I noticed that my ebrake drags a bunch, and I am trying to get to the root of my vibrations on my truck. The vibration is their sometimes it's not. I did pull the rotor off and noticed that their is no ebrake compound just the metal. I would like to to just take off the ebrake for now just to make sure this is not causing my vibrations.

So guess my question is will it really hurt to remove the drum brake shoes to trouble shoot?

 

Well removed the ebrake all together. replaced rotors and installed new brake pads on the calipers. Installed shims under the leaf spring, checked for bad mounts all around the truck. Checked wheel bearings/hubs. Checked drive shaft for balance issue, U Bolts are fine. Tires are balanced. The only obvious sign of an issue is a leaky pinion seal on my differential. I think that the pinion bearing was not seated properly by my mechanic and it is now probably toast! I pulled the dip stick off to check the fluid level and had a nice chuck of metal shaving on the magnet on the bottom and the fluid was think and black but the oil level is fine. Kinda pissed about the problem. 6000 miles after install and gotta pull it all out again.

After the diff is fixed I hope this vibration goes away.

 

Does anyone else know of any other trouble spots that would make the truck vibrate and shudder so bad. I feel it in the seat, the steering wheel, the floor on accell, and off throttle it kinda smooths out.

I am running on a 6" lift on 37's , wondering if I should get a steering stabilizer to help the front from wondering around.

 

I put one on my 02, mines stock though. What a world of difference. I'd say it couldn't hurt.

 

I got the truck checked out by my mechanic. Big issue was the novice tire guy. Balanced the tires when I made the swap from 35's to 37's. He placed the wheel weights in the wrong places on the rim. Needless to say a road force balance was done and now the truck rides a lot better. But the front still wonders so I will be installing a steering stabilizer in the near future.

The rear pinion seal was leaking so, had a oem seal installed.

I still get a little bed shake, and a small vibration. I suspect the tires just magnify the crap roads we have here in Madison Co.

One day I gotta get the plugs swapped out soon.

 

Agressive tread in the larger size tire? = magnification of the road and rumble. Sometimes a rotation will help if you got a few thousand on the tires. The heavier front may absorb the brrrrrrrrrrrrrrum. Usually damage to the ring N pinion will creat a gear noise first. If so bad to vibrate you are hearing cracking and popping a tad much. Ka-chunks/ka-chunks. Some tire sets/pairs just are bad and are never smooth drivers. Pitchem.

 

Actually my new tires are not very aggressive. Terra Grappler's are just what I wanted on the truck. They really ride 10x's better than my Trail Grapplers I had. As far as the pinion goes, I get the gear whine for now. My old Mustang had the same thing when I had gears installed. However, I don't know how much longer these gears will last. Only time will tell at this point. If they last me another 4-5 months I will be able to get it all repaired, and it will be fun to drive the truck again.

 

Ordered the Fabtech Steering stabilizers, so Should have them Saturday. The front should be solid again. Rear end not leaking anymore the oem pinion seal did the trick. I will feel better when I can remove the stacked procomp blocks in the back for a bigger block that is tapered. So will do the block very soon since that is easy to swap out and cheap!

Next year following mods if I have a job come March! More lift goodies, and better power train, and drive train!