2nd Gen Non-Engine/Transmission vibration when driving

[4570]

I am feeling a vibration like a tire out of balance . I have put new tires on ,replaced one bent wheel and had lower ball joints replaced and the vibration is still there at highway speeds . Seems to be less if i accelerate hard making me think driveline problems but every thing feels tight . I am going to replace shocks next since im sure they are originals . Any one got any ideas or experience like this . Arnie

 

[SRath]

Years of experience, but no solution yet. It still shakes and everything has been replaced and upgraded and checked and rechecked. The few remaining options include hoisting the Cummins up high enough to push a better truck under it.



Probably not the answer you were hoping for?

 

[4570]

SRath ,does your shake feel like a tire out of balance ? I used to own a Datsun pickup that had weights on the leaf springs in the rear and they said it was to keep the suspension from vibrating . Maybe i will have to try that. Caltrans here is paving a lot of the highway i use and at times if i can find a smooth area it rides really nice but wont stay that way for long . Arnie

 

[HHhuntitall]

OH, man. That's a lot of possibilities. I've seen unround tires in several brands, but if it's vibrating all the time and not at a specific speed, I'd look more towards the driveline, like a stiff u-joint. It won't be loose, but stiff and giving resistance to the driveline, making it try to throw itself out of line and vibrate. Drive it a little and see if any of the joints are hotter than the others, and check the carrier bearing, if you have one. It could also be the sleeve in the transmission tailhousing, but I doubt it as few miles as your sig shows.....

 

[GOlsen]

I had a similar problem in my Z28. It ended up being the driveshaft was out of balance. If it's not a u-joint, that would be my next guess.

 

[4570]

GOlsen ,thats a good idea to check . I will have to look it over and see if any tabs that had been welded on it look like they have come off or for dents . Arnie

 

[McCRam]

I just fixed a rear end vibration that ended up being an inner race was not seated proper. Now if I could just find the vibration in the front.

 

[SRath]

I just fixed a rear end vibration that ended up being an inner race was not seated proper. Now if I could just find the vibration in the front.

Wow! I'll bet that was fun to track down. Good catch!



I replaced my factory control arms with polyurethane bushed adjustable track bars when I did everything else. I'm not impressed with how the poly bushings are holding up. Next step will be to order some ballistic joints and DOM heavy wall tube and make my own. Wish I had bought those joints and done that a year or two ago, the darned things have gone up 20% in price...



I also want to find a way to eliminate the poly bushings in that extremely pricey 3rd gen trackbar and replace them with ballistic joints or enclosed roller bearings or something similar that won't deflect and deform and can easily be greased.



We've all seen how quickly polyurethane shock eye bushings deform and start to get sloppy; why would they be any different in track bars and control arms?

 

[WDixon27]

i had a buzz at highway speeds that ended up being a little side to side play in the rear u-joint where it attached to the diff, the cups were loose in the saddle like the joint is not wide enough, stock spicer joint and it fits fine in the shaft with nothing wrong with the joint, so i shimmed the cups out a few thousandths to snug it up in the saddle, no more buzz. not sure how common this is but i suspect eliminating the play will help the pinion bearing live longer

 

[4570]

After driving the truck and really paying attention to this vibration or out of balance wheel feeling? i find that at times it goes away sometimes on very smooth roads but sometimes on rougher roads too . It seems to come and go and right around 70 to 80 MPH regardless of road condition. At times the center console shakes so bad i have to grab it to make it stop. I guess my next thing to try is another tire shop and have them check each wheel tire combo to see if they can find any thing . Arnie

 

[HHhuntitall]

Hmmm, from what that sounds like, I'd try to find a tire shop that has road force simulation on thier balance machines. I'd wager that's a tire out of round... ...

 

[RichMorris]

My 96 2500 had a serious vibration problem with two sets of tires and three sets of rims in the first 2,000 mi. The solution was a set of alumium alcola rims which the got 54,000 mi before changing the tires. The problem could be that balancing the tire assumes the center hole in the rim is indeed in the center and matches the runout of the outer rim. I have had the problem in my 60 Trimuph TR3 and a 08 Toyota Camrey and that was the porblem in all three cases.

 

[SRath]

I really don't think new wheels and tires are made with a lot of quality control these days.

 

[LandShark]

Did you replace the shocks?
Front u-joints can act like that and are hard to see the problem until you take them out.

 

[4570]

I replaced the shocks and its 2 wheel drive so no front u-joints .

 

[Deezy]

Stability

Hey there, I had similar problems, replaced tires, shocks, stabilizer shock, all tight up front... Nothing helped until I installed a steering stabilizer, the after market variety...

BD has one, there are a few around, but I purchased on on ebay for 125 delivered, and it was easy to install, and works great!

way less shake/shimmy, less wander, and all around way better steering manners. totally worth the money



this is the one I got, arrived fast too

DODGE RAM 4X4, STEERING GEAR BOX STABILIZER, 1994-2002 | eBay



good luck!

 

[bull642]

I just had this problem. Fount my left outer tie rod loose. tightened it and didnt need to replace it. just removed the cotter pin retorqued the nut and moved on. best and cheepest fix I have had in a long time. check yours it may be that simple. hope it helps.

 

[4570]

Well after a few years of putting up with a vibration that felt like a tire out of balance i finally found a tire shop that had the equipment to find the problem. They put the wheel and tire on a balancer that puts a load on the tire like the truck does from the weight of the truck . They found two out of 4 tires had bad spots in them . I replaced the two tires and it rides like a new truck now . Oo. Arnie

 

[BIGNASTY]

I have to agree with HH my u joints felt tight, but never did like the no lube kind and like you I had a vibe so I dropped the drive line to take a good look at the center carrier bearing and found that a u joint was almost frozen in place with no movement. Replaced with grease kind and squirt them about every 3K just to be safe. NO VIBE after replacement

After posting I see ya found it good deal . I wish that I could find a OLD TIME TIRE SHOP that can balance tires on the truck. They use to be all over the place then THE NEW MODERN TIRE BLANCER came around and put an end to it I guess. That was a FOR SRUE WAY TO get it right

 

[HHhuntitall]

BIG, the newest, baddest tire balancer uses road force simulation to balance your tires..... THey don't use enough pressure, in my opinion, to modify what a truck does, but it's still enough to show bad spots in a tire, which tells you what your working with. I leased one when I had my first shop; they were still new, then. To buy one would have cost $9500 for the cheaper one. I didn't do enough tires, so I found a guy that would lease me one, and that worked out ok. I did enough tires to pay for it, then I got to balance all my own crap. ANYWAY, I had brand new tires that wouldn't pass the balance machine's specs. I called trying to figure out what the problem was. The techinician on the phone asked me if I was balancing Goodyear tires... ... I asked why. He said Goodyears typically weren't built well enough to pass the machine's specs. WHAT?!? He said they get the same complaint daily, and they were typically new, Goodyear tires. Well, that was when I first started dealing tires, and the off brand of tire I was using was manufactured by Goodyear... ... in retrospect, I can see how crappy those tires really were. What's sad is several other brands have gone the same way. It's all about the bottom dollar, until the SUVs start blowing out tires and flipping, killing people, and the lawyers get involved. THEN you see a temporary improvement in quality. :{