Howdy yall! Good to be here.
I recently aquired an f150 and it had, what felt like, a severe front end bounce… I NEED HELP!! with finding the problem....It has 160,000 miles on it...First I replaced the front tires and balanced them, then balanced the rear and still a decent bounce or shimmy( I couldn’t tell). Then I had them all re-balanced and it was still there but better. I was told that I needed to replace the steering linkage, so I did the tie rod ends on both tires, idler and pitman arm and it improved more, but was still shaking…so I got new rims and tires and it improved, but still something there…and it seems like it’s the same old issue. I just can’t figure out what it’s doing. It seems to get worse at 45 to 55 ish..even when I go slow..something don’t feel right..like I’m driving on dirt or something. Like the tire is either slightly bouncing or wabling. It’s weird I’ll drive 40 feet and it vibrates and then it goes away and comes back in another 50 feet. And It goes away somewhat and then comes back at different speeds. It might be in the rear end, because I see the rear view mirror shake a bit when it’s moving. But it seems to transfer the shake to the front…
This truck was a business truck, for an asphalt, paving co....so I think it took some abuse. One mechanic checked the ball joints and said they were ok…
I started replacing the front bearings. I did one tire and will do the next soon. Again small improvement but not the fix I need. I am going to start looking at the drive shaft to see if that’s the issue and then take it out into the desert and shoot it!! Ha ha kidding… but any suggestions??? Thanks!! I did see one post about the 97 model having a possible bad pinion bearing..
HELLLPP!!!! Ha ha