hiteck

I have a 2007 X with 160,000 on the clock, an OME lift, sitting on 295/75/16's, Tom Woods rear drive shaft and currently no front drive shaft. The tires and drive shaft are a little over 1/2 year old. Just recently had tires rotated and all was good. Drove about 110 miles out of town to go kayaking. I had to drive down a crappy gravel/dirt/rock road, but I've been on it before. On the way back I noticed a weird vibration at highway speed. It's very similar to running over one of those rumble strips used near road construction. About 5mph slower or faster it would stop. If I let off the gas it will also stop. I thought I had thrown a wheel weight, but wasn't sure if letting off would stop cause it to stop. I went tire shop today and had all 4 tires re-balanced, but the problem is still there.

I've checked the DS and it looks to be secure at both ends. I don't see any obvious damage. Other than being dirty it looks pretty much like it did when I installed it.

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance!

Mark Doiron

I had a vibration at roughly 50-55 MPH that did not go away until I installed new ball joints--and then it magically disappeared. I know the mantra is that only rotating parts can cause a vibration, but that just didn't agree with my experience. Give your front end a good going over. If you find something bad, fix it. Maybe it fixes the vibration, maybe not, but it was bad so you needed to address it anyway.

hiteck

Thanks for the reply Mark. I think I found the problem. The rear u-joint is a little sloppy. I thought I could detect it with the tires still on the ground, but apparently not. Jacked it up this morning and sure enough there's a little play in the rear.

I'm not sure if it just needs to be greased or if I need to replace it.

I've never had a vehicle with a greaseable u-joint. Other vehicles the u-joint always came apart so it's been obvious that it needed to be replaced.

Mark Doiron

Cool. If you want to confirm that's the likely the problem, pull the rear driveshaft and drive around in 4WD. I had the CV joint go bad on my front and ended up sending it back to Tom Woods for repair. Local shops didn't have the parts. Good thing was Tom Woods replaced for cost of parts only. $80.

hiteck

That's what it was. Swapped out the universal and she's back to normal.