Moms Crew Cab too DANGEROUS to Drive. Help!

[6 Nebraska IDIs]

Moms Crew Cab too DANGEROUS to Drive. Help! FIXED

My moms truck has had a vibration/wobble in it for YEARS. I mean its been that way nearly since we've owned it. We've taken it to every suspension shop in the area and they all say that's simply how a Ford drives, if we want smooth buy a Chevy. I can't figure out whats wrong with it. How do you guys find wobbles and such? Its literally too dangerous to drive anymore, we parked it yesterday. It will be its final resting place if we can't figure out what's wrong with it.

Here's what its doing.
For the longest time it was a wobble specifically at 45mph, where the steering wheel and the entire truck would shake like you were breaking the warp barrier or something, lol. But yesterday we couldn't even get it over 10mph. The steering wheel shakes so bad its difficult to keep it on the road, the shifter in the transmission moves from side to side 10 inches, the dash bounces up and down 2-3 inches, when you get out of the truck to clean out your pants it feels like you just finished riding a jack hammer. Its bad, really bad. Please help.

 

[itsacrazyasian]

what condition is the front end in?

Tires? Steering stabilizer? King Pin or Balljoint?

When i swapped the 60 in my truck, worn trac rod bushings and a cheapo advance sterring stablizer were the root cause of my death shake. But at 10mph, it seems like a combination of things. Jack the front end up and give everything a shake and check the tires. Seperated Belt?

 

[6 Nebraska IDIs]

Tires up front are like a year old. I personally don't care for them, these didn't wear very well. There is no stabilizer on it, I've always believed the stabilizer is something you add after all the other problems are taken care of or your just throwing a bandaid on it to cover it up.
Its the original axle for the truck 1994 ball joint Dana 60. We've always ran 33/12.5x16.5 tires on this truck. The front end was rebuilt with new ball joints tie rods, bushings etc about 60k miles ago.

 

[MUDKICKR]

sounds like death wobble. you are going to have to ck everything in the front end on that truck. track arm first, then ball joints, then leaf spring bushings, then rims and tires, everything must be checked.
first thing to do is find you a friend to help you check out the front end.
have a friend sit in the drivers seat, now have them shake the steering wheel left to right while you watch the frt end for any play. what i mean by shake it is they move the steering wheel left to right over and over again without the front tires moving left to right, if the front tires move a little its ok, but not a lot. also they can vary how fast to shake it to find where there is play. now have them just keep shaking the steering wheel while you look at the track arm, tie rod ends and steering box. you can also look at the leaf spring bushings to see if the leafs are moving left to right.
after that then you need to jack up each tire with a jack to where the tire is about 3" off the ground, then have your friend take a pry bar and move the tire up and down while you look for play in the ball joints, there should be no up and down movement at all, and no side to side. if you honestly cant find any play at all doing those 2 methods then you have a tire and/or wheel problem.

 

[93turbo_animal]

Follow mudkickrs advice he is right on how to find your problem. I agree it sounds like a severe case of death wobble which I found on my f350 was cause by severly worn out track bar bushings. I couldn't tell this till I had my dad rock the steering back and forth and the axle was actually moving so far the leaf springs were hitting my snow plow mount

 

[Diesel_brad]

What mudkicker said + Check all the bushing in the leaf springs and bushings + take it to a GOOD alignment shop and have them pay extra attention to the caster

 

[6 Nebraska IDIs]

Hey Brad you've talked about caster once before. Both shops I've gone to around here say you can't adjust caster on a D60. They said its a bushing that is pre set and when its worn out you replace it, there's simply no adjustment to it. I've argued with them about it but I don't know what to tell them other than you guys have said the caster is adjustable.

 

[david85]

Sounds like a classic death wobble to me.

If it does this at 10 MPH, then have some one watch the front end while driving it. My bet is on a steering knucke, or the track bar.

 

[MUDKICKR]

Hey Brad you've talked about caster once before. Both shops I've gone to around here say you can't adjust caster on a D60. They said its a bushing that is pre set and when its worn out you replace it, there's simply no adjustment to it. I've argued with them about it but I don't know what to tell them other than you guys have said the caster is adjustable.

caster is adjustable, and can cause death wobble. but make sure you check everything else before taking it somewhere, that way you dont waste a lot of time finding something you could have found at home.

 

[88beast]

first id swap all the tires from another truck
a bad front joint with a bad belt in a rear tire can compound
also it being so quick id suspect a catastrofic failure soon so be careful
how much play is in the wheel? when you turn steering wheel without resistance (when tires dont turn)
camber is ajustable by replacing the bushing with one for a different degree same concept as the 250 ttb camber adjustment
the caster adjuster is a wedge so a different angle on the wedge is different camber
thats what id look for the camber is side to side
the caster is front to back
off camber or caster can cause issues but its taken care of my the same bushing/ shim iirc
but you got something really loose somewhere

 

[Goofyexponent]

Now this might sound a little dubd but here goes.

When I did my D60 swap, I found my truck to loose in the front. It seemed to wander and weave so I blamed it on a bad ball joint. So I replaced ALL the steering gear and all 4 ball joints. It seemed a little better, but not fixed.

When I put the 4" blocks under the rear to match the height gain from the F350 front springs, it COMPLETELY went away.

What is the carrier bearing like? Is the rubber all gone, bearing inside bad? This sounds like a driveline issue. When I had my shaft shortened it was so bad it wasn't funny!!! Don't just stop at the front end, check EVERYTHING. What are the rear wheel bearings like?

 

[93_444idi]

i had the death wobble around 45 mph in my rig after i put my lift on. swapped the tires and it hasn't happened since. would suggest the green fluid used for balancing big rig tires (that's what i use), but if it's happening at 10mph then i dont think your tires being unbalanced is the issue.

 

[bugman]

death wobble

my 1992 dodge cummins with a dana 60 had front wheel bearings that needed tightened a little and the death wobble went away

 

[MotleyCrueCab]

I have another vote for caster, went through the exact same death wobble on my dodge after i lifted it, shook so bad it bounced a tool box outta the back... Turns out the caster was WAY off.

 

[JPdrvinmylfawy]

Mine did the same thing after i did the d60 swap and i went through tons of money replacing everything and stilll did it till i changed steering stabilizer i went to a dual setup and hasnt happened again