I had recently noticed a shimmy at about 55 mph on my '04 super cab xlt. I took it to ford and they turned the rotors and replaced the ball joints. since then, the shimmy is still there but the truck now seems to be very shaky. There is an almost constant, subtle shake at any speed and when you hit a bump, especially with only one tire, the truck shakes like a bobble head doll for a few seconds. Everyone notices it except for, you guessed it, every ford employee i have asked to check it out. Please let me know if you have any ideas as to what may have happened.

thanks in advance for the help.

Derrell Simpson

 

Rotate your tires. check your airpressure. start with the simple, likely route before spending money.

 

I'd get the tire balance checked out. How old are your struts/shocks?

 

brand new BF Goodrich tires balanced and road force tested. Alignment done after the ball joints were replaced. I am going to be getting new shocks here in a week or so. I guess we'll see what happens. I just have to think that if the shocks were the problem, it would have shown itself gradually. This all happened right after the ball joint replacement.

the truck and shocks both have 67K miles on them.

thanks
DS

 

I've seen tire shops overinflate tires to get them to seat and then don't adjust them down. You might want to check that they aren't over inflated. Before the tire change, did you still have the same issue with shimmy?

 

yes sir. had the same problem before the tire replacement. I was on old crappy continental contitrac (ford should be G$% d#$%^& ashamed for putting those things on their trucks). The "general all over"shimmy started right after the ball joint replacement. The shudder at 55 was cured (i think) by replacing the drive shaft. The truck drives much better now, until i hit a bump or uneven pavement that is!

thanks..
DS