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Thread: Front Driveshaft Vibration/Noise

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    MechanicalDiesel's Avatar

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    Front Driveshaft Vibration/Noise

    Bought my truck 2 months ago 2012 Ram 3500 SRW, it was missing a front driveshaft. Which was weird from the get go, but it rode nice and was quiet. Didn't take it on the highway on test drive. I know, dumb mistake.

    It was a Ram dealership so they told me they would get a new driveshaft and do the brakes. Had a few issues with death wobble and turned out to be the junk bilstein steering stabilizer. Got a stock one put in and all good.

    I then started to notice a whirring/grinding ish sound as well as vibration/shaking at highway speeds (40mph+). Dealership looked at the truck again and informed me the shake was from the lift kit and aggressive tires, they were sorta right about the tires. They were completely out of round, good excuse so I bought new wheels and tires and got them road forced balanced. Vibration/shake was gone but the noise was still there.

    Pulled the front driveshaft and the noise is gone, I just dropped the shaft off this morning to get checked out and balanced. But the guy at the driveshaft shop took a look quick at the angle under the truck for the front shaft, he is saying the transfer case should be angled down more. We also noticed some rubbing at the joints on my shaft indicating what he was saying.

    Truck has a 4.5" fabtech lift kit and 35" tires.

    How can I fix the angle of the transfer case? I thought this wasn't an issue until a 6-8" lift.


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    DDP's Avatar

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    Re: Front Driveshaft Vibration/Noise

    Quote Originally Posted by MechanicalDiesel View Post
    Bought my truck 2 months ago 2012 Ram 3500 SRW, it was missing a front driveshaft. Which was weird from the get go, but it rode nice and was quiet. Didn't take it on the highway on test drive. I know, dumb mistake.

    It was a Ram dealership so they told me they would get a new driveshaft and do the brakes. Had a few issues with death wobble and turned out to be the junk bilstein steering stabilizer. Got a stock one put in and all good.

    I then started to notice a whirring/grinding ish sound as well as vibration/shaking at highway speeds (40mph+). Dealership looked at the truck again and informed me the shake was from the lift kit and aggressive tires, they were sorta right about the tires. They were completely out of round, good excuse so I bought new wheels and tires and got them road forced balanced. Vibration/shake was gone but the noise was still there.

    Pulled the front driveshaft and the noise is gone, I just dropped the shaft off this morning to get checked out and balanced. But the guy at the driveshaft shop took a look quick at the angle under the truck for the front shaft, he is saying the transfer case should be angled down more. We also noticed some rubbing at the joints on my shaft indicating what he was saying.

    Truck has a 4.5" fabtech lift kit and 35" tires.

    How can I fix the angle of the transfer case? I thought this wasn't an issue until a 6-8" lift.

    I wonder if they ordered the proper length driveshaft? Mistakes have been made before for sure and the fact that it was gone is somewhat weird. Normally 6" and above needs the indexing ring. Might be worth having one made from someplace rather then getting the dealership to keep blaming it on everything else.

    If it is the transfer case i wonder if the truck was wrecked or if something on the front axle is tweaked.

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    MechanicalDiesel's Avatar

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    Re: Front Driveshaft Vibration/Noise

    Me and the guy at the driveshaft shop measured the shaft and it is the right length, the shaft was brand new with a Mopar sticker still on it and numbers written on it from balancing.

    So I expect to hear back tomorrow that the shaft is OK. I will take pictures of it, but it was rubbing against it self on the transfer case side and left some wear marks near the joint so maybe it was due to binding?

    I know its not 100% accurate but the car fax was clean with 1 owner and all the panels look original. So I don't think its been in an accident.

    Some other things happened at the dealership so lets just say I am never going back there anyways haha.


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    InlineSix.7's Avatar

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    Front Driveshaft Vibration/Noise

    If the driveshaft is in physical good condition and it is binding on itself during use it sounds to me like you possibly have an angle problem due to the lift.

    Assuming the caster is correct on your front axle (which impacts the angle of the pinion flange) that’s really as much as you can do as far as adjustment.

    This is likely why the Driveshaft was missing when you bought the truck.

    You may need to consider having a custom front shaft made with different joints that can accommodate greater angles.

    I previously used Driveshaft Specialists to build a front shaft for my 2012 based on the 4500 series Ram and was highly impressed with price and quality.

    I can tell you this - you don’t want your front Driveshaft coming apart while driving down the road.

    On our 2012’s it is spinning all the time and if a joint breaks it could take out wiring, the transmission, your feet, etc. Keep us posted and good luck with getting this resolved.

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    MechanicalDiesel's Avatar

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    Re: Front Driveshaft Vibration/Noise

    Front driveshaft balanced good, and all joints were good according to the shop.

    So I guess next step is to buy a indexing ring and give that a shot. Is that a pretty easy job to do?

    Besides the angle of the shaft, what else could be causing this?

    I am worried it might be something in the transfer case as well. I always think worst case.


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