Front driverside wheel vibration

03 access cab 4x4 with a V6. I would greatly appreciate your help on this one.

Need to know mechanical cause(s) of the front driverside wheel vibration, felt through floor boards, and also via steering wheel.

substantial and repeated lateral pressure inflicted against the tire wall, coming from a curb alongside the driverside of the vehicle. Immediately noticed vibration/shaking once I approached 70 mph on freeway. Never had problem with vibration/shaking before this happened. The steering gear appears to list side to side when steering wheel is moved back and forth.

The story about how it happened is below:

I parked alongside a curb (maybe two inches away) in a parking space, and could only back out to leave. Some bone-head parked his F-150 so that it stuck out behind my back driverside, thus obstructing my ability to back out of the space. To back out, I had to force my front driverside tire up onto the curb so I could back out to the right side, and maneuver around the F-150. The tire kept slipping down the side of the curb, and would rock back and forth. After several attempts, I finally forced the tire up onto the curb and was able to maneuver around the F-150.

 

Dude, that sucks! My first guess would be your alignment might have been affected by the lateral force you exerted on the tire. In the future if you are gonna go up on a curb, make sure you do it like you mean it and keep that tire on top of the curb until you are ready to come off. Sounds like just the very edge was up on the curb allowing you to slide down and "wedge" your tire against the curb. So like I said, could very easily be the alignment is out. It could be that you damaged your tire, somehow, maybe a belt slipped inside the tire. I've never had this happen, but my father has. I'm too new to the truck to know its weak spots, but this should hopefully get you started. Good luck, hope it is an inexpensive quick fix.

 

Thanks for the reply.

A friend of mine suggested that the vibration could be that the plate that the steering gear is bolted down onto is bent, and that a steering gear brace is needed. He also suggested that the inner tie rod ball joint could be damaged. It is also possible that one of the tie rods on the drivers side could be bent.

We just looked at the inner tie rod ball by taking off the boot. Does anyone know how much lateral movement the inner tie rod can have as it slides through the steering gear?

Thanks!