That play in the shaft is close to the bad pitman I had
Are you saying the play where the pitman arm ball joint connects to the center link? The way it tilts?
When I first put on some military Goodyear Wrangler R/T II 36x12.5x16.5 with a extremely bad pitman and bad play idler.The steering wheel and whole truck shook crazy violent I couldn't even go 10-30mph
Even when my suspension was at it's worse, I never had shaking. It was just like a loosey goosey steering feel. Even when I ran some 35 Dick Cepec FC ll.
When I rebuilt all the suspension including the steering box over 3 years ago (apart from lower ca bushings, and cv axles) everything was perfect.
As soon as I finished the work then , I had the tires rotated and an alignment immediately after.
The thing that really sent things in the wrong direction was when the alignment shop didn't tighten my tie rod sleeves and it wasn't until several thousand miles of driving that they caused so much ruckus that I needed to investigate. Even then, after tightening them down, I didn't have too terrible shaking at highway speeds but it was starting to creep in. I remember anytime I'd get over 80mph, I'd want to let off the throttle . But I lived with that for a while.
Fast forward to May, the beginning of this thread, is where it was ridiculous shaking above 60 . I hadn't been highway driving for some few months leading up to finding this out but had been hearing some popping when I would make sharp turns, like in a parking lot. So I replaced the cv axles.
One thing I noticed when investigating through this thread is that my driver's lower ball joint was loose. Like the bolts lost their torque. It was freely moving in and out but the ball joint itself was solid.
I tightened that, had another tire rotation and alignment but, the shaking was still there. Maybe less and different.
Without getting into the weeds too much this minute, I really feel like I have bad cupping on the inside of my driver's front tire. Possibly on others but the driver's front is very noticeable. I just looked yesterday and it's very obvious spinning the tire and looking at the inside wear.
I believe all of the goof ups with the tie rods and the ball joint, may have started it but can't be sure.
I do know after getting yet another alignment and the tires balanced several months ago, the shake has gone to not being an issue until over 70 -75 mph....
The popping noise when turning sharp has returned though and caused me to revisit this thread.
Still haven't replaced my lower ca bushings and I also notice my body mount bushings are very bad. And they are on 3" body lift pucks....
I just noticed the pitman arm movement yesterday as well so wanted to make sure the movement I'm seeing is bad.
In my experience from messing with these Gmt400's this long any play in the ball joints that connect the center link (pitman,idler,idler arm,gearbox) can cause a wobble and since the gearbox doesn't usally have play in the splined shaft I can see how it could be your problem.
My steering box has more play than it did new for sure but moving the wheel from 10 and 3 like I was in the video seems like it shouldn't be that easy to turn the steering box shaft? It does though. If I were to clamp something down on the steering shaft itself and crank on it, I think I could get the wheels to move even with the steering locked but haven't tested that. Basically mean trying the reverse of what I'm doing in the video. Maybe I'll do a test later.
lower ball joints are alot harder to tell by feel when they go bad (jack up and crowbar)
I can't get them to act up. I've tried . Frustrating. Really want to find out where the clunk when making a sharp turn is coming from. I guess I'm starting to suspect the lower ca bushings and possibly body mount bushings but, it feels like a suspension bind or something..
i would replace the stock uca and lca bushings with poly though
thanks. I do have a set of lower control arms I need to get bushings installed into and I remember Shurkey recommending them as well. I think I'll go for them.
That looks so nice and clean under there!
I clean as I go so you can tell I've been working under the truck . .. the inside is gutted more or less and I work out of it so it's not pretty atm..but slowly working on it....then there's the paint..lol
Maybe my Son can deal with it when I leave this rock..
Anyway, I posted this video earlier from when I was checking for fuel pressure drop at wot.Part of another saga with this truck I'm trying to sort.....
I was in a median pulling out , taking a left u turn before stomping it. When taking the left, you can hear this pop..and when completing the u turn with another sharp left, you can hear it pop again before getting on the gas. This is the popping I'm trying to figure out.
I do really think any shake is going to be cured with new tires but I also don't want a repeat of cupping if there is something wrong with any suspension parts so it has to wait until I can get to that. Whatever "that" is, is what I need to figure out...
Still odd that for a decade of having less than perfect suspension and running several sets of tires, 35, 33...BFG...etc... I never had any shaking....maybe these Hankook Dynapro are just more prone to it.... What the tire guy said anyway... Same one that sold them to me years ago...lol
They were nice for a while though....
here's that video
Thank you for your help!
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