Highway Vibration

[cwb90]

I have a 2005 ext cab ranger 4x4 and when I get up to about 60 mph I get a bad vibration. At first I always thought my tires were bad but I recently replaced them along with an alignment and still have the vibration. The truck has a 1 piece aluminum driveshaft. Any ideas on what mght be the cause of this?

Thanks
cwb90

 

[Earl43P]

A good visual inspection can work wonders.

Use good jackstands to support the rear axle, leaving the tires a couple inches off of the ground. Have an assistant "drive" the truck on jackstands while you safely look from the side for something vibrating.

If you don't find anything, it's time to put the front up in the air too and put it into 4Hi to get the front driveshaft, axle and CV axles into the picture.

The front is a bit trickier to jackstand because you want to have the weight of the truck on the suspension. I'm sure there is a good spot on the underside of the lower A-arm to get some jackstands properly positioned. Same deal, safely look for what is vibrating while an assistant "drives" the truck.

If you only have one set of jackstands, use wood, a cinder block (holes pointing UP) and wood again to support the rear axle tubes.

 

[06RangerXLT]

list of possibilities:

rotors
drums
wheel bearing (though not likely)
bent rim
bad U joints
off ballance driveshaft (may have lost the weights)
off center rim/drum (had that one too, was the drum)
bad balance on the tires (happens when they are older or static ballanced, or a novice does them)

thats about all thats gonna do it.

 

[cwb90]

thanks for the replies. I just looked at the u joints and they don't feel like they have any slop in them but the diveshaft slip joint seems to. I can push up on the driveshaft and the slip joint moves up and down a little. Is this normal? My friend has a 2010 ranger and it has a steel driveshaft. Why and when did they change?

cwb90