[Jjeeves5]

I have an 05 4x4 cummins 6 speed manual. Bought it at 53k and now there is about 63k on it. I am having a slight roaring/vibration sound and feel through the truck, which is just starting. I have done a bunch of searches on this site to find the problem however didn't come up with anything conclusive.

The sound seems speed dependent. I had a friend of mine (10+ year dodge mechanic) drive the truck and recommend it was likely a pinion bearing going bad. I have been having a weeping leak of the pinion seal, which would make sense. Bad bearing, bad alignment of the seal, thus a leak. However this weekend I took off the rear cover, and did not see any large amount of bearing metal stuck to the magnetic drain plug, nor inside the case. The drain plug had a very fine thin layer of grease like metal particles stuck to it, but nothing that screamed (at least to me) bad bearings. The difference between his opinion and mine is he says the noise stops when the clutch is pushed in, I still claim I can still feel an unusual grinding feeling through the floor board and in the petals (although less intense) that was not there before, even with the clutch pushed in. I typically feel it most between 40-65 or so on the highway. Up around 70-75 and it seems to become less and its hard to detect at all below 30. Perhaps the new grinding feeling and noise are from different problems, but they seemed to come on at the same time. I have felt for any slop in the front and rear drive shafts along with my mechanic buddy. We can not feel any slop by hand. We do however feel a limited amount of play at both outputs from the transfer case. Also it seems to do it most recognizably when backing off the gas at 40-65 or so.

My questions are:

-Is any play (up and down) in the transfer case normal? Its not a whole lot, however there is definitely a little wiggle coming from both the front and rear driveshaft (at the transfer case only) and NOT from the U joint.

-Could the U-joints just be dry and in need of replacement? They do not have any play, however from what i understand doesn't mean they aren't bad either. Would they cause a grinding/roaring type vibration?

-Is a light coating of particles on the magnetic drain plug normal? Is a bearing going bad in the rear? I changed all the fluids when I bought the truck, however do not know any of the previous history.

-Could it be the outer wheel bearings at all? Any way to diagnose this?

I thought we had it pegged to bad axle bearings, however now I'm not so sure.

Any thoughts or help would MUCH appreciated.

Thanks
-Andy

 

[steelhead01]

mark for orientation and pull the driveline to test the carrier bearing and the ujoints. common failure at your mileage point.
put in a one piece DL from the dealer or online Dodge parts houses if you have the G56 6 sp.

nv5600, you're stuck with the lousy 2 piece or a custom shop expensive 1 piece.

not marking the DL orientation will be a costly learning experience

 

[Jjeeves5]

Update:

Drained the transfercase last night. No metal in the fluid. Seems to rule out the transfer case bushings being to loose.

Next I pulled off the rear driveshaft, and found in one direction the rear u-joint would barely rotate and then lock in place. After having felt how hard it was to rotate, I'm certain this is the vibration I have been having. My new Neapco's will be in tomorrow morning. I have found a few other posts with the exact same problem, however not one with a solution.

I have another newbie question however. I thought matchmarking the driveshafts was for when replacing the U-joints, you match the same orientation of the shaft to the yokes. From what I have been reading you need to matchmark the yoke to the axle flange also? Do I understand that correct? Why must you do that? Is it all balanced together with the flange? If I get some sort of further vibration I should just flip the driveshaft and yokes 180degrees from the Axle flange?

Thanks-

 

[TX_Dj]

Jjeeves5, My immediate thought was U-Joints, second thought carrier bearing...

Yes, you want to matchmark the driveline parts when you take them apart, they are precision balanced. Always put them back exactly the same orientation they came out.

 

[ironbridge]

Keep us posted. My truck does the same thing....I think. A high speed buzzing you can feel mostly throught the pedals and gear shift. Thanks

 

[tallboyrichard]

jjeeves vibration

Going through a similar process of elimination with my'05 right now. My symptoms match yours almost identically. I'm at the xfer case now and have the same minor play at the front output flange you stated...did you find this to be normal?? With my front driveshaft out, I can barely hear/feel the noise/vibration but it is still there. Care to share any more details that could help?? I've already been through the replacement of the front bearing hubs, brake pads, front u-joint and differential drain, inspection and lube change...found the same stuff in the diff by the way. Pray tell...

 

[Jjeeves5]

Sorry Iron, missed your post, or I would have answered. Tall, I replaced both u-joints and nearly all of the vibration and the noise went away. It was the Rear u-joint of the rear driveshaft, which is likely why i felt it more in the floor than on the 4wd shift knob.

