Kaase needs help on truck driveshaft ( Victory!)

My 2002 Ford Harley truck has driveshaft issues. The center support bearing rubber fell apart and I had to replace it with a bearing from a stock F150. Didn't quite fit, had to do a little lathe work to make the flange fit inside the bearing area, but got it to work. Now it vibrates bad, especially at 55 mph. I would use a 1 piece if some aftermarket source makes one that fits this model truck. I looked under it when on jacks and in drive and it looked like it ran true, all the way front to center to rear. It's timed the same as it was. WTF? Please help... Kaase

Sometimes it worked when I have separated the two shafts again and simply turned them 180 degrees; works about half the time.

I have had to shim them down to get the viberation out of them also like Randy said sometimes just turning the rear shaft 180 worked I had one in my old 69 lwb I thought I was never going to get the viberation out until I shim the 2nd bearing I bought for it down.

Yeh, Jon...It sounds like a clocking deal to me , too, as long as there were no balancing weights knocked off or something like that.

Worst case, I have balanced a few driveshafts at home, using the method described in the old '60's Ford Service manuals.

Jon,check all your universal joints,they can fool you as i'm sure you already know. My carrier bearing fell out one night on my 97 ext cab and I replaced it and it still had a bad vib. Got to checking and had to replace 2 u joints.

Thanks for the help, I fixed it tonight. I made some shims and first tried 3/4" , lowering the center support bearing and it shook less. then I took 1/4" out and it was a lot better. Then my friend Brad Waddle called and I told him what was going on, he said you better be looking at the rear U joint. So i gave it an extra exam and it did seem a little loose in one spot. I never took it off the pinion flange because it disassembled at the middle. So I took it apart and 1 cup was destroyed! No needles at all, just dust. Down to O'Rielly's and got a new U joint and finished it up. It drives smooth as glass. For the last 270,000 miles, it had a driveshaft shake at 72/73 mph, always. Now it's perfect through the whole range. The 1/2" shim was needed all along. Brad said he had a Ranger, exact same thing. The center bearing goes out. when you fix it, then the driveshsaft shakes like hell. then you find the rear u joint bad. So it looks like the rear joint goes out of center, it kills the center bearing, you sturdy up the rubber mounted center bearing, and it shakes terrible. It all could have been avoided with a visit from my grease gun. Thanks for all the response! .... Kaase

Glad you found it Jon.

Charlie Evans

Dang,only 270,000 miles! you'd think the newer trucks would last longer.