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Truck Shakes/Wobbles like crazy

T

TrcksR4ME

1/2 ton status
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Feb 11, 2002
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Location
Seattle, WA 98103
This is pissing me off /forums/images/graemlins/angryfire.gif After the last trip out wheeling my truck developed a pretty major wobble/vibration at highway speeds. It has always been a rough ride, but now it is down right scary. I have checked out most the major things I could think of and did find some mud inside the rim of one of the rear tires and that the rear u-bolts were not quite tight enough. I fixed all that up thinking sweet, theres my problem...NOPE, still does it.

I checked the u-joints in the rear driveline, all are tight with no play. Driveline may be out of balance but the woblling and shaking seems way to extreme to be just that.

I jacked up the front end tonight and with the tire off the ground checked to see if there was any play in the bearings or ball joints...again, it checked out fine.

The only thing I did notice, and this is pretty unscientific, is that one of the front tires appears out of round when you spin it. This is just eyeballing it watching the tread after spinning it pretty fast, seems to move in and out a bit. But even if it were, I don't get why it would become such a problem all the sudden. I am also guessing even if it were, that I am SOL since I got my tires 5 years ago (still have about 75% tread though).

What else should I check? Everything I look at seems tight and I don't see any broken parts or anything like that. Whatever it is makes the truck wobble pretty damn bad though, yet nothin screams out looking it over /forums/images/graemlins/1zhelp.gif /forums/images/graemlins/dunno.gif
 
Move the tire to the rear and see if most of your shaking goes away. If it does, then it is your tire.

Dan
 
My dad had a similar problem on his truck. Just all of a sudden started riding really weird...basically truck moving up and down as it rolled.

His was pretty obvious though, huge bubble in one of the front tires right in the tread area. Probably not real common, but possible!
 
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Move the tire to the rear and see if most of your shaking goes away. If it does, then it is your tire.

Dan

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Wouldn't it still shake, or would it be less noticeable there?
 
I'd think if it was a tire problem, it'd be noticable at all speeds..ie out of round? moving it to the rear would take the 'wooble' off the steering, making it less noticable. I hate to point out the obvious, or maybe i missed it...u running radial, or bias tires? I had bias yrs ago, and had a helluva time keeping them balanced...DW, i'd take it in and sure enuff, the weights were off.
 
Did you bend your tie rod at all? Mine went crazy when I did, but mostly at lower speeds. The "death wobble" thing /forums/images/graemlins/yikes.gif
 
tie rod is bent /forums/images/graemlins/thinking.gif has been for a while but It would appear that it got worse judging how the steering wheel has moved 90* since that trip /forums/images/graemlins/thinking.gif I guess I need to check the alignment... /forums/images/graemlins/doah.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
I'd think if it was a tire problem, it'd be noticable at all speeds..ie out of round? moving it to the rear would take the 'wooble' off the steering, making it less noticable. I hate to point out the obvious, or maybe i missed it...u running radial, or bias tires? I had bias yrs ago, and had a helluva time keeping them balanced...DW, i'd take it in and sure enuff, the weights were off.

[/ QUOTE ]

My 33" TSLs cause severe death wobble at 37mph (according to GPS). It's so violent it'll clean everything that was on the seat and dash off to the floor. I had a new brake caliper on the passenger floor and it dented my door. That violent.

It doesn't start until 34mph and is gone by 41mph. If I accelerate through the death wobble hard it'll go away. It doesn't have death wobble as fast as 80mph. I didn't go faster than that. If I don't accelerate through it the only way I can get rid of it is to stomp on the brakes because otherwise it'll wobble until I get down to 15mph. It only takes a small bump to cause the death wobble.

I'm going to see about getting them balanced after I groove them then play with toe-in.
 
All I have to say is that I'm glad I've never experienced death wobble, because that is terrible. With 35s, 38.5s, on a 10 bolt, D60, etc.....never had a problem. Thank god.....
 
Funny you guys should mention "Death Wobble" I just bought a 1986 Sub a few days ago and drove it today on the freeway. Everything drove fine till I got off the freeway onto a side-street and hit a small bump in the road and BAM!!!! violent shaking which appeared to come from the front right. Thought the whole wheel was gonna fly off. I pulled over and stopped and started driving again and all seemed fine until I found another bump in the road. I figured it was wheel bearings but they seem ok. Can a bad steering dampener cause that?

And what the heck is the thing between the spanner nut and the wheel bearing? And how do I get it out? I have never played with a 10 bolt axle before, kinda all new to me.

Any info would be much appreciated. Thanks
 
Death wobble is the suck. The first time I experienced it was around 25MPH and it scared the [darn] outta me. I thought I was losing a tire. It turns out the blazer I bought has a bent frame in front and the alignment is messed up. I have to drive it like this until oct when I get access to the garage for a week or 2 to swap frames /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif
 
I had a Ford truck do that to me once and it turned out to be a weak steering stabilizer combined with some slightly loose tie rod ends. After I fixed those, it went away. /forums/images/graemlins/dunno.gif
Never had that problem with my K5 and I have TSL tires so you know they aren't round.
 
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