Hey everybody, I am going through a new mania about fixing the old car.... Thought I'd see if anyone has some thoughtful insights. Thanks in advance for any advice!

Anyway, its a 97 GC w/3.3L & 41TE. I'm feeling vibrations (slight/above 40MPH) & obviously noticable at speeds above 55-60 MPH. I've done alot of parts replacing trying to figure it out and even had the trany "rebuilt" because it had over 205,000 on it since we last replaced it at 77,000. I think it may be in the trany myself since the vibration doesn't go away while I put it in neutral and shut off the engine on flat, level highways.

I've replaced all of the below and had shops do others. Maybe there's another part I've overlooked? Or should re-visit and replace again? (Thank god for Lifetime Warranties at AutoZone, O'Reilly's and NAPA)!

Myself: Shop:
-Struts, (not the "Mounts", "Springs" or "Joust Bumpers")
-Sway Bar Bushings (@ the Mounts) and the Links
-Lower Control Arm Bushings (both the rubber bumper and inserts)
-Tie-Rods and bushing/bearings on Control Arms (both Inner & Outter)
-CV half shafts (First by myself & 3 more times by transmission shop)
-Rims (x2) and tires (x4)
-Rear shocks
-Front Rotors (new) and brakes. (not rear)
-Rebuild Transmission
-Alignment(s)
-Rear Axle Shim Kits (Shop said rear axle was "bent & couldn't do alignment unless fixed".
-Road Force balanced all tires.

-Front Hub Bearings (Timken) I replaced these about a year before I started having problems with vibrations... not bad, just thought would be a good thing to do with brakes at the time.

Again, thanks for reading my post and any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

what was the road force of each tire?

 

I would sure check the front hub bearing again. New ones could be bad out of box if you used chinese ones. Youv'e rotated tire around to make sure itws not tires/rims? Rebuilt cv axles could be junk, too. How about motor mounts? They could conceivably cause this too.

 

I was thinking of the hub bearings myself too... anyone have experience that may help me diagnose a bad hub bearing(s)?

I will call the tire shop monday toand get the wheel "road force" numbers & post here then. They assured me the results were "good" but I didn't get those results in writing.

I did get the "alignment" results in writing and it looked like they did quite a bit of adjusting.

Thanks again for everyone's advice!

 

Sorry, forgot to say that I replaced "all" the engine/trany mounts this week. It made a big difference in the vibrations!

Afterward, I replaced the lower control arm bushings & pressed inserts. Due to a wrench malfunction I also had to replace the outer tie-rod arm bearings again too....

The Van's vibrations seem to be much better than before.... but there's still something that's not right.

The saga continues!

 

Just got the "Road Force" balance numbers.

LF = 11
RF = 08
LR = 12
RR = 18

This is all "Greek" to me but if anyone can enlighten me I'd appreciate it greatly! Thanks!

 

did you ever replace the stabilizor links at all i know we have that issue with our van too and this is the issue with it as well

 

Sorry everyone, been busy doing other stuff. The minivan's stabilizor links were replaced (both sides) as part of my original list of suspects just before the new tires and trany rebuilt. One of them was actually broken at the time though.

I'm still considering the hub bearings.... Maybe next month if I can "dodge" the American Express bill!

 

road force numbers look good, you want the highest number in the rr so it is the farthest from the driver. i have no issue with anything under 20

 

I have a 1996 Dodge Grand Caravan SE Sport and it seems that I have started to develop a vibration in the front that comes and goes. From my experience from owning 7 Chrysler, Dodge, and Plymouth Minivans (1988,1990,1991,1994,1995,1996,2000) once they all hit the 200k+ (and a few hit the 300k and 400k marks) they develop this problem. Wish I had more to add but it sounds like you are on the right track by checkin' the hub bearings. But you might want to check your axels for balance too. HTH