Vibration in front end

I had the same problem posted to this group last fall. A vibration I could feel around 45mph and I could feel through the steering wheel. I was told by a few that "no way" would the driveline cause such a vibration. In the end...that is exactly what it was (bad u-joints on rear driveline). Once I replaced the u-joints, not only did the vibration completely disappear...so did a number of other squeaks, vibrations and noises.

WJW

If it feels like it's the front end, I wouldn't totally rule it out yet. Maybe they didn't look too hard. Wear in the kingpins/balljoints can cause that. Same for slack in radius arm bushings, etc. Did they jack the truck up and check for kingpin/balljoint wear? If it's not the front end, could be the u-joints, center support bearing/rubber bushing, or the driveshaft might be out of balance, or out of phase if someone had taken it off, and didn't put it back on the same way. The front "tranny side" u-joint will usually cause more slower speed noise than the back one I think. So if the noise is slow speed, I'd change the front one first, and see what happens. The support bearing will cause rumble if it's wore out, or the rubber mount has too much slack. A two piece truck driveshaft can actually be in theory correct two ways as far as phase. "180 degrees apart" But it's always best to mark it and put it on the same exact way as the factory did. They might have tacked a balance weight on it somewhere..BTW, if it's two piece, make sure the spline gets greased often...If it gets wore out, it will rumble. MK

On Sat, 17 Jan 2004 01:00:35 -0800, Mark Keith rearranged some electrons to form:

Hardly any of that applies to a 1996 F150. Two piece drive shaft? No. Kingpins? No. Center support bearing? No.

He SAID "kingpin/balljoint" and they DO have ball joints. Also, what in the world makes you think that two piece drive shafts are a thing of the past?? We have 4 trucks in this era with two piece shafts.

On Sat, 17 Jan 2004 09:08:29 -0600, Steve Barker rearranged some electrons to form:

He said "F150". Are any of your fleet with 2-piece drive shaft and center bearings F150s? Do tell.

With our old company pickups the "ford shimmy" was the one thing that would finally get you a new pickup from Gelco at about 110,000 miles. (chevy's- 65,000 miles, a quart of oil at each fill up:)

The dealerships would spend big bucks messing with them and not fix the shimmy. :/ No kidding on that, it was almost criminal. :/

Eventually my own F150 got it, but not bad because I got on it quick. A friend of a friend of mine, a new young mechanic for a ford dealership had just quit because of all the politics and crooked dealings there. Anyway he told me "something's loose in the front end and that's causing it, exactly what, doesn't matter it can be different things and add up to shimmy".

"something's loose"

"if you don't know what's the matter... make everything right"

-old SP signal maintainer

I went over everything at once. ...Fixed! Easy and fun for me.

Off hand I'd like to blame, not the king pins and their bushings but the "end play" the "thrust bearing?". There was about 1/8" to 3/16" slop up and down and hardly any side to side. But don't know... because I fixed it instead of picking at it trying to figure it out the way the dealerships were doing it! :/

Alvin in AZ ps- the chevys were the company truck to have... they had more power and were more fun to drive and you get a new one in 2 to 2+1/2 years

pps- the fords drove like a dog lasted 4 years and were shot inside when you turned them in, seats wore out door handles broke off floor mat worn through ...an extra couple years took it's toll :)

ppps- the chevy was always broken tho, the hood getting bent was just a cosmetic thing, the steering and tire wear was always a problem but other stuff under the hood was constantly needing attention at the dealership, got to know all those guys there :)

pppps- the ford may handle like a dog compared to the chevy but it never needed attention until over 100,000 miles, didn't meet them until the shimmy started... I bought a ford for myself and made a dune buggy and bought dirt bikes to replace (and go well past) the "fun, chevy driving experience" :)

ppppps- you can fix that shimmy yourself if you want to, easier than pulling a transmission or engine... get the new parts and install them and take it in for an alighnment ...done :)

pppppps- if this dumb railroad "signal ape" can fix the ford-shimmy Shirley you can too :)

I have no idea what driveshaft he has, but I'd be a dumbass to neglect to mention the problems you can see with one. The guy I work with has a 74 f-100 that has a two piece shaft the same as my 68 f-250. I don't keep up with the newer ones, except for the change from kingpins to balljoints and the overall watering down of the parts quality. IE: forged parts to the newer stamped parts, etc. MK

He's right though...

That was the problem with mine also, but I consider it part of the kingpin assembly.

But don't know...

Me too...My 68 f-250 drives like a new truck. It had the dreaded 40 mph shimmy also. Rebuilt the whole front end, and it's gone. But the kingpin thrust bearing on the passenger side was the main culpit of the shimmy. Same as yours. But, I'd always rebuild the kingpin instead of just changing the load bearing. No sense in yanking it all apart, and not installing fresh bushings. I did everything on mine including all the axle bushings, radius arm bushings, and steering parts. Then a good frame shop align and new tires. Truck probably drives better than it has in 25-30 years. "It's nearly 36 years old". MK

Mine is. I have an 89 Supercab long bed 4x4. Not that anybody would care. This is a good example of what happens on Usenet- an ignorant argument about something that has nothing to do with solving the problem. The resilience of your ignorance is not helping.

Thanks for adding that there Joe, you sure enough straightened out the mess with that post! ;)

Alvin in AZ ps- I'm the dumbest guy here on a.t.f want to argue about that? ;)