did your truck still drive after it happened? i dont even have any new noise or vibration after it happened. supposed to do a tear down tomorrow night

 

Did you check everything else that everyone told you to check before you decided to tear down the rear end? A bad bearing in the rear end usually wont cause vibration bad enough to make the truck feel unsafe. I had one go bad in my 1993 Jeep Renegade and all I could hear was a grinding noise when taking off from a stop. No vibrations at all. I would be checking the transmission mount, and steering before anything else. If it went away after you stopped, that leads me to think it was a death wobble. A different mechanical failure should've kept vibrating after you took off again.

 

Check tire balance. Don't know how bad the wobble was but tire balance and pressure can make wierd things happen. I would check for a leaking wheel seal. I would think that you would hear or notice a whining sound if the bearings in the diff were failing.

 

i have a loud vibration that i can feel and hear when i go abov3 57 mph. and i have small metal flakes in my differential. i believe the truck bucked hard because the bearing was hitting the gears til the piece broke off inside the diff. drove the truck another 16 miles and parked it. hopefully bringing to buddys shop today and tearing it down

 

Sounds like the dreaded dodge deathwobble(ddd) . A steering brace to tie the steering box to frame. These are 80-100 bucks cheap and well worth it. Especially if you got precious cargo .

 

I had a ford f-250 do the death wobble on me a few years ago and I thought it was going to come apart, defiantly felt it through the wheel and had to hit a bump around 70 to kick it off. Haven't had happen in my truck yet and hope I don't.

 

well i had my buddy take the cover off my rear diff. nothing is damaged but it does need a bearing kit because there was some metal flakes. changed the fluid and and everything and added limited slip additive. still trying to chase down the vibration i get at 57 mph. i put my truck in 4 wheel high and it gets much worse, when i turn it really really gets bad. tearing the front end apart next and drive shafts to check u joints.

 

A death wobble would be an indicator that steering compoonents are loose and it would be time to think about the brace and possibly the new steering box. Borg makes a heavy box. That would be my first thing to check is steering component slop before bearings and ujoint replacing. If a front diff problem maybe hoist up and turn wheels and see if any binding. Or if front drive shaft turns when in 2wd then it could be an actuator not disengaging if shaft turns then 4wd solenoid is stuck in either transfer case ir in front diff. Be wary tearing apart things. Try to diagnose things before the search and destroy. It is cheaper that how dealer replace something and see if that works and then replace something else. A small minor thing cost me a tranny on a chev i had years ago.
But im just an electrician not a mechanic.

 

Im just an electrician too. we were driving around and messing with it for a while today, it binds up really bad when i put in 4 wheel, didnt have a chance to throw it on a lift today because he was so busy. but i will. everything in front is tight he said, but i think its an original steering box. and original steering stabilizer. how do you check for slop in those?

 

Hey i believe that you can tell if steering box is worn out by amount of play in steering wheel by amount of correction to wheel to maintain a straight line. You could probably reach down in to engine bay and grab steering shaft and check play. If you are actively correcting steering when driving you got something wonky. You said it really binds in 4wd then most likely the front diff the pinion is not allowing the proper gear meshing and the limited slip is not functioning. Or quite posibly it is transfer case not being disengaged by a solenoid/actuator being somewhat engaged. The only way to see if transfercase is in is on a lift or with a mirror positioned underneith (or an annoying apprentice )to see if front shaft turns when you drive slow. If you lift up and turn tires if shaft turns(2wd) it is stuck in diff. If not it is stuck in transfer case.also look on youtube for death wobble videos taken inside cab and compare if video is same as what you experienced. Hope this helps out .