Shaking truck

[jobar]

Hey guys I have a shaking problem with my truck. I haven't for the life of me been able to figure it out. It's not a consistent shake so I can't really tell where it's coming from. I do know that my ball joints are bad. But would that cause the inconsistent shake that I'm experiencing? Well maybe it's more like a bump instead of a shake? I don't want to throw parts at it. I'm on a very tight budget, so looking for ideas of what to check.

 

[snake]

Most of the time it would be wheel balance. Does the steering wheel shake? Try rotating the tires front to back and see if there is a difference. When the bad ones end up on the rear it generally rides smoother.

 

[jobar]

No shaking in the steering wheel. Just that bumping that I feel. I will try rotating them in the morning. Any other suggestions?

 

[Mark_88]

Not tires if it isn't shaking the steering wheel...a bump...like a "CLUNK" sound...is probably ball joints...just had the same thing on mine...but it was every time I hit a pothole I would hear a clunk...

Could also be radius arm bushings...they do tend to wear out...but if you look up just behind the front wheels you will see a bolt sticking out of the frame towards the back...it has rubber pads around it on both sides...the rubber should look like it is freshly squeezed in there...not like it is a day old donut that is crumbly...if you put a jack under the arm and lift it shouldn't move much...if it wobbles around that's probably the clunk or part of it...

 

[jobar]

Now I do have the CLUNK sound you are talking about. However, what I am feeling is more like, take a shaky steering wheel (side-to-side) and turn it so that it is up-and-down (bumping). Best way i can describe it. I am rebuilding the front end in a few days (upper/lower ball joints, tie rod ends) and I will check the radius arm bushings. If they are bad I will replace them while I have the front end apart. Will also rotate tires for good measure.

 

[enjr44]

Did it just start doing this? I just put new tires on mine and it was jumping all over the road. Took it back and they found one of the new tires was not round. Bad tire.

Check to see if you lost any wheel weights. That would do it, too.

 

[jobar]

No, it actually was doing it when I bought the truck several months ago. It would bump a little bit around 55-60 mph. I could push the truck to 75 and it seemed the bumping backed off a little bit. There wasn't any bumping under 50 mph. I mainly drive the truck around town, so I wasn't really concerned about it. Seeing as how I don't get to speeds above 50 being around town. Fast forward to now, it bumps no matter the speed. Something is going bad with a quickness. I just cant figure out what that something is. I have to rebuild the front end anyways as my ball joints are bad. If that doesn't fix it I will turn my attention to the tires.

 

[snake]

jack it up and rotate them to see if they are round. Also check the steering column, they are collapsible in case of an accident- I had one run dry on a big truck once and it gave your symptoms. there's supposed to be grease between the inner and outer shaft.

 

[feellnfroggy]

55-60 mph shimmy with good balanced tires, is almost always alignment.

 

[GentleRF]

I was thinking shocks but bad ball joints are also likely.

 

[ab_slack]

55-60 mph shimmy with good balanced tires, is almost always alignment.

Agreed

A less likely issue might be a problem with tie rod end (ball stud). I had one of those going bad, all be fine then it would shift causing a weird feeling in the steering and vibration would come in. Eventually one end popped out. It didn't disconnect completely which would have been really bad, but as it was the front shook terribly at any speed over 35. I nursed it the few miles home at 20mph once I saw it was nearly out. With this going bad the toe-in changed or was varying. Any bushings missing in the front end could be an issue. Basically all the rubber on my steering linkages were bad and ended up replacing a bunch of parts after that. Wasn't too expensive however.


And only remotely possible, but one I had cause shaking at the more extreme times. I had a brake line collapsing (looked fine externally) that caused my brake caliper to not release, with a rotor that grabbed once around, as it got worse it would shake more and more in the front.

 

[feellnfroggy]

I didnt even think about loose parts, loose bearing nuts or lugs could be the problem, lugs less likely though if you havent lost a wheel. however if a lug is tightened too much before the rest and not equally then a wheel can be out of alignment that way.

 

[jobar]

Man I would love for it to be a lug nut. Unfotunatly that's not the case. I have had the tires on/off several times since I bought it. My thinking at this moment in this order is; rotate/check tires (doing that here within the hour), rebuild front end. If the problem isn't fixed I'm turning my attention to the shocks. They are the factory shocks I believe and my truck has 116,xxx miles on it. Any problems with that plan?

As far as the collapseable steering colume. I do know the truck was in an accident a while back. Not a big accident. The only thing damaged was the headlight. I also know that whoever owned it before me had an alignment done and whoever did the alignment forgot to put the bolt back in that connects the shaft from the steering colume to the power steering pump because I lost my steering one day in my neighborhood. Luckily I was in my neighborhood.

 

[jobar]

Well, rotated the tires today and the truck seems to ride quite a bit smoother. There's still a small bit of bumping in it but you have to be really paying attention to notice it. I found the front left tire to be really dry rotted. the rear tires are cupped in the center like they have been overinflated. Never noticed it before. So I guess new tires are the ticket which really sucks cause there's still 75% tread left. The alignment is off after rotating them, truck pulls left. But it's no big deal cause I'm rebuilding the front end anyways and getting an alignment. Thanks for the help guys.

 

[Mark_88]

Hope that fixes it...my rear tires have wows in the sidewall and they vibrate the back end of the truck quite a bit at certain speeds...but they don't make clunking noises...so I'd imagine you have a couple of things going on at the same time...how unusual...not!