help: violent shimmy

Are we talking about front steering axle shimmy/shake at certain speeds and such?

O.K. here ya go....... I had the exact same thing happening on an older Chevy 1- 1/2 ton stake bed (Please, I know..... it's a Chevy...)..... once it started to shimmy (and it was violent) the only way to stop it was to apply the brakes and rapidly bring the speed down to about 20MPH..... tried all kinds of things, tire balance , different tires, even tried one of those steering dampeners that attached to the center OR drag link between the front steering wheels, didn't help! finally took it to a truck shop that did alignments ..... grisly old guy said they put more camber in it ..... it was near zero camber.....had to put wedges in. never had it happen again. Might be worth while to have an old experienced guy look into the alignment.... Maybe?......

Is a Ford truck shop available?

alignment....

Not surprizing. Camber and caster interact and effect the stabilty of the front end. I have cured it tooby adding 2 to 3 degrees of caster too but they are to busy chasing gremlins on the Ford chassis problem.

Eagle Creek, Thanks. Another NG person Snowman suggested something similar...I think. I'm going to find a different Ford truck dealer and specifically mention the caster and camber. Thanks again to you all. This had been awesome help...\ Tim fm CT