Put on some new tread and noticed a fast-paced vibration and roar that starts at about 75mph. Not violent, just annoying, similar to crappy tires that are feathered. Sound not coming from any particular area. Took it back to the tire shop (Kauffman) and they road force tested them; all were okay and none out of round. Even so, they agreed to replace the unidirectional tread pattern with an omni pattern at my request, even though the service manager didn't think the tires were the source of the vibe. He was right. Took it to "The Shop" in Norcross, GA and they couldn't find the source of the problem, either. The only other things worth mentioning are that the truck has 100k, the T-box has a slow leak, and a tranny drain-and-fill didn't help. The trans fluid looked clean when drained. Also, The Shop replaced a leaking rear wheel hub recently so I asked them to recheck it to see if it went bad. Vibe noise/feel doesn't change after shifting into neutral and coasting. Vibe present 100% of the time when speed is over 75.

I've read all of the old posts about vibrations, but I can't seem to really get any answers for my specific problem. Any ideas? Drive shaft?

 

Has your front prop shaft been rebuilt or replaced? If not i would not continue to look fir a vibration until it is replaced or you may find out what happens when one fails first hand.

 

front drive shaft has never been worked on or replaced, but The Shop said it looked fine. Is 100k the time to replace it with a better version with grease fittings, or should it be good for another 25k or 50k?

 

No looks can be deceiving. May go another 10k may fail tomorrow when acceleration to get on the highway. Cost $295 for a new upgrade or 6k for a tranny and fuel lines, cats, hole in floor board, t-case god the list goes on and on

 

Duke, I had my shaft rebuilt and balanced (had no vibrations at all before I did this) then had your exact symptoms afterward. Had the shaft rebuilt and balanced again by another shop. That cured nothing. I will be following this post to see if you can figure it out 'cause I sure can't. Said it before and I'll say it again- I would have risked a $1,000,000 dollar transmission replacement and not touched my driveshaft had I have known that my truck would vibrate over 75 mph for the rest of its life after 'fixing' my driveshaft.

Aaron
2003 SE7 135,000
new steering pump
dreaming of original, ungreaseable driveshaft

 

Do not depend on your mechanic when it comes to the front drive shaft, you currently have 2 u-joints that have never been greased along with the centering ball, they all fail and when they do you will also loose your tranny, get it rebuilt or replaced before you have a major failure.

 

Every big city has a "Drive line" shop.
All these people do is rebuild drive shafts.
Have them balance it.

They will weld a small piece of metal on it.

Otherwise, you can experiment with a hose clamp.
move the hose clamp around until the vibration is found.
Then you need to weld a small amount of steel to balance it.

Go get this done.
Just DO IT

 

Well, that was a stub axle.
Here is a drive shaft balance
dynamically

 

Check out the latter part of that video.
He even uses a rubber strap to hold the weight in temporary
and then he runs the dynamic spin test again.

You can for sure try a hose clamp.

 

Thank you all for your generous help. The Shop wants $525 to replace the prop shaft with an OEM model retrofitted with new greasable U-joints, but I'm not exactly overflowing with extra cash. Is this something that I could buy and install myself relatively easy for a lot less money, or do I need to just bite the bullet? I don't really want to go the rebuilt/re-balancing route. I've changed the oil, ignition wires, and spark plugs, but that's about all thework that I've done myself on this truck.