficial to remember to pull back a little and look at a broader range of things sometimes. That and because even though replacing 1 thing sometimes doesn't fully eliminate the vibration it doesn't always mean that that 1 thing didn't need to be replaced, just that it wasn't the only thing that needs to be replaced.

You can also call us for more guidance if you'd like. I saw that you got the shafts from Adams, I'm sure they'd be willing and able to help you as well.

Thanks for the detailed response. I’m gonna start with the tires and go from there
 
Download a vibration analyzer for your smart phone. If the frequency is 8 to 9 Hz it is tires. If it is around 4 times that it is driveshaft related.
 
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Well after doing some more research I found that the bearing in the front output yoke on the transfer case has some play and that definitely makes sense while the vibration went away when I removed the front drive shaft and was still there when I put it back on. I guess I will fix that at the same time when I replace my clutch.
 
Please keep us updated. I have a similar vibration. I had my front shaft serviced and balanced. While the shaft was in the shop the jeep had no vibration. Got the shaft back and also got the vibes back. So I then ran it in 4high with the rear shaft removed and still had vibes. Thought it weird that vibes were the same when the shaft was under power in 4high and not under power in 2wd. So now I am back to rear shaft only until I figure it out. I also rotated tires front to back. Replaced wheel bearings and also replaced the ujoints in the front axles.
 
I think we need to establish boundaries between vibrations like the ones phone produces, and shaking like one produced by out of balance washing machine.
Two feel distinctly different, and certain issues cause one or the other.
Many threads i have read over the years star with "i have vibrations/death wobble", but then two pages of digging into details reveals that wobble wasn't really a wobble, vibration was more like shaking, and shaking was a vibration.

Or maybe it is a language barrier, because in my native language there is no confusion between shake, wobble and vibrations, but in English people seem to use that description base on how they feel about it from day to day.