88 150 4wheel drive, everything was fine in the suspension when I bought the truck a few months ago. We got about 10 inches of snow last week and I work for a charter bus company, well I had the only 4 wheel drive vehicle and ended up pulling them down the road in 4 low all morning to get them to the plowed main road. Now I have a thumping sound when turning and you can feel it wobble a little at slow speed sharp turns. It really feels like the ball joints since I've been through that with another vehicle. I jacked the front end up to take a look and they look fine, I tried rocking the tire on it's camber while it was up in the air and there is no play in it at all? What else should I be looking at? the u joints in the axles look old and need greased, but other than that they look alright also? any sugguestions would be greatly appreciated. Oh, I was really impressed with how well that 302 handled pulling those big *** buses through all that snow (waiting for the tranny to fall apart after that though).
Brian

 

MCI, Prevost, Vanhool, Setra, Eagle?


It's probably the front axle joints. If they're old and dry, they'll bind up when you turn the wheels sine they don't want to flex anymore.

 

alot of mci's,8 converted 3500's (10 pass) and one vanhool brand new one cost the company 400k. I thought the inside would be nicer for that kind of price tag, it has plenty of screens, seperate climate for each set of seats. I wish I had someone there to snap a shot of my old truck pulling that big shiny beast of a bus through the snow.
Anyway, sunday I'll crawl under there and re-grease the u joints in the front shafts. if that doesn't work I suppose I'll have to change them out, more likely have to pay someone to do it one of the mechanics in the bus garage said I needed a special socket to get the front hubs off, but it's the same mechanic that always has extra parts after a repair...not sure how credible he is..

 

I had a problem with my 95 XLT and it turned out it wasn't my ball joints either......it was the steering bracket! Prop up your front end so both wheel are free and move the whole linkage back and forth. You should be able to see the splined bracket move and the shaft coming out of the steering box WON'T move. Might help you or it might not. Good luck and let us know what happens!

 

Then on further inspection almost all the bushings are shot....This isn't going to be fun. Wheel bearings replaced last weekend inners where wore out on both sides, going to do the axle bearings themselves next. I think its going to start working out pretty quick, I should be caught up on way over due replacements. Thanks for the help.
Brian