Bad shaking

Hello everyone, looking to get some advice on what could be causing this issue. Started yesterday. Was heading home from work. Got on the interstate and accelerated to 70-75 and continued cruising. A couple of miles down, I had to slow up for traffic to about 50, but accelerated back to my previous speed once it cleared up. That's when a very violent shaking started. The whole truck shook and the steering wheel shook back and forth constantly. It almost felt like when a tire is about to fall off. Had to force it to stop. So I pull on the shoulder at an exit, and check out my front end. Tie rods, ball joints, control arms all looked good. So I ended up stopping by my grandfather's house as I wanted some of his input as to what could be the issue. He said possibly check the lug nuts. So I did and they were tight. When I left his house, I decided to try to re-enact the scenario to see if the truck would act up again. It didn't, so I left it alone that night.

The next morning, I get on the interstate to go to work, and the same issue happens. Very violent shaking. However wasn't as bad as the first time.

I have no clue what could be the issue. I talked to a family friend and he suggested it would be the steering linkage. I don't have the equipment to jack it up today, but will tomorrow. Anyone have any idea as to what is wrong? New tie rods, ball joints, shocks, and tires. Tires have about 8k miles on them. Just got them rotated.

Any help is appreciated. Very scared to take the interstate right now, so I'm sticking to regular streets until this issue is resolved.

 

Haven't had this issue on my truck( yet) but have had it on my old vw. Don't know if it relates or not but it was the wheel bearing. The wobble would come and go at different speeds. Grab your tire at 9 and 3 o'clock and wiggle check for slop, do the same from top to bottom, if there's slop from top to bottom or both ways it's probly a bearing issue. If only from left to right it could be a number of things but it looks like you just replaced most of those. Did you have toe in adjusted after tie rod replacement? Could be something else to look into. Hope this helps

 

I'll check that out tomorrow. And yes, recent alignment done with the tire rotation. I have the specs if you'd like to see if they're correct.

 

Also, have you ever replaced the front struts?

 

New Bilstein 5100's all the way around

 

Not sure if the same issue I had, but mine turned to be the tires itself. I thought maybe I needed to balance the tires. But when the tire shop checked them, front had a small lump on side of the tire. He moved them to the back then a wheel alignment. Everything is smooth like a Cadillac, but now I need socks.... Dooh

Good luck

 

Wouldnt it be shaking constantly if it was my tires? I'm only getting this after fast highway driving, then slowing for traffic, the accelerating back to speed again.

 

Google "death wobble". Read a bunch of the returns as many of them reference a particular situation or vehicle. This is what's going on when the front wheel of a shopping cart flip flops back and forth in a seemingly self sustaining action.

Insufficient caster is frequently the cause, among and sometimes in concert with other things like shocks and worn out suspension components.
If your alignment shop did not torque down the alignment cam bolts they can slip, throwing off the alignment. The torque is 96 ft lbs and they need every bit of it. I have seen several accounts of shops not tightening them enough. Usually the steering wheel will also end up off of center a bit. See if there is a vast difference in the cam positions from one side to the other and really put the arm on the bolts to check for looseness. Just a thought there.

 

follow DP advice and also put it in drive and hold the brake as you force the truck forward with the gas pedal then lock the e-brake so it cant move. then get out and measure your tires. if your arm bushings are bad everything can seam fine until you push or pull on these bushings under stress and see if they have play or not.

someone had a brake issue pulling bad to one side because of this and everything he checked looked fine until he put stress on the wheels to find it.

 

Ok so I tried to re-enact the shaking yesterday after trying out my new retrofits last night and it wouldn't do it. So it's a becoming a random thing. I do notice a rougher ride now just on normal streets. Im leaning towards balancing. Any thoughts?

 

Death wobble occurs mostly in solid front axle......

 

You checked tie rods, ball joints, control arms with a spot check on the freeway when it happened. Did the alignment shop you mention check those things properly? Did they specifically mention those items were in good health when they had it on the align rack or when they handed the keys back to you?.

If not,,check those first, because any one will cause your problem if they are sloppy worn. Once they warm with driving miles and motion, it can accelerate that problem.

New retrofits?? what are those?.

Is your power steering rack still bolted tight to the frame and the mount bushings look good?

Power steering rack still in good health?

 

The shop didn't notify me of any issues with tie rods, ball joints, or control arms. The upper ball joints need the boot put back down. Couldnt get it to go down when I changed them last. I've driven the truck with bad ball joints and tie rods for a while and the shaking I'm getting now is beyond that. Feels as though the wheels will come off.

Retrofits are the HID projector headlights. Basically the whole light is taken apart and pretty much most of the parts are swapped out.

I did not check out the steering rack. Haven't had any free time yet. My guess is its either the steering rack, or the tires. I was able to get a short video of how its shaking while I'm driving if you would like to see.

 

I would start off with balancing my tires.

 

Got them balanced a few days ago. Still shaking

 

Drive shaft u joints?

 

Been putting those off until I replace my carrier bearing. Doesn't shake as soon as I hit highway speeds. Starts when I've been on the highway a while. Noticed mostly when I slow down for traffic, and then resume my previous speed.

 

Sounds like u joints, that's the way my 4 runner did. They are put in a bind stopping and when resuming it wobbles and shakes until you get back up to speed. Eventually it just started vibrating really bad like it was going to fall apart. What was so bad is there was any play in the drive shaft at all. I pulled the u joint and all the needles were just powdery dust in one of the caps. Replaced both u joint and problem fixed.

 

This is what I could record of the issue. https://youtu.be/b7GgLOqRJEE

 

Crawl up underneath the truck, firmly grip your driveshaft and push it up to check for play in your carrier bearing. Loose? There's an awesome sticky writeup on page 1, required tools and step by step instructions.