I have a 2003 ram 2500 with the 5.7 hemi and 4x4 and a 6” zone lift kit, I just recently bought the truck and I’ve noticed that it has a bad vibration and noise starting at around 45 mph getting worse the faster you go. I know from having older trucks with lock in lock out hubs I would get the same problem with the hubs locked in at high speed, but it never was a issue on those since I could just unlock the hubs and no longer worry, unfortunately I don’t have that luxury with this truck. So I decided to remove the front driveshaft and the truck drove perfect, no noise and no vibration. I attached a few pictures of the the driveshaft looks like, seems like the pinion angle side is to much of a angle but then on the transfer case side the double cardan joint is very close to touching. Has anyone else had this problem? I heard of some people converting over to a single joint front driveshaft but can’t find much on that. Anybody has and ideas how I can correct this problem, maybe a different style shaft of some kind or perhaps a bad joint?

 

Angle at the axle looks ok, clearance at the other end does appear too tight.... and that is with the truck at normal ride height. It probably actually hits if the axle droops at all. Might check the U-joints in the front shaft, see how they feel. They look pretty original. Something else you might consider, would be a 'high angle driveshaft'. Various places make 'em, but, they sure ain't cheap.

 

Thank ya, yea I noticed it looked like it had been hitting which would explain why it gets worse going over humps in the road. The u joints themselves are original with 260,000 on them so it’s time to be changed but they’re not showing signs of being bad yet. I’ve already bought new joints but feel it’s probably a waste with angle problem, the only joint that had me was the double cardan one. Also I had read that with this style driveshaft the pinion needs to be close to 0 degrees to prevent vibration. I’m glad mine seems to be ok so far on that

 

Might consider just grinding those spots a little bit, to give ya a bit more clearance....

 

You can get axle shims to angle the pinion up. They come in different angle sizes.
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/w...UaAh0UEALw_wcB

I've seen a transfercase drop bracket that will help with some of that high angle. Only use steel.
https://zoneoffroad.com/products/tra...m-25003500-4wd

 

Mines got coil springs in the front so I don’t use shims, but mine also has the adjustable bolt to turn for small adjustments to the caster, however adjusting pinion angle is really out the window cause my caster like it is right now is only +1 degree and spec is like +4