I've seen this referenced in a lot of peoples complaints and some fixes for the vibes. Anybody know what the part number is for this, when they offered it, is it something that comes standard on the 2005's? Honestly after putting on about 1000 miles on mine the steering wheel shake or vib is feedback from the road surface I think. When I get on a smooth road I don't have it at any speed. Some road surfaces gives it the shakes or vibes from about any cruising speed. That makes me believe a steering dampner would do the trick. Anybody got any info on this one. I'm going back to the dealership for my first freebie oil change in a few weeks and would like to ask them about it too. If anybody has a TSB or part number for it, that would be helpful.
Thanks,

2005 SCab, 2wd, 5.5 box.

 

There is not a steering dampner for our trucks. There was a revised rack & pinion that was supposed to reduce steering shimmy. If you have an 05 then you have the revised steering rack. If yours does not shimmy on a smooth road at highway speeds, you don't have a problem. There is a good bit of road feed back on these trucks. The only dampner they have bolts to the frame, to reduce the bed shake and suspension rebounce, it does nothing for the steering shimmy.

 

Thanks for the info. I'm surprised that one for the steering hasn't been created. With all the effort that goes into road force balancing, indexing the wheels, exact torque on the rims, etc.., etc... It seems like something like that would feed the need of the masses. The ride in mine is pretty good for a truck, that steering vibe is the only annoying issue.

 

Sometimes I do not understand the way engineers think, maybe that is why I am not an engineer. No doubt they are intelligent people, but it takes way too long for them to come up with "true" fixes. I agree with you on the proper torque and indexing mumbo jumbo. How about they come up with a steering system that is not so sensitive and does not require the indexing and perfect tire balancing. My properly balanced Nitto's have cured my steering shimmy along with the revised rack. The revised rack cured the shimmy with the stock tires only for a 1,000 miles or so. The Nitto's have been on for 3,000 miles and so far so good.

 

From an engineer's standpoint, it's not so simple to make a steering rack that is not susceptible to vibration and keep a good, on-center feel. The vibration comes from the tie rods pulling back and forth, so if you allow for enough play that the vibration does not affect the steering wheel, you end up with sloppy steering. Your steering ends up with a huge "dead" range in the middle, making you have to turn the wheel an excessive amount just to turn the wheels. Just like the old trucks you see with the worn steering gears, where the guy is turning the steering wheel back and forth, back and forth like 6 inches just to keep it going straight.

I don't think it's the steering rack, or the wheel balancing, or the brakes that is the culprit. I think it is a combination of high tolerances on all the above. Even after a wheel is balanced it is not perfect, maybe your drive shaft is off just slightly, your brake rotors where not cast perfectly round, your wheel center's are off just slightly. All these things add up to a big vibration, but changing just one will not take a big enough chunk out to make a huge difference. From my experience, I believe you would need to replace just about the whole driveline, with parts of higher quality before you would get acceptable results and Ford just isn't willing to do that. If they get a run of parts that the tolerances work together well, then you get a vibe free truck, however if those tolerances are not perfect, but close enough to pass quality control and you have more than one part that is at the end of it's tolerance field, then you get vibration. But to cure it, you need to replace all of the parts that are not perfect, not just one.

Sorry to be so long winded, but people are looking for a solid quick fix for this vibe and there isn't one.