Uncontrollable on the freeway

Which Bilstein shocks did you use? Are you sure they're for this truck? Did you also change the coils?

 

Wisconsin has 70mph zones on Interstates where flow of traffic is usually about 78. Most of our big highways are 65mph where flow is usually 72. It sucks down the MPG's but you sure move around quickly...

 

I used these shocks: Bilstein 24188401 Shock

I'm sure that it's for the truck and no I left the stock coils on

 

Bent frame

 

Oklahoma turnpikes are 80 mph. Better be in the right lane if that is all you are doing. Interstates are 75.

 

Why in the hell would you need a spring compressor to remove the springs from the truck? To put new shocks on sure but?

 

What state do you live in, stay out of the left lane Bob?

 

I was removing the shock like how it is shown in this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQ9oW-VNWWo

But yeah, I was replacing my front shocks. In order to safely remove the shocks, you need a spring compressor to compress the coil springs since they are under compression.
I didn't want to go this route, so I went with the route that is shown in the video above.

 

Dude, rent a coil compressor from autozone for free before you follow some sketch YouTube vid and loosen your cam bolts. Whole coilover comes out at full droop. Use free rented compressor to remove shock. Put everything back together.

Free compressor is cheaper than killing someone on the road cause your front end is all janky.

 

This is your problem. You need to torque everything with the truck on the ground. Now all your bushing have a hard time

 

The lower ball joint pictured in the third photo (not your LCA per say) is spewing grease, that should be replaced, a little is fine but that's everywhere. The end links don't look too, too bad, but the inner joint (attaching to the sway bar) is definitely a little weather worn but the quality of the image is too low to tell if it's actually ripped. As for loosening the cam bolt, shouldn't have done that but y'know.

You want to torque lower shock bolts on the ground, cam bolts, leaf shackles, ubolts etc. Knuckle/balljoints should be torqued when off the ground.

Go get an alignment, road force balance, and if that doesn't help have someone look into the pinion bushings in your rack and pinion (steering components). You wouldn't necessarily drift if this was a problem. You'd likely experience uneven difficulty turning to one way more than the other, looseness/sloppy wheel feel/sloppy steering, unusual noises or vibrations during steering. From what I can tell this is not the case.

To clarify; what you're calling bushings are all a type of ball joint with and/or a rubber cover called a boot. Your sway bar has rubber boots on either end of the link sealing small ball joints. Your lower control arm has bushings inside the two arms where you loosened a cam bolt. Bushings are typically metal, rubber, or polyurethane cylinders - you will also find these bushings in shocks mounts and leaf spring eye/eyelets (ends). Your lower control arm connects to your steering knuckle in a single place via a ball joint which has a boot to hold in the grease. The grease that looks to have spewed all over your knuckle from it tells me it needs replacing; this is shown in the third photo you linked.

 

This ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

First off, thanks for offering a solution and attempting to remedy the issue!
This is very helpful information that's helping me learn. I will definitely retorque everything the way you mentioned

Alright, I'm going to buy a replacement and get it done. For the end links, it's actually ripped. I can pull apart the rubber part and see the inside. For the cam bolts, when I did the job I figured that I can get an alignment and that would set everything back in place.

Yeah, the steering isn't the issue at all... it turns smooth and rides smooth in the city. The only issue is the highway speed

 

BUT, you will need to loosen all the bolts to let the bushings relax at ride height, then retorque. You can do this on ramps so the weight of the truck is on the suspension but you still have room to work. Don't loosen the ball joints, just the lower control arm bushings and the lower strut mounts.

 

Montana, Wyoming and Colorado are all places I've been that have 80 Mph posted speed limits.

 

Probably really low caster.

 

Even when it snows?

 

At age 69 I am in no hurry to get anywhere. Only usually to the bathroom!

 

It is a different world than Scripps / Mira Mesa / Southern Cal. My experience has been that people drive as conditions allow and those that don't end up royally effed in the A because you are on your own out there. I have driven hours with no cell reception in the Wyoming mountains. It does wonders for weeding out the stupid. It is a different feeling: knowing you are on your own.

 

Excellent! I was wondering how I should go about this. I will use your method because I literally jacked up the truck and loosen everything. It appeared as if it relaxed itself, and then I lowered the car and retorqued the bolts.

I just bought a new floor jack and wanted to test it out... it's a good thing I did because the floor jack didn't lower smoothly. So, I had to return and get another one