Front End Vibe/Shake issue

[snwchris]

The last 2 days I've noticed a front end vibe/shake which tonight has gotten worse.

Earlier this week I rotated tires front to back, since I had a wierd wear pattern which appears to be due to missing wheel weights. I will be getting an alignment soon, just to make sure.

Symptoms:
When shifting from 2nd to 3rd and on the throttle the front end shakes pretty bad. When I let off and coast everything runs smooth.

I've already checked the trackbar, control arms, u-joints and ds u-joints and all are fine and secure.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Chris

[Bruised]

Wheel bearing?

[snwchris]

Was somewhat thinking that, but just replaced 3wks ago.

Last night I even checked the bolts and axle nut to make sure they were torqed down.

It only seems to do it under accleration, so that's what the hard part to figure out.

Chris

[paineszj]

If the tires are unbalanced or have a broken belt it will give you some pretty bad vibes.

[LoTGoD]

Originally Posted by paineszj

If the tires are unbalanced or have a broken belt it will give you some pretty bad vibes.

X2.

My old X-Terrains did this when I changed back to front. Broken belt on one.

[snwchris]

Hmmmm... would the broken belt show up in the tire or tread as a bulge or knot in the tire???

I remember seeing a couple of the middle tread blocks with small bump, like a goose egg, when you hit your head.

Chris

[paineszj]

That could be a broken belt, Ive had one that looked like an inverted bump. Dont waist the money getting it alligned until you have a tire shop check the tires. Or post up some pictures and we can all toss in our 2 cents.

[snwchris]

I will see if I can get some pics.

The tire that has the bump in the tread block is now on the rear. Not sure is that would cause the front end shake I'm seeing at 25-35mph.

The shake is happening at low speeds, which is that hard part to figure out the issue.

I'm looking into the "equal tire balancer" beads/bags to see if that might be better then the wheels weights, since the tires took more then my last set when originally mounted last spring.

Chris

[snwchris]

I wasn't able to get the pics to turn out for showing the tread block. I'm still chasing down the issue this past week.

At around 25-35mph still getting bad vibration/shake that can be felt thru steering wheel and can see the dash vibrate as well. The othe rday I noticed that during the shaking/vibration, that when I pushed the clutch in it would go away and when I left off the clutch and accelerated the vibe/shake was back. Same thing when I I'm driving, if I coast, it's smooth and when I accelerate, it's vibrating/shaking.

So last night I removed the front DS to eliminate that as possible issue and when I went for a drive, the front vibration/shake was still there.

This morning I'm having a tire place look at them to see if there's any issues with the tire or cord, so hopefully in a few hours will know some more.

This is driving me Nuckin Futs....

It's interesting people on other boards keep trying to tell me it's DW... it's definately not DW, I've already experiends that once, and at no time the steeering wheel does not saw back & forth like DW does.

[snwchris]

So after further review and talking with the tire shop, the tire that had earlier lost it's weights and had interesting tread wear, then rebalanced by my friend at his shop, was balanced incorrectly.

They rebalanced the tire and they said it appears to taken most of the vibration out that it was experiencing. They also stated that the Front Shocks most likely caused the wear pattern in the center tread blocks, since the shock wasn't rebounding correctly putting the tire back to the surface.

So now looks like I'll be buying some new front shocks, which means it's upgrade time and will probably get a set of the Fox 2.0 Emulsion shocks.

I'll test drive when I get home and see if the rebalancing truly helped out.

Chris

[snwchris]

Still has some front end shutter/shake at 25-35mph

[Bruised]

Check the sector shaft on your steering box. I destroyed mine at Rausch Creek before and it made for a shitty ride home.

[snwchris]

Nah, the splines looked good, didn't see anything that looked twisted or broke.

I'm wondering if a bad Johnny Joint would cause this issue. I a LCA on the Front passenger side that's apparently not taking grease when I went to lube them this past week.

Chris

[snwchris]

Finally Fixed... YES!!

It was an overlooked U-joint on the Rear DS, that I didn't see the first time around until I jacked the rear off the ground in order to take the weight off of it. Dam I can't believe that thing didn't snap

Chris