Severe Rear End Vibration

[KevinSmith]

I am driving my friends truck while he has mine. It is an '03, 3500, 4wd, 4 door, 6spd, 4:11s, long bed, dually with 61K on it. Today on the highway at 65 mph I hit a small bump and the rearend started to violently vibrate. I had to stop to get it to settle down. The only thing I noticed when I looked for a problem was some cupping on the outer edge of the outer drivers side dual. I suspect that this is mostly road wear from the highway as these tires only have about 15k on them. I headed home and every time I hit a bump the rear end would start to shake again. I was able to keep it at a minium by driving at 60mph but anything more was rough. I know my friend has had this truck for the last 20-30K and has had to replace the u-joints twice. The u-joints look pretty good right now so I suspect a carrier bearing. Is there anything else I should be looking at? I have a 2nd gen so I dont keep track of to many 3rd gen issues. Any advice would be great.

 

[TAbbott]

Death wobble in the rear end?

 

[TAbbott]

Previous comment was tongue in cheek, but it sounds like a DW problem. Are you certain it's not the front end that's shaking and not the rear? I'd check for any looseness in the steering linkage. Are you certain that the cupped out rear tire was not originally a front tire that's been moved to the rear wheel position? A cupped front tire would be symptomatic of looseness in the front-end and help to diagnose that condition. IF it's actually in the rear of the truck it must relate to something thats loose, like the u-bolts, spring hangers or perhaps even loose lug nuts on the wheels. I suppose it's also possible that you have a wheel with a cracked spider or broken welds between the spider and the rim itself. All in all, it seems much more likely that it's a front end problem.

 

[rbattelle]

If it is in the rear, maybe a bad shock?

Ever see one of those vehicles going down the road with one wheel bouncing up and down like nobody's business?

Ryan

 

[KevinSmith]

The steering wheel had very little vibration but the truck was shaking quite badly. I think I will check the front end just to be sure. What is the DW problem?

 

[betterthanstock]

Shock, or bent wheel.

 

[TAbbott]

There are many posts on here about the death wobble (DW). Most of them start out just as yours did: Everythings hunky-dory until one day you hit a bump and you think you're gonna crash before you finally get it stopped --- which you have to come to a virtual stop before the shaking lets up. YOu can do a search for death wobble and find all sorts of answers. Basically it comes down to something in the front end is loose or out of spec -- ball joints, tie rod ends, wrong backspacing on wheels, tires out of round or balance, worn-out steering stabilizer, bent wheel, steering gear loose --- lots of potential causes. On a dually, if the truck has been worked hard, I think I might start by checking the true-ness of the front wheels. Dually wheels aren't as strong as standard wheels, and can more easily be bent if loaded heavy and impacted by a large pot-hole or something.

 

[LaserBob]

Check the u-joints in the driveline.

 

[betterthanstock]

get it fixed before it does this

YouTube - Drifting Attempt Gone Wrong

 

[DPKetchum]

Any news on repair?