Hey fellas. It's been a long while since I posted here, been busy being addicted to my 2005 cummins. But it's time to pay some attention to my gasser.

I haven't driven it much over the last 2 years since I bought the diesel, just enough to get the fluids circulated which is like once every couple of months. The issue it's had that I've neglected to chase further is a vibration while driving. While driving on the highway, the truck has a vibration/shake to it. I can look in the mirror and see the bed shaking. Now it's definitely not a death wobble. It feels like tires are out of balance, but they've been balanced a couple times to no avail. The last time I had it in for tire balance, Les Schwab tires told me the track bar was worn, but tie rods any everything else looked fine. I really didn't have the desire to replace it then since I knew it was going to be parked a lot now. So i told them no thanks on fixing it, even though I'm sure it is worn. The tires also are cupping on the insides and it was aligned like 2 years ago prior to purchasing the diesel. I've only put on maybe 1000-1500 miles since the alignment.

I guess my question is, can a worn out track bar cause a vibration or shaking, that is not death wobble? What about some worn about bushings in the leaf springs? The steering is pretty damn loose from side to side. I really don't feel a shake in the steering wheel, more so the rest of the body of the truck. One of these days, i'm going to have my wife drive the truck on the highway while I inspect it from her car to see if I can see if the axles are actually hopping.

I am wanting to get this back in driving shape as I do miss the deep throaty rumble of my V8 exhaust.

 

Likely something in the rear drivetrain causing the issue. If it only vibrates under load, (accelerating, or even simply maintaining speed) I would look hard at U-joints. If it does it all the time, regardless of what you are doing, I would look at the tires, and axle bearings. Rotate the tires, see if anything changes.

 

You bring up a good point, I've never changed the ujoints on the rear drive or front shaft in my 70,000 miles of having it. The joints don't have a grease zirk, they are sealed. If they were replaced before I had it, shouldn't there be grease zirks? The vibration or shake really only happens when you get around 45+ mph of cruising. Driving around town it's fine. Tire rotation makes no difference, I forgot to mention that.

 

Presence of grease zerks really isnt a good indication. When I went to get joints for my truck, I had a choice, sealed, or greaseable......

Drop the rear driveshaft, check the joints. See if they aren't bad.

 

Sounds good. I'll check them when I get time. In the meantime, if anybody else has ideas, let me know!

 

Two times I've had a vibration.

First time was driveline ujoints. Appeared after new tires that changed the angle and the rusted caps caused a vibe.

Second time was tires. They were the terrible and crappy Cooper ATPs from Discount.

Bad shocks, ball joints, or alignment can cause tire cupping. If you have the ATPs, they will cup on their own causing terrible vibes.

 

Humm!!! had a similiar problem like you have now.No noise,smooth ride except for the vibration in the drivers rearview mirror,like a paint rattle can.No problem with passenger side.Up in the air on rack at work full inspection.DIDNT FIND ANYTHING Just driving me nuts.Wild hair or gut check decided to pull the bed off to inspect from the top down.Boy am I glad I did that.Fuel tank (35 gal )kept from view the break in the frame(drivers side)RC/LB, built in Aug 1993 the use of a very brittle carbon steel frame was used with the front clip welded to the new box frame,not like now, all one pic formed.I bought the truck in Dec of 1993 off the transport being delivered due to the fact it was a longbed.But any way give the frame a full inspection ,top too bottom then back up.Any hairline cracks or bend,warped in apperance is a problem area.I replaced the frame with a New Mopar 134.7 in frame to take care of the problem.There are pics in my gallery to show the frame swap if your interested.Maybe time to rebuild the front end and use poly bushing instead of rubber.Just athought................

 

No coopers on it. Have Toyo AT's that have been on there since 2009 with about 40-50% left on them. The shocks are probably 5 years old, not leaking, and are pretty heavy duty. Makes for a stiff ride. Got heavy duty ones since I towed a boat and hauled hay quite often, but now they are a rough ride empty.

That's a pretty extreme case and I hope that's not the issue, but I'll take a peek at your pics anyways because why not. I do remember the last time i looked underneath that my rubber leaf spring bushings looked pretty wore and cracked out. I think I'm going to start checking u joints and more than likely replace them, replace the track bar and looks like poly bushings for the leafs are cheap from rock auto so might do them too.

Any suggestions on track bar and u joints? Think I might go spicer joints since that's what I am running in my 2005 diesel.

 

Any track other than OEM is an improvement, but if you don't care, just get a Moog stocker.

Spicer is OEM and is the only brand I recommend.

Shocks can be worn out and not leaking. One of my front shocks had a dead spot in the travel once I removed it. Stupid water crappers were so hard I'll never get those again. I got about six years out of them. Replaced with M95s and the ride is like a caddy.

 

I just ordered a Moog replacement from my work. In the process of trying to figure out which u joints I need. Parts book asks for what axle I have and I have no idea. I think its the chrysler 9 1/4 but not sure. Might have a build sheet in my glovebox for it, I'll check that out tonight. I'm almost thinking of replacing the shocks as well just to get the ride like a caddy like yours. It seriously rides like it's got no suspension and with 10 ply tires with 50-60lbs of air in them, the wife doesn't want to ride in it.