What's new
CK5
Register an account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members.

getting a weird vibration after bottoming the front end out.. (Updated)

Dabba

Dabba

1/2 ton status
Joined
Jul 27, 2007
Posts
1,839
Reaction score
2
Location
Long Island, New York
so i was offroading a bit and went through an ice puddle that was deeper than i thought. front end sank in, loks like she bottomed out up to the tcase. was cear from the reardshaft back anyway i had to get yoinked out backyards... i checked under the truck, no visisble damage or leaking fluids. got out, unlocked the hubs and started driving home. at about 40mphh a vibration kicks in that sounds/feels like he highway wakeup grades on the edges of the road. it stills with the truck as you slow down to stop and then goes away until you hhit 40mph again. any ideas?
 
knocked off a tire weight, knocked off a balance weight off the driveshaft
 
Could even be frozen or dried mud on the inside of the rim throwing balance off. My 90 I just bought vibed pretty bad on the highway. I washed it and got a bunch of old mud off the inside of the rims and it now rides quite a bit smoother.

Rene
 
tRustyK5 said:
Could even be frozen or dried mud on the inside of the rim throwing balance off.
Click to expand...

+1 Had the same issue on my truck. WICKED vibration over 30. Stuffed the front drivers wheel into a clay mud bank at Hollister. shoved that heavy clay mud inside the rim and totally threw off the balance.

Yank the front tires and pressure wash the rims out (and the rest of the mud on the truck while you are at it). :D That will most likely take care of the problem. If not, come on back and we can troubleshoot further.

Cheers,

Rufus
 
As for wheel weights, you can normally see on the edge of a rim a cleaner spot or scratches where a wheel weight was if one got knocked off. On steel rims they pretty much always put the weights on the outside edge. Take a good look at each rim and see if you can maybe spot where a weight is now missing.

Rene
 
so i checked and it looked like a tireweight fell out, but took it for a spin and was fine. later on today i felt it again, its a rumbling with a slight ringing sound. cant be the tireweight if its intermitten right? nothing appears to be loose, im hoping its not internal like in the transfercase or tranny. all ranges and gears work fine...
 
just checked the rear dshaft, dosnt look like im missing any weights, but theres what looks like a 3 inch sratch going staright and there does not appear to be any deformity to the metal but what appears to be chipping paint is there at the scratch, took some off and looks like a flat metal shaving. that think peice cant be throwing it off could it? i tested the ujoints by trying to move the dshaft while in park and it rotated slughtly but it moved as one peice, no slop in the joints. so is it the scratched dshaft or is it something internal i messed up?
 
Might be good idea to check the front bearings. I had the same symptoms when one of mine went out, intermitent wierd vibration sound and feeling. You can jack up the front tires and grab the top and the bottom at the same time and see if you have any play.
 
Good idea on the bearings...while you have it up in the air make sure the hubs are actually unlocking. You could be spinning a damaged front drive line/axle shaft if the hubs are full of mud and not unlocking.
 
Whatever it is, you need to find it. The truck is giving you a warning and if you don't listen, it could get ugly.
Down here, mud on the wheels is an everyday problem when I'm in my swamp hunting camp.
When I come out for supplies, its not unusual to pick up a bad vibration when I hit the highway. When I do, I get up to about 50 and run off the road onto the shoulder a couple of times.
Being careful that it is a solid shoulder of course. The pounding usually clears it right up.
When I head home for a while, I pull into one of those pressure wash places and get all the mud off.

However, I once had a strange vibration after going through some bad stuff. Not like a tire, more like a faint high frequency vibration I could feel in the wheel.
It was so faint, after I checked a couple of times, I just ignored it.
Stupid!!

About a week later, going through a neighborhood, I saw a kid's basket ball bouncing out in the street. The kid was smart enough not to run after it, but I did not want to run over his ball.
Slammed on the brakes, and they went to the floor. I had a little brakes, but not enough to stop. I managed to dodge his ball, and find a small oak tree by the side of the road to run over and stop the truck.
Got out to see what what was wrong, and smelled brake fluid when my foot hit the ground.
Seems that little tiny vibration I had been feeling was the left front flexible brake line lightly rubbing against the inside of the front tire. The hard part of the line had gotten bent and the rubber part and the tire were fighting it out.
The tire won.
Nice part was, the Ford dealership was about 5 blocks away. Normally I would have fixed it myself, but they were reachable with the emergency brake and my house was not.
Oh, and the reason my back brakes did not take up the slack? It was hunting season, and that mud I mentioned had frozen up the adjusters for the back drums. It does it every year, and I get under and adjust them by hand a couple of time during the season. I had not done it yet that time.
The truck tried to warn me, but I just did not listen.

J.
 
Yeah, im worried about something like that, but since ive made this post its only done this once now. Otherwise she seems to drive fine. Now im listening hard and im starting to make things of sounds that are normally there. Its hard when shes not doing it anymore. Im hoping it was just something temporary. I mean everything under the truck looks as it always does, all gears work as do all ranges of the tcase. No leaking fluids or dents. I mean the d60 and steering knuckle area/ujoints are all intact. Cant see a damn thing. As i said, its like a low rumbling with a slight vibe. Almost like a flat tire. It happend on the way home and only once since i parked her that night. Ill keep and ear out but i hope it was just something caused by some forign object that worked itself out..
 
When my wheel bearing went it started with a rumbleing noise while on the freeway. I pulled over and the noise continued untill I stopped. I looked around and didnt see anything so I took off again. No noise at all.

It did it again a few days later. This is driving it everyday.

No noise for a few weeks.

Driving down the road later on, The right front came apart on me and I almost lost the tire on the road. It had to get towed home.

Might be worth the time to jack up the tire and give it a wiggle just to make sure.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest Posts

Top Bottom