ok so i've got this problem and like most people i have no idea what is going on.

when i'm driving to school on a certain road i get these shakes like the truck is jumping up and down an inch or so and very very fast. like it's doing this vibrating dance thing. ok so yeah in short it feels like i've got a giant vibrator instead of a truck. really annoying. it does it on only a few roads so i'm tending to think it's just the road, but it's doing it on more and more. my roommate thinks its something in the drive line, but with only 38k miles on it i'm really wondering what could have gone wrong.

i think it has something to do with the shocks wearing down and not damping like they should any more.

maybe it's the infamous death wobble i hear about i really don't know.

if anyone has any ideas i'd greatly appreciate it.

2001 1500 4x4 QC SB 38k miles stock 5.9, trans, everything.

 

I Love that man, I should make that my sig... Lol!

On a more serious note, If its due to some roads it may be weak shocks =/ Run a couple of test, if its the same road consistantly they i would be safe to say its something along the suspension (IE: Shocks, springs, what not). However if it isnt consistant with the roads that you drive on, I would want to say its something along the drive line [>:]. Maybe Trans or TC. Another guy is having the same vibrator problems in his truck, due to TC being stuck =( Does it happen at a certain speed? Is it a problem getting in and out of gears?

Hope something I said helped

 

yeah well it's been doing it on two roads mainly but seems to be a few more every couple of weeks. ususally hits around 40-50 mph... which the road i drive on every day is a 45 mph road... DERN IT i really don't want it to be the trans or TC...

no it hasn't been a problem getting in or out of gears, just cruising in fourth at about 45.

thanks for the ideas of where to look

 

I had a 95 thunderbird that did this and i noticed it when it was trying to go into overdrive and finally the tc went out of it.

 

great.

that's all i have to say....

roommate says it's the carrier bearing wearing... yeah say that outloud and fast.. nobody will know what the hell you're saying.

 

That could be LOTS of things. U-joints, (front ones on a 4x4 too), wheel weights that came off, transmission going bad, bad shocks, loose ball joints, rearend going bad, front end alignment, (look for weird wear on the front tires), a tire that has a broken belt in it, transfer case, ......I could go on. The symptoms you describe would lead me to a driveline issue first, however. My truck does not have a carrier bearing. If you have a longbed - you might have one......

 

oh good greif.. this is becoming a huge headache. told the rents last night they were like GET IT FIXED TAKE IT TO THE DEALER!! i was like F that.

well it's a short bed, so probably no carrier bearing by the sounds of that. the alignment is good just had it done recently, though i did notice one of the wheel weights was missing... but i really don't think it could be causing that much vibration, maybe i could. if it is i'm going to be REALLY pissed off.

front U joints are good. just checked those when i rotated my tires. so the list is pretty much down to this,

shocks
TC
Transmission
Rearend
transfer case

gonna find out if it's being naughty or nice.......

 

One other thing I thought of....look over your driveshaft and see if there is a balance weight possibly missing. I had a Dakota that had a bad vibration at like 65 mph - turned out to be cardboard packing that was inside the driveshaft to quiet the noisy aluminum driveshaft. It had gotten wet due to the guy before me backing a boat into the water all the time. The wet cardboard had deformed and caused a vibration. They don't make them like that anymore - but my point is - if you have a weight off the driveshaft it coiuld cause your problem. Look for a fresh spot on it where one could have come off.......

 

Check your transmission. Drop the pan and look for metal fragments.

I've driven two vehicles that when at a certain speed range, would shake and wobble really badly. Tranny went out within 1-2.5 months later.

 

I konw what the death wobble is b/c i have a jeep xj and trust me that baby would start shaking at a certaing speed. people would slow down and tell me that my wheel looked like it wanted to fall out. Well i fixed it by getting a begger stabalizer shock, and by changing the bushings on the swaybar and links. When i got my dodge a few months back i noticed a bit of shaking and it has escalated to what i thought was similar to the death wobble just not as bad. I changed all the bushings of the sway bar and sway bar links. and my troulbes went away know im cruising at 70 and all i hear is the sweet sound of my 36x12.5 Super swamper tsl's. Well hope this helps just check your bushings and make sure everything is tight.