I was hoping you would find something external as I chased a vibration in my Denali till finally rebuilt the differential after finding the antisieze on a drain. I did gears at the same time as I also had a rear pinion bearing that went out. You may be able to change out the carrier bearings and set up the backlash with new adjuster locks. If the pinion bearing is being replaced, it turns into a bit more difficult job.

 

Me too. I'm going to find a low/lower mileage used unit and swap it in with the miles on this truck, and less down time. Hoping I have a decent amount of borrowed time since partial drain and refill after 150 miles yielded a clean plug and clean fluid.

I did swap in the new CV shaft and hub on the passenger side yesterday. Hub was SKF, sounded/felt fine, with at least 100k- cv was factory, and off the truck outboard joint felt sloppy but not horrid.

Big improvement so far on 50 mile drive to work, but vibration is still there in the driver's seat. Feels like from the rear again.

 

Replaced front diff. Improvement across the board but shifted vibration higher.

Noticed diff carrier mounts/bushings seemed loose and soft on driver side, where it feels like the source now. Could that be my problem?

 

More parts came in. I'm about out of ammunition in my parts cannon...

Installed driver side hub and CV shaft today. The hub was still tight but off the truck it did have some slight noise so I felt it warranted replacing. Also did brake pads while I was in there but that is neither here nor there.

Ran out of time to do the differential carrier bushings. I strongly feel that is where the problem is at this point in time based on everything that has been replaced and it only getting slightly better each time. I also found this comment which makes me a lean towards it even more so.

 

Installed the bushings today. Passenger side was senior citizen ***** floppy, driver side would flex with a couple fingers.

Vibration is still there but not as intense. It seems to have shifted up in mph. PSI was higher today since set at 30psi at 40* and it was 80* on test run.

Next week is pretty much shot timewise since I need the truck but I am going to try and get it in to have the balance on the tires checked, any bends in the rims as well as TPMS married to vehicle.