Oh no! New scary sound & vibrations!!!

MtnHaul

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Well dangit. I was doing a couple dump runs today when I noticed the truck just didn't feel right and seemed to be suddenly vibrating more. Luckily the vibration didn't get really bad until I was almost home. I could feel the vibration in the steering wheel very pronounced and even my flatbed seemed to be rattling. I slowed way down and kept my RPMs low, which seemed to reduce the vibration, just to limp home the last mile. I did notice that the vibrations went away as soon as the clutch pedal was pushed in. After parking the truck I pulled off the clutch inspection plate and there is zero movement side to side or back and forth, the teeth looked fine. I started the engine and there was immediately a very noticeable ticking. At idle the ticking is rapid and when I push in the clutch pedal the ticking gets louder and faster. Any insight is appreciated.



Edit: I should add that per the shop that installed my clutch about 25k ago the crankshaft endplay was at the service spec limit in case that could be a factor here. Ticking goes up and down with engine RPM
 
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MtnHaul

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If it was just the ticking I might suspect a sticky lifter but the vibration while driving has me stumped.
 

The_Josh_Bear

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Minus the idle ticking I would have thought ujoint, or maybe carrier bearing on the driveshaft.

Does it still tick with the inspection plate off?

Can you feel the same vibration with the engine running but parked? Anything change with the clutch in or out parked engine running?
 

rhkcommander

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What kind of clutch is it, what brand? Single mass / dual, etc

My WAG is they did something wrong or something came loose
 

MtnHaul

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No vibration while parked and idling. While parked and idling if I push in the clutch the ticking seems to get louder. I found an old post from icanfixall who suggested dumping a quart or two of ATF in the oil to address a stuck lifter. I had a sticky lifter o
n an old F150 and from time to time would dump a bottle of CD2(I think) and it would quiet it down.
 
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onetonjohn

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The shaking steering wheel sounds like a death wobble, but I don't see how that would go away when you push in the clutch. Maybe others can chime in. Is this extended or crew cab(would have carrier bearing)? To check the bearing I would shake the drive line and check for play.
 

MtnHaul

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Clutch was a LUK single mass with new flywheel and has been fine for 25k or so--admittedly they did screw up the throwout bearing. Throwout was making a a fair amount of noise so brought it back and they fixed it, or at least made the noise stop. Now come to think of it I did have a downshift from 3rd to 2nd that sounded pretty bad, almost had a squeal to it. Even with the radio off my truck makes a lot of noises so sometimes I don't hear them all clearly.
 

MtnHaul

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Drive shaft seems tight and was actually the first thing I checked. No play at any of the u-joints or carrier bearing.

And as to death wobble--I felt the death wobble when I drove with no track bar but I'm pretty sure bushings are still good and the kingpin assembly is solid.
 

chillman88

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I had a similar wobble once in my old truck. Drove a half hour to the scrapyard, pulled over and all of my front lug nuts were backed off! Very very glad I caught it in time, that could have been bad. I had run down the lug nuts with a cordless snap--on impact wrench and never double checked them. Needless to say I always torque them down by hand now!

I'm sure its not the issue you're having, but it might help someone else down the road not to make the same stupid mistake I did!
 

The_Josh_Bear

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No vibration while parked and idling. While parked and idling if I push in the clutch the ticking seems to get louder. I found an old post from icanfixall who suggested dumping a quart or two of ATF in the oil to address a stuck lifter. I had a sticky lifter o
n an old F150 and from time to time would dump a bottle of CD2(I think) and it would quiet it down.
Sounds more and more like two separate issues to me...drivetrain vibration is one thing, ticking being something else. Perhaps even something triggered by the vibration but that's kind of a long shot unless it's a simple loose exhaust hanger or something.

Clutch was a LUK single mass with new flywheel and has been fine for 25k or so--admittedly they did screw up the throwout bearing. Throwout was making a a fair amount of noise so brought it back and they fixed it, or at least made the noise stop. Now come to think of it I did have a downshift from 3rd to 2nd that sounded pretty bad, almost had a squeal to it. Even with the radio off my truck makes a lot of noises so sometimes I don't hear them all clearly.
I ran a bad throw out bearing on my F150 years ago for quite a while, 6-8 months haha. Just squirt more WD40 up there when it gave me trouble. I'm not suggesting that, but there are ways to quiet the thing down without dropping the transmission. ;)

Drive shaft seems tight and was actually the first thing I checked. No play at any of the u-joints or carrier bearing.

And as to death wobble--I felt the death wobble when I drove with no track bar but I'm pretty sure bushings are still good and the kingpin assembly is solid.
Hmmmm this is a tricky one. Were you in 4x4? Oh did you check the pinion nut? They will work loose and hum/roar/vibrate. Mine did it before I knew what was up.
 

MtnHaul

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How do you post a video here? Do I need to up
load the video to a free hosting site and then link it?
 

MtnHaul

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I did use 4x4 a few times that day but the vibration was happening while in 2 wheel drive.

Luckily I have someone picking me up for work today so I won't have time to fuss with it until later.
 

MtnHaul

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OK, found part of the problem. The u-joint that connects driveline to the rear pinion yoke has some play and I see a wet spot by one of the u-joint caps. I'm guessing the u-joint failed yesterday and the vibration has screwed up something else. Any ideas what else might have failed? At this point I would rather buy a trans jack and attempt this myself instead of dumping $$$$ into an old work truck by going to a shop.
 

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