The unsolvable wobble

Hey all, hope you're staying safe out there. I bought my '04 new and have had this wobble since around 2007-08. When I had my tires replaced around that time, the shop told me one of my (stock) wheels was bent. I was certain that was where the wobble was coming from. Okay fine, I planned on installing a lift and aftermarket wheels anyway.

First, let me describe the wobble. It first appears around 45mph and then again around 70. I can't really pin it down to one area -- it feels like the whole truck is shaking. I can see my shifter shake (5 speed manual) and can feel it in the steering wheel. Sometimes I can see the bed shaking in my rear view.

I installed the lift (OME 3") 33" Hankook M/Ts, and new wheels. The wobble went away for a couple months, then reappeared. I noticed the tires were feathering pretty badly, so I attributed the wobble to bad tires. I hadn't even thought of bad ball joints, etc, yet....

After the Hankooks wore down, I bought some 33" BFG A/T tires that rode beautifully just about the entire time I had them. When they were done, I replaced them with 33" Cooper M/T.

Fast forward to now. The wobble is back and I've noticed the front tires feathering again. Rotated the tires and rebuilt the front end. Ball joints, shocks, CV axles, aftermarket upper control arms, tie rods. Same wobble.

Balanced the drive shaft and replaced the carrier bearing. Same wobble.

I'm running out of ideas. Last thing I can think of would be a bent rear axle, but I agreed with the driveline shop guy when he said I'd hear/feel it in the brakes. Right?

I'm definitely going back to A/T tires after these Coopers, but this wobble is driving me batty.

 

I put BFG Ko2 on a few months ago and after 4 different balances the tires would not balance,
I went back to my original hankook ATM and they balanced perfectly,
Could be tires or make sure the tires are forced balanced

 

Thanks, I definitely think the feathering on the current tires isn't helping the issue, so I think it may be time for new tires anyway.

I've never heard of force balancing until now, I'll look into it for sure.

 

Discount Tires does it now,

there is a big difference in getting the balance this way but you have to ask specifically for this type balance

 

If you don’t have any success with tires and balancing, the list of different random wobble issues I have replaced are;

transmission mount, that was more a wobble when you come off the gas. And goes away on acceleration

driveline, like yourself

And one sneaky little terd that I most recently found, was actually the mounting nut for the driveline flange on the back of the transfer case/transmission where the driveline mounts. The nut has a punch indent that is supposed to keep it in place but it must have worn enough that the nut got lose. When I tightened that nut and re punched it, I lost a wobble I had been chasing awhile.

also the center ball joint in the cardan joint can be a wobble causer also

 

Thanks. I'll crawl underneath and double check all the hardware starting with the driveline flange mounting nut. Never thought about the transmission mount, but I'll check that as well.

When I had the drive shaft balanced, I also replaced all U-joints, along with the knuckle where the double cardan is.

 

Hmm if you had the driveline balanced at a shop I imagine they would’ve caught the flange being loose if it was. My transmission mount I replace
About 280k the rubber just broke, but was mainly noticeable when you let off the gas

 

I removed the drive shaft and brought it in, so I suppose the only way it would be loose is if I missed one when I reinstalled it.

 

I need to buy new tires and was considering Coopers.

1. Did you find them to be noisy at interstate speeds?
2. What brand are you going back to?
3. Were the Hankooks noisy?

 

Most likely I'll be going back to BFG All-Terrains. I've had the best luck with them with all around performance, especially since I do a lot of street/interstate driving. Then, they do great off road and hold up pretty well against our rocky trails here in AZ. A friend of mine has Cooper All Terrains and loves them, and he spends a lot more time off road than I do.

Both the Coopers and Hankooks are pretty loud on the interstate, but in my experience the Hankooks were considerably louder.

 

A few thoughts:

While you stated that you did all that front end work, you never explicitly mentioned doing an alignment. The lift alone would have been enough reason for an alignment. If your tires are wearing unevenly this would apply even more.

Did you check your drive line angles? +3" of lift would most likely require a 2 or 3 degree shim.

You might also consider your wheel bearings.

I recently solved a shutter, and I had gone down almost all the same attempted fixes you have. It ended up being the rear brake drums. I had them turned at a cheap tire shop (cause how could you mess that up) and they ended up being out of round.

 

feathering? Means its out of alignment.

 

Sorry about that, yes I did have an alignment done. I have lifetime alignments at my shop, so any time I take apart the front end, back to the shop it goes.

I did not think to check the driveline angles, so thanks for that. I don't think it would ever hurt to correct an angle that's been changed from factory spec. One thing though, the wobble existed before adding the lift. Although that particular wobble could've been from the bent wheel.

I forgot to mention that I did replace the wheel bearings as well.

 

So, maybe I used the wrong term. I often confuse feathering/cupping/etc. Basically what's happening to my tread is that one lug will be lower than the next, then the next is higher, and so on. I'll post a pic later.

 

Okay, I just did an image search and I should've said cupping, not feathering.