I noticed today that when I get up above 50km/h (30mph) my truck seems to wobble. It feels like it is oscillating. Its becomes bouncy. I'm not 100% sure but if I back the rev's off a bit but maintain any speed over 50 km/h it becomes less bouncy. Could this be a wheel problem?
Is it 4wd. If so take a look at the universals in the front axels. Had this happen on one of our trucks a few years ago.
sorry I should have stated it is a 1980 Ford Louisville 8000 tipper.
Ok then it's definatly a 2wd. You could try putting equal in the tire.(for tires not the sugar substatute)
Hard to say without driving it but it may well be worn steers, if you got some good tires on one of the drives, swap em around. I had this on my truck at about 95km/h due to previous owner putting cheap Chinese tires on the steer, a good pair of steer tires has fixed it.
The steers are pretty much brand new. A bit of background....When I picked it up I drove it for about an hour and a half to get it home without any wobble, about 10min from home the front left wheel bearings starting making grinding noises. I tried to limp home rather than get a tow, about 5min (at normal speed) from home they gave way and the front left fell off, the wheel and the drum. I was going about 10km/h up a hill at the time. is it possible that I sustained some damage when it dropped? I've since replaced the FR bearings also. I did notice a ding in the FL shock absorber, could that cause a problem?
Hmmnh, might be a case of Hendrickson hop. Some Hendrickson suspensions can hop in certain conditions and speed, generally when going up a hill. Which is a real pain because you can't speed up and you don't want to slow down. You have to see how it behaves with a load.
This is the ding in the suspension. I got it pretty full last week with green timber. It was wobbling then. I'm not sure that would count as a full load though. Yesterday I got 4 s/h tires put on the back and the rear tires rotated around. I take it for a drive today and see if that has changed anything.
No change, it still wobbles.
When you say "wobbles" is that side to side or up and down? Your first post indicated that it is up and down. Side to side would indicate a steering problem whereas up and down is suspension related. Might pay to check that the wheel bearing was fitted properly and there is no play in the bearing. Check the tie rods for damage and the ball joints for wear. King pins could be worn. Poor wheel alignment.
I think it is up and down. It a bit hard to tell from the cab but I'd say more up and down than side to side. I've also noticed a clunk that I can feel through my steering wheel when I take off turning into a corner. Could that be related? I will take a look at the tie rods, ball joints and King pins today.
Could the wheel that came off have been bent/warped in the departure?? If wheel bearings lacked grease bad enough to come off, I wonder about the drive shaft hanger bearing / and or u joints. Been parked; not greased all over, run it an hour at road speeds and you would develop any drive line weaknesses. Old IH trucks could loose a hanger bearing and it was like a big cam under the cab ocillating ...wop.. wop.. Just a possible.
I don't think the wheel was damaged, it landed about a metre behind the the front left axle in the end, I was travelling quite slowly at the time. The whole drum came off. where would I find the
Drive shaft bearing is one of the intermediate bearings in the drive shaft; there is probably only one on this little truck. It is a regular sealed bearing suspended in a rubber bushing to a cross member in the middle of the drive shaft. U-joints: chock and park the truck in neutral and crawl under it and try to twist the drive shaft in your hands with one hand on the shaft in front and one hand behind each u-joint and see if you have any major slop in them. Minor slop means it needs to be replaced soon but major slop could be causing your problem. They have little needle bearings inside them that they spit out when they get old and are not lubricated. Take a grease gun and lube them while you are at it. On some longer trucks I have driven the whole frame seems to vibrate like a guitar string at certain speeds when nothing else is really wrong with it but the vibration is not that bad either.
On most trucks I was ever under, they were betwen the rear of the transmission and the front of the differental. A joint off the trans, a piece of shaft, a hangy down bracket with a bearing embeded in rubber in it, a joint, then another piece of shaft, then a joint onto the differental.... Depending on chasis length, there might be two hanger with more joints. Big piece of cardboard, lay down, slide under, look up.... Should see something as described.
Birken Vogt... You answered Nick while I was preparing. Did not mean to double up on you. An excellent concise post you made. I thought he was puzzled by the nomenclature and wanted to know where to look.
