Dodge 4 x4 Vibration

Hey all. I've got a 2004 dodge 3/4 ton 4 x 4. It's had a vibration since new that starts at around 70 mph. Took it back to the dealer and they replaced the rear driveshaft and told me it was fixed. Not. I pulled the front shaft and the vibration disapeared. Took it back and they ended up robbing one off a truck in the lot as the new one they had ordered did the same thing.

Was definately better but still not as smooth as a 30some thousand dollar truck should be. They told me that was as good as they could do. So I've lived with it for 5 years. Don't do a whole lot of highway driving any way. Just made a 500 mile trek though and found it rather annoying.

Just happened to be talking to another dodge owner a while back and he told me he thought it was a pinion angle problem and Dodge had a service bullitin and shim kit to fix. Dealer knows nothing about it.

Well I took a look and the driveshaft definately isnt in line with the pinion shaft. Looks to me like I could adjust the lower control arms to rotate the diff into alignment or at least close. I guess I'm wondering how bad that would screw up my alignment. The truck has 62k on original tires with miles to go. Hate to fix my vibration issue only to chew up $200 tires. Or is there some other solution I'm overlooking. I don't believe its a balance issue as there has been at least 3 different shafts on the truck and they have all done it to some degree.

Thanks for any thoughts or input.

are you sure the drive shaft is indexed right???? bought a 1996 that had a vibration in the front and the front shaft spline was one spline off

I have a 1996 Dodge 4x4 now unless they change them ??? how would your front driveshaft cause a vibration as it shouldn't be turning ? unless you are going 70mph in 4x4 ?
Mine has a vacume disconnect on the frt. axle and the driveshaft won't turn in 2 wd. Mine also has a constant velocity joint back by the transfer case end. I had a noise in 4x4 and the ujoints looked good but the ball between the 2 u-joints was kinda dry. New joints and a ball kit lubed up good fixed this.
Might be your tires too. I have an old set of worn out Michlens and my truck always runs smoothest with them on. I had 2 other sets 1 cooper and 1 bf goodrich cheap label and neither one of those ran good.

3 different shafts and the vibrations doesnt change? I wouldnt look at the shafts. I doubt it is anything with the axle/drive shaft angles, look at how many odd angles their are on so many different vehicles over the years. Get the tires and rims ballanced again. Ties dont always wear evenly, you may also some how have slightly bent a rim. Do that first. I had a terrible vibration one time on a set of tires I put on my truck, tires dealer had balanced them and they were always a little shake at higher speeds, father in law rtook the tires and rotated them and the shimmy worsened and could be felt through the steering now, turned out I had a bad tire, just a little out of round and it could be balanced close but as it wore a little it became worse, replaced that tire and the shake was gone ever since.

My BIL is a service tech at a Dodge dealership and owns a 2004 Dodge 2500. A mystery 'vibration' is actually a very common issue. He said they have replaced a lot of drive shafts and actually send some out for balancing at an independent shop. They have found a lot of shafts out of balance from the factory. Tire balancing is another common issue, due simply to the size of the tire.

I don't know how severe you problem is, but try to keep in mind that even though you paid over $30k for the truck, it is still a truck. It weights over 5k pounds, had a rigid front axle, large tires, and a stiff suspension. It will never ride like a 1/2 ton truck.

I'd have the tires balanced on the truck. We see a few trucks where thats the only way to balance them so they run smooth . Also check the phasing of both driveshafts .

I've been considering having the front shaft balanced. Probably do that before I start messing with alignment. Actually it's out of the truck now as I thought it was going to make another run to Chicago and didn't want to feel the vibe for another 8 hrs. Maybe I'll pull the rear and have that one done too.

Really don't believe it's tire issue as the frequency of the vibration is driveshaft speed not tire speed. Dealer did remount and rebalance all tires last time they worked on this issue for me.

Actually, I think the ride is pretty good for a 7K lb truck w/ solid axle. I guess my complaint is that for what new trucks cost the least they could do is balance things properly. The shafts are balanced as they have weights welded on. If your gonna do it, do it right.

Good to know others have had the same issue and I believe I'm on the right track to resolving it.

Thanks.

Slow down..