I'm a dum@$$

['94IDITurbo7.3]

we need more info.

is this shake coming from the front or the rear? When does the shake occur? what speeds? while braking?

 

[Black dawg]

How do I tell if it's a king pin?
And some 37" military tires (Goodyear r/t)

those tires are notorious for causing death wobble..... you may be fighting a loosing battle...I have been there.

 

[RLDSL]

When I was turning wrenches at a Jeep dealership many moons ago, when we would have customers come in complaining of such things, after taking them out on the *test track* to see if we could duplicate the problem, 9 times out of 10 what it turned out to be was loose wheel bearings! Guys thought they were being diligent , taking front wheels apart , cleaning and greasing everything after getting teh front end submerged ,like you are supposed to, but unfortunately, WAY too many people have been paying attention to those old wives tales (its so bad that many aftermarket manuals are printing this garbage now) about backing wheel bearing nuts off , and wind up with wobbly loose wheel bearings and front ends that wobble all over, that gets accentuated drastically by oversized tires. When lacking a proper torque spec for a tapered roller pearing, to achieve proper preload, the proper spec as per Timkin is 8 to 10 ft lbs per inch of bearing diameter across the wide side of the rollers ( i.e. start at 8 and if the holes of lock tabs dont line up tighten UP to 10, do not back off) this is measuring the smalller of two bearings when two different size bearings are involved.
and no I have NEVER lost a bearing due to proper torquing, but I have seen hundreds fail due to being set too loose. They wobble around in their cages until they eat themselves up.

 

[Ataylor]

Do you have access to a different set of wheels and tires that you could throw on (stock preferably) and see if the problem goes away? It seems that you have replaced alot of parts, but maybe it is the wheels and tires.

Archie

 

[dgr]

RLDSL,
Does that mean my front bearings should be torqued to 24 to 30 foot lbs? Here is the outer bearing. Cone Outside Diameter: 3.25"
I'm willing to give it a go but that sure seems like a whole lot.

 

[RLDSL]

RLDSL,
Does that mean my front bearings should be torqued to 24 to 30 foot lbs? Here is the outer bearing. Cone Outside Diameter: 3.25"
I'm willing to give it a go but that sure seems like a whole lot.

Yes. Folks have been doing like bubba told them for so many years and backing those nuts off till things are loose that it seems excessive, but I remember very clearly way back when in mechanic school getting this straight out of the Timkin book from an instructor who was a retired past head of the society of Automotive Engineers ( you knowm that SAE you see stamped on everything, he used to keep a $100 bill on his desk for anyone who could prove him wrong on anything he ever said in class, and believe me, about a dozen guys tried like heck over that one He had MORE than enough documentation to back it up )
Ive even tested it on the rear axle bearings on the 10.25, while it has you torque it with the special socket to around 50 then back off 3 clicks of the racheting locknut, if you back it off a measured amount and check with the torque wrench what it works out to at that setting, it falls within those specs for teh size bearings in there after being backed those three clicks, , the higher pre torque is done in many applications like that assuming that a new race was installed so they use a higher pre torque to make sure the race gets seated, and if a new race is not used, it still doesnt hurt anything. and makes sure a standard reference point is reached.

What's bad is they are using front wheel bearings on new front wheel drive cars that are sealed that DO NOT require preload in most cases and lots of folks are looking in bearing manuals and reading that bearings dont require preloads and thinking that it pertains to the old style tapered roller bearings, but it does not. You have to remember that these product sheets talk about the latest current products, they dont bother wasting print pages on legacy products that are not used much on new vehicles. There is a reason that we have to use crush sleeves on diff pinion nuts to *preload* the bearings and shim sets and case expanders to *preload * the carrier bearings ( in shimmed diffs, screw adjusted diffs dont have to fool with them but you get the picture ) ALL old style basic tapered roller bearings require a preload to prevent premature wear.

 

[Darrin Tosh]

Try balancing beads in the tires.

 

[bab029]

I second the idea of throwing a known-good set of wheels/tires on and seeing if there's a difference. I am assuming the rig was all gravy before the tires?

 

[zrexryder]

I've run 3 sets of those tires because there cheap an easy to find, I to have had that chase the vibration/wobble. I found that when my truck sits too long a week or more the tires (soft rubber) where getting flat spots and would cause havic until the tires round back out from driving, You could roll the truck back alittle after its been sitting to see if that is one of you problems.

 

[Hydro-idi]

Throw in a bottle of air soft pellet BB's in each tire and see if that helps lol. It sure sounds to me like the tires are the issue and they should be changed out.

 

[dizdak]

i would say track bar / pan hard bar which ever you like to call it.. my old f250 did that when i went up to 35" tires and come to find there was no track bar on the front end, built myself one and never had a problem with death wobble again..

 

[hesutton]

Tires.

Like others here........ I have and continue to run the 37 inch Military surplus Goodyears. When they wear, they start to cam and wobble. Balancing helps, but the balance changes as they wear. They get to the point where nothing will fix it but a fresh set on the front.


Heath

 

[bullwhip]

Are tires new or just new to u? RLDSL I have been putting wheel bearings in wrong way for a long time.

 

[redneckaggie]

I 100% agree with RLDSL on the torque of taper bearings, We use a lot of taper bearings at work for cncs and even the pumps we manufacture. When customers send in pumps as scrap we generally find lose bearings that have wobbled around and destroyed the roller cages. Sad thing is we send instructions on how to rebuild our pumps with the pumps.

I have always thought about it like this, If that bearing is too tight it will heat up, if it is too loose it will allow whatever you are trying to keep still to wobble all over the place and destroy the bearing and many times whatever the bearing is guiding. Now of course there is a point when heat will destroy everything too so it is a balancing act.

RLDSL, We actually have a Timken book at work that I refer to for torque specs on certain bearings, I will have to check and see if that general reccomendation is there. I have only looked at reccomendations for specific bearings.

 

[RLDSL]

Are tires new or just new to u? RLDSL I have been putting wheel bearings in wrong way for a long time.

Don't feel bad. The majority of folks out there have been doing it the wrong way for years. It's just one of those things that has perpetuated itself. had I not gone to a very good mechanic school, I would have likely been marching right along with the rest, and I never would have been able to run race cars at speeds like I did when I was young and stupid because I would have had insane speed wobbles.