No slop in the drive shaft bearing, all very nice. here is some photos of tie rod ends etc, I'm not really sure what I'm looking for here. But I think a high pressure cleaner is now on my shopping list, its really hard to see anything at all. I've been thinking back to when the wheel fell off trying to remember more details. I have remembered finding a large wheel weight on the ground at the scene of the incident. Could it be possible that this wobble could be caused by a bad wheel balance? Or perhaps when the wheel came off and the truck fell down the wheel alignment was thrown out?
Both are possible. I'd examine the weight and the wheel. See if you can locate the place the weight was mounted, and hammer it back on, Run the truck out to the speed you had been getting vibration and see what it feels like. Any difference, I would take it to a good front end shop and have them balance both steers and check the alignment. If the former owner had used half the grease hanging from the pins and joints; on the wheel bearings, you would not be having this trouble....
You can't just look at the tie rod ends and king pins to find wear, you have to get your hands dirty and check for excessive slop. Get under there and grab the tie rods and push up/pull down(or have someone turn the steering wheel while you are under there visually looking for slop in the linkage). If there's much up & down movement, they are shot. Gotta take the weight off the king pins and use a pry bar under the tire to check for movement. Also, post a few pics of your steer tires and wheels(showing different spots of the tread itself around the tires). May be a separated tire, not likely, but possible. Usually you'll feel it in the wheel at any speed,but not always. I wanna see pics from the side showing the wheels and looking down onto the tread at a few spots around the circumference of the tire, if you can.
When you replaced the wheel bearings I presume you took the wheels off the hubs. Is it possible you didn't set the wheels properly when you put them back on? With spider hubs, you have to get the wedges to grip the rim in the right place as you tighten up the nuts. To check, you spin the wheel and hold something near the rim to see if it wobbles in and out as it rotates. Then you often have to loosen them off and re-set until it runs true. If you just tighten them up without checking then the wheel will most likely be wobbling from side to side. I don't want you to take it the wrong way by me asking you this, but you said that you are new to trucks so I just thought I would check.
I wish I could but I haven't got the weight anymore, it got lost in the chaos. Do you think I should get the balance and alignment anyway? I will get those pics for you tireman. but I can't do it for a few days, I still working my old job and I'm stuck out there till late monday. No offense taken Plant Fitter. I only learnt about this within the last few weeks, so you almost had me. I got them on pretty straight IMO. A friend of mine helped me with the bearing and filled me in.
Not sure if Nick has tried putting another set of wheels on the steer to eliminate balancing weights as being the issue?
We have a cabover Jap truck that developed a similar problem a while ago. Seemed like the better the road the worse it became. Had good steer tyres, but decided to replace them to eliminate them as a source of the vibration. When they spun the wheel on the balancer,they discovered the rim was distorted, looked fine when it was stationary. Relacement rim solved the problem. Cheers,Greg
had it several times, its either a bent rim or stuffed tires
I think you mean carrier universal bearing.
Is this the sort of shot you are after tireman? I had the steers balanced today, but unfortunately it hasn't solved my problem. If anything it seemed more bouncy on the way home from the tire shop. I noticed that there are some missing bolts on the right rear engine mount. I jacked it up to see if the bolts had just fallen out but it looks like they've snapped off. When I jacked it the holes didn't seem to quite lineup properly, the engine seems to have moved back slightly as well as down. Could this contribute to the bouncing?
Yes, but get the side view shots where the entire hub can be seen. I'd like to be able to see every spoke in the pic, as close as you can get & still get the whole thing.
Ok hopefully this is the right view, the original pics are pretty high res so I can repost with close ups if required. This is the right wheel Here is the left wheel (the one that fell off)
Here's close ups
I'm not seeing anything that would cause your issues. The only thing I can see is that both of these wheels were at one time mounted dual. Possible that they were put there for a reason(bent, out of round, unsuitable for steer use) by previous owners and forgotten about. That's a remote possibility,though-but it is possible. I would try some different wheels if possible, just to rule that cause out.
over here in vic, around the corner there is a joint with a truck wheel balancer, i have gone to them heaps of times and they always tell you what the problem is.