Steering wobble after alignment and balance.

Replaced lbj's and tie rod ends. Alignment and balance was done.. No wobble b4. Happens between ~50-70mph. Had a friend helping. He overtorqued the crap outta the lugs with an impact.. Which i was told could cause the rotor(s) to warp and cause a wobble? But i retorqued the wheels and it still remains. Or could it be something else? Is it possible the rotors are slightly stuck at a skew and try breaking them loose too to reseat them maybe? Bugging the crap outta me. Dont know what else it could be unless tires werent properly balanced. Just odd that it happened right after replacing those new parts. I suspect it has to have something to do with something being over torqued. And dont see how over torquing the ball joints or tie rods could make a wobble... Only thing i can think of to check is wheel play, which ill be doing asap. Maybe one of the new parts is a dud? Used oem lbj's, and tie rods from O'Reilly.

 

Bump

 

First off yes over torque/ imbalance torque can warp rotors.
Second have them recheck
Balance.
I've had motorcycle wheels improperly balanced. Took it back and they fixed. Said machine must've flaked out. Either way it's good now

 

Yeah i was thinking that too(imbalanced torques). Im gonna inspect the wheels, when i take them off to check the rotors, and see if any weights came off when he remounted the wheels. Do some basic checks then take it back in and have them redo the balance before i delve deeper i guess.

 

if he torqued the hell out of the lugs, I would throw it back up on the rack/stands and re-check everything (torque). Might as well to rule it out...

 

Yeah sounds like a good idea. He did most of the work. I left and came back, and he was torquing the tie rod ends with the torque wrench so i assumed he did things correctly. This was after i told him he needed to use the torque wrench on the lgj's and tie rods, whem he said the impact would torque them. I said no, torque wrench. Lol. But when i grabbed the torque wrench to put it away, it was maxed out at 150, when the tie rod ends (the last thing he did) was supposed to be 53 iirc. And i asked if he torqued the lugs, he said he just impacted them on. And i could barely break them loose when i went to retorque the wheels. So yeah. Needless to say i wont be having him touch my truck again.

And maybe it can happen, idk for sure, but i fail to see how overtorquing anything besides the lugs could cause a wobble. Although it can cause other problems like stretching and weakening those bolts.

 

I have had the clueless use the torque wrench as a breaker bar.

I have been using my impact for sometime to put my lug nuts back on with no problems .

You just need to know what your doing .

It might very well be just a combination of things causing issues

 

Yeah i couldn't believe it. Because this guy was working as a mechanic for a tow truck company for some time. He just moved outta state tho..
Alrighty well ill tear it down and see what happens and report back.

 

Switch 2 of your wheels around and see if it changed sides or made a difference. Also check for play in the lower control arm bushings if they're original. I bet it is just a bad balancing or alignment issue.

 

Warped rotors won't cause wobble until you're braking. Wobble is usually from unbalanced tires unless a bad alignment has worn tires so bad they are out of round.

 

Yeah ive had a slight braking wobble for quite a while. But this is different. Way more prominent and felt in the steering versus the whole truck when braking.. But was told that if they were torqued imbalanced that it could cause a wobble cruising too. Although i did retorque the wheels and there was still no change. Thats why i was asking initially what else could be a cause. Everythings fairly new. Lca bushings are fairly new. Unless something suddenly happened with the uniballs on my uca's, idk what else it could be. Like i said tho, ill inspect a few things and if nothing presents itself ill take it in for a rebalance.

Edit. And weird that it was fine before those parts were replaced but immediately after was not. Again, unless some weights got scraped off remounting the wheel and failed to balance them properly.

 

No tq is going to warp rotors. Rotors don't warp that way. When people say warped rotors it's when brake pad material is unevenly built up on rotor face causing a pulse.

Unevenly torquing the bolts can cause a wobble but it's not from warped rotors.

 

I'm guessing the tires balance it's off. If you have front wobble swap front tires to rear and see if wobble goes away.

 

150ft lbs?? sheesh. I hope he knows those things are adjustable!

Yeah, best to not let him touch it anymore. Was this a mechanic at a shop, or a buddy with an impact driver (lol)?

Any chance wheel balance weights fell off?

 

Yeah, for the billions of times lug nuts are re-applied with an impact gun, it's hard to think that's the cause of the problem, but I guess anything is possible when you got a guy "torquing" TRE's down with 150 ft lbs. Good luck getting those off again!

 

If you're feeling it in the wheel, my guess would be either the tires are off balance or the wheels are not centered on the hub.

 

agreed.
as long as the wheels are sitting properly on the hub, torque on the lug nuts shouldn't affect wheel stability. it sounds like an issue with balance/alignment. do you have wheel spacers?

 

Check wheel and rotor mounting surfaces for any dirt or ......? Run a wire brush or scotch bright over the mounting surfaces. When you put wheels back on. Use a crossong pattern to hand tighten then torque them down. Still using the crossing pattern.

 

Funny how one wheel weight coming off can cause a major out of balance problem

 

Well I put her on stands today, and didn't even get to pulling the wheels off before noticing some problems. Checked for play first, and wheel bearings seem fine. Joints seem fine. But I do have more play on my passenger side lower slug adapter where the uniball bolts onto the spindle. I had some play before but it was tiny. Should've figured. I've had some slugs for a bit ready to put in but haven't got around to it. But I'm still not convinced the play in the slug is the cause(as it is still fairly minimal and was never present as a wobble before and only after the recent work) or if it's the rack. Because I discovered that it's now leaking. Looks pretty fresh so must be recent and quite possible due to something that "mechanic" did. My only guess is that he impacted things off/on with it in the air and it caused undue stress on the internals causing the leak. Although I kinda knew this was inevitable due to my 3" lift and 33's causing increased wear on the rack. I've always driven it with caution though and tried to not stress the steering in any way to try and extend the rack's life. But I can only suspect that the questionable work done to it recently was enough to tip the scales on it, seeing as it came on so suddenly immediately after that work was done..

I'm not really experienced but I figured cycling the rack and testing for smoothness was a good idea. Which it seemed pretty smooth. With the exception of what sounds like air in the rack. Or something. Kinda of a sloshing/squirting/gurgling sound, at a specific point in the guide. Also noticed the other night I have an occasional, momentary(at about, idk, 9 o'clock position) when turning left, like a slight resistance noise.

Found a write-up on rebuilding the rack. My brother is an amazing mechanic and will take a look and see if it's something he can pull off. But doubt it as he doesn't have much free time. The reason I haven't replaced those slugs yet. Plus those uniballs require two people to tighten (with 175ft lbs iirc) and his bigger torque wrench. Ha.

But, she definitely needs a lot of work before I even think about chasing the wobble. I may just park it until I can get the rack and slug adapters taken care of.

Anyways, pics, and the video of the rack noise.
(I did do the up/down method for wheel bearings before the below video btw)




https://youtu.be/sktV7smBWR4