radial play in drive shaft

[smessler34]

how much play is normal on output shaft ? im in a pi--ing match with a local tire company . have a vibration at 45-50 mph and the tires they put on my truck 265/75/16 mich ltx took more wieght than normal.

but in there defense they have rebalanced them twice and still the same vibration so im looking at drive line.

my output shaft has about 1/16 side to side play and a distinct clicking sound can be made when wiggling it back and forth.

u joints seem tight balance wieghts are still spot welded to drive shaft.
wheel bearings good.

?????????

[w6bauer]

Was the vibration there before the new tires?

[More Power]

Driveshafts will true-out as their rotational speed increases, but there shouldn't be much (almost no) radial play. I recommend getting whatever needs fixed to correct the play regardless of whether it helps answer your tire balance problem (it could be a contributor).

Back in the the 1980s I had a 1/2-ton GMC with a lot of radial play at the rear of the driveshaft/pinion yoke. In my case, I needed to new pinion yoke to solve the problem. The spline had worn enough to produce some looseness. Just tightening the nut on the face of the yoke wasn't a solution.

In addition, there should be virtually no detectable looseness in any of the u-joints.

Jim

[smessler34]

well looks like the tires were junk...not the brand just the set...blems, wouldnt balance and showed a visible hop on the balancer at high speed.

now the tires were michelan ltx 265/70/16 and i sware by them ... they finally swaped em for a new set"different lot/s/n and bingo the truck was back to driving itself like a cadilac with a boner!!lol

granted the truck still rides hard without mt 32 foot rv behind it...
must be them 80 psi tires.

one things cool is i went to ga mountains on the blems for 8 days.

put 1300 miles on em then came back and got a new set for free.

went by the dealership...diesel tech layed under my truck and informed me my output shaft was perfect and should have about .020" play to alow in and out slip with excessive suspension travel.

thanks for the input.
shawn
2004 2500 hd 6.6 GMC 4x4