I have also drained the front axle since and found very minimal amount of metal stuck to the magnet, so I'm figuring both axles are fine, and if bearings or gears were going the amount of metal on the drain plug would have scared me.

After I fixed the growling sound i started being more picky about feeling vibrations and noticed one mostly at 40mph like a tire was out of balance. However wound up at 60-70mph it wasn't bad. Jacked up the front end, the whole wheel wiggled back and forth on the steering linkage, and found some slop in the ball joints. Grabbing the wheel at the top and bottom and shaking it, I didn't get any horizontal movement, and the upward movement didn't seem like more than 1/16 of an inch. And I know if I do ball joints I'll end up doing wheel u-joints etc. while in there, and if i can get another year or two out of them my wallet would appreciate it. So I decided to try just the steering linkage first. Glad I did. The wobbly tire like vibration was gone and I noticed the truck steers much tighter. I replaced the entire linkage with moog's, supposedly with lifetime guarentee.

So the growling is gone, the wobble is gone, BUT, I still have a vibration thats very similiar to the bad U-joint. It is not nearly as intense as before, just barely there. Having investigated everything but the front shaft, I'm hoping thats the culprit. OR I'm hoping its the rear driveshaft being 90 180 or 270 out, because as I posted before, I match marked the two yokes to the actual shaft, but never matched the rear yoke to the axle flange. We'll see what happens. I'll post if I can find the last minor vibration.

 

[tallboyrichard]

vibration

Hey Jeeves, thanks for the info. I'm still stuck at the xfer case...going to drain and inspect today. Did you determine if that minor slop at the front output flange is normal?? My vibration/noise is most promenant at 20mph and fades out above that. Still running without the front driveshaft as it's easier to try and pinpoint the noise. You may want to try this b4 changing out u-joints. I didn't and replaced them needlessly. The Cardan joint at the xfer case is a pain. Please let me know if you have/get anymore info. Thanks.

 

[snAKes]

Any update guys?

I'm in the same boat but just had a breakthrough. I removed the front drive shaft and all of my vibration went away. It was even smoother at lower speeds where I hadn't noticed anything before! I can't detect any problems with the joints though, so I'm guessing it is just a balance issue.

I also had noticed the minor slop in the output shafts of the transfer case and inputs of the differentials, so I think that is normal.

I had eliminated several things first by running the truck on jack stands. In 2WD the vibration wasn't there, but in 4WD it was, so I could eliminate the entire rear. I then rotated tires front to back, one side at a time, and tested to make sure it wasn't wheels/tires. Removing the front drive shaft only eliminates the shaft itself and I couldn't detect any problem or binding so I didn't expect it to change anything, but it did.

Hope that helps.

 

[Jjeeves5]

Climbed under the truck this week, took off half the front driveshaft, and wiggled it around. There was nothing obvious. There was no slop or binding at all. I thought I had the 40mph wobble fixed with the lose tie rod ends as I previously posted, after one quick drive. However it is still there. After driving it around it still does it the worst at 40mph, however at other speeds it kinda does it, kinda doesn't do it etc. Even at 40 sometimes its worse than other times, but the way it fades in and out, and the fact there is no grinding noise to it, I really believe its my cone shaped front tires. I have not been rotating them, because they are awful in the rain. Mastercraft something or others. I don't know if they heated up and cooled down to much from the previous owner or if they are just bad in the rain, (but even with significant tread left on them when i first got the truck) it was like driving in the snow everytime it rained. Anyways I have a set of 285/70's firestone destination at's due in next week. I'm hoping this fixes the wobble. The truck has urethane bushings in the 5th link, new TRE's and new tires soon. The only thing left if this doesn't work is expensive ball joints and u-joints.

After the wobble is fixed, I will work on the last remaining slight buzz in the floor. I'll try to post my findings as I go.

 

[MODEL70]

hey guys interesting thread my 2007 has a vibration as well goes in to the dealer next week for it still covered under warranty .just courious if you guys noticed if it was a load vibration ,what i meen by that is does it vibrate when you are coasting or only when you are acellerating or all the time.mine is only will i am accelerating which most of the time meens you got a u joint out the dodge dealer told me that they are bad for this i only have 40000 km on mine and he said that right when they go. we will see what they will find when it goes in.

 

[snAKes]

All of the time. I coasted in neutral and the noise/vibration was still there.