WOULDN'T YOU KNOW IT!

[CaptTom]

See what bragging get's you?? As soon as you think it's going great gunz, the bragging starts and look what sneaks up on ya!

Today I experienced a pretty good shimmy at around 70mph, I think front end. The shimmy goes away at about 53mph, but at 55, it creeps back into things.

My first inclination was lost weight, however, there appears to be an ever so slight wear at the outer edge of the right front tire. Drivers front appears good/no indicators. The shimmy only started today, drove it carefully 30 miles, and first glance I don't see anything else obvious.

My next thoughts are idler or bad shock. Steering is still as tight as ever.

If it was a boat, I'd say bent prop first, but rim appears good and can't tell if weight is missing.

Whatcha think??

 

[icanfixall]

Any noise when turning either directions. Might take a look see at the lug nuts for being tight. Plenty of tree hugger creeps out this time of year from the forests doing stipid things to diesels...

 

[CaptTom]

Any noise when turning either directions. Might take a look see at the lug nuts for being tight. Plenty of tree hugger creeps out this time of year from the forests doing stipid things to diesels...

An ax in the stump might cure some of that!

Will check and see there too.

 

[stumiister]

I would jack the front end up and with one hand at the 12 o'clock and the other at the 6 o'clock shake the tire up and down this will tell if you have loose ball joints or king pins just depends if yor truck is 2 or 4 wheel drive

 

[stumiister]

You may also have a loose wheel bearing

 

[Bashby]

Usually a vibration that comes and goes with speed is a balance problem, usually tires. Go for a drive and get it to the speed where it shakes, hold on tight to the steering wheel... feel it there?... in the front. Lay your hand on the door and let go of the steering wheel if you can.. if you feel it more there its in the rear. You could then rotate the tires and see if it moves to the other end of the truck.

 

[stumiister]

Usually a vibration that comes and goes with speed is a balance problem, usually tires. Go for a drive and get it to the speed where it shakes, hold on tight to the steering wheel... feel it there?... in the front. Lay your hand on the door and let go of the steering wheel if you can.. if you feel it more there its in the rear. You could then rotate the tires and see if it moves to the other end of the truck.

It could be a tire seperating in other words the tread is coming off the casing so becarefull the tire could pop on you, I would jack the truck up and spin the tire to see if it is egg shaped.

 

[LARRY RANALLO]

thats ok you got your Centrimatics coming

 

[dakotajeep]

It could be a tire seperating in other words the tread is coming off the casing so becarefull the tire could pop on you, I would jack the truck up and spin the tire to see if it is egg shaped.

Thats good advice. I just had a tire blow at 75 mph I didnt have but a minute to decide to slow down....really give it a good look its not cool to have a blowout!

Thad

 

[CaptTom]

UPDATE

thats ok you got your Centrimatics coming

I thought the same thing!

Good thing I didn't wait too.

Ok, here's the update:

Last night I went into my local tire shop and had them check the balance. As you may remember, I just bought this cherry truck with low miles on it... tight as a drum to drive.

Well, the guy in the shop tells me, there's no way he will pull and balance my tires because of their age. Seems the tires are same vintage as the truck!! 1990!!

OL!

So, I tell him just to replace the right front, left front was already replaced by me a month ago. He pulls the tire off the rim and finds the inside of the tire had separated from the outside.... no visuals outside to indicate anything was wrong, except the thin wear line on the outside of the suspect tire.

If I had installed the Centrimatics, it may have hidden my dilemma, until of course it blew at highway speed on my steering tires!

So there's the end of my saga.

Riding smooth again in Klownifornia... will ride like silk once the Centrimatics arrive.

Oh! Almost forgot... a day or two before things were getting kind of bouncie, I heard a dull pop/thud noise. I blew it off because I thought I ran over something, but didn't see anything in rear views. The truck actually whispered to me something was up. No way to know it though, all the damage was internal.

 

[rhkcommander]

good thinking, glad you found it before it decided to jump out and bite ya

 

[CaptTom]

good thinking, glad you found it before it decided to jump out and bite ya

Me too! Meeeeee toooo!

stumiister got me to go in for a tire check up!

Great advice!

 

[rhkcommander]

good thinking, glad you found it before it decided to jump out and bite ya

 

[CaptTom]

WOOOOHOOOOO!!!!!

Centrimatics arrived!!!!!

I wonder if I install one of these under my ball cap if my thinking will start to straighten up??

Maybe not... got enough marbles rolling around under there.

 

[saltbranch]

I just went through something similar. At first mine started pulling to the right, then got worse. Frontend checked out fine from local tire shop I use. Then not long after the check I started to get a vibration starting around 65 mph and got bad by 75mph. Had tire balance checked and several trips to the tire shop later, turned out to be the tires. I put new ones on and smooth ride now and no pull. The tires that I had on looked to be in good shape, lot of tread left etc. Tire shop gave me credit for alot of charges from previous visits checking things out and got a good price on tires to boot.