You know, you have Toyo tires on your truck correct? I had toyo AT tires on my ranger for 20,000 miles and the f*ckin things never balanced, it was insane. Everyone told me it was this or that, but I knew it wasn't. Finally when I got these Michelin's it all went away... I am not saying thats what it is, but it could be. Oh, and you probably took it to Belle tire to get them balanced right? I think they are the only ones in town that sell toyo's, if so they are morons, they told me mine were balanced every time, and every time I left there, I still had the shakes.....

 

Did you change the whole axle assembly? And is the alignment of the axle to the frame correct?
I'm thinking of the pinion angles here.You've already changed one angle by lifting the truck.If the rear is crooked you've changed another , possibly slightly binding the joint.

 

I could see the pinion angle as possibly being an issue, I should take a better look at that. BTW it did give me the shakes with both rear axles I have had on the truck.

Greygoose. I think it's interesting u had a problem with them, might be worth me throwin on another set to see if that does it. BTW I had them balanced at Midas b/c we use them for everything by me. I know on all four wheels the changed the weights alot, I looked at them really close and noticed how they all were in different positions with different amounts of weight.

 

^^^^ Yeah, every time I took them in to be balanced they told me they were off and redid them, but when I would drive home, they would still do it. A lot of people seem to love those tires, but they were horrible for me (for balance) They did however, have very good traction on all types of surfaces.

 

I'm tryin to find a set of tires to throw on the truck for a day or 2 to see if it is the balance

 

I checked the pinion angle vertically, and it's off by 4.5* My question is, is that enough to give the vibrations I am experiencing???

If so i'll order shims tonight

 

Alrighty, well I put in 4* shims tonight which got me to a 1/2 degree pinion angle, which is within the 1* stock specs from what I have researched. It definately got rid of the worst vibration that I was experiencing at 70 to 75 mph and also got rid of the one at 40 to 45 mph. Very Good. The only thing i've noticed so far is that it now has a little vibration around 20 to 25 mph, but oh well, I can deal with that! Hopefully i'm good to go now, if ne one has ne questions about the pinion angles or nething else i've done let me know.

Thanks for all the replies and all the help.

 

Know this is an old post but I saw it in my searches,

Rob, I've got basically the same problem you had with a pretty good shimmy at around 60mph. I've had my wheels balanced a couple of times at different places AND did the "switch the tires for other ones" trick. Both did not work.

Sounds like you've got the worst of it by adding a shim. Questions - How do you measure the pinion angle (I will also give this a search) and where did you get the shims.

I drive through your area in Michigan a fair bit going from Windsor to Sarnia.

Thanks

 

Old Thread Update: I wanted to update the thread for anyone having vibrations problems and will be searching for help.

So i got ride of my vibrations completely now, only took 1.5 years.... But it came down to two additional problems. First I had a new driveshaft built last summer by a shop my dad knew. Turns out this shop does Semi driveshafts and didn't do a very good job. I took my driveshaft to a good high performance shop that found out the driveshaft was bent, the ends had been welded on crooked, and one end of the shaft was off by 1.5 onces and the other end by .5 ounces of balance. I got that fixed and it cleared up more of the vibrations except at two little speed ranges.

So the least problem presented its self in a wonderful way of spitting the bushing out of the trans and dumping all the fluid. The rear bushing of the tail housing and the slip yoke were wore out causing the rest of my vibrations. I had checked this before but it seemed reasonable, but I sure was wrong. I now have a new bushing and slip yoke and that cured the remaining vibrations i had. I can run it up to 90 now without any shaking at all.

BTW one way to tell if its the slip yoke and bushing causing the vibrations is that when I would let off of the gas the truck would shake alot as it decelerated at all speeds.