99 Mounty Front End Wobble

[dr fildo]

'99 AWD 5.0., 193,000 mi. Front end wobbles. I feel it in the steering wheel too. Worse vibration with speed. Only happens in motion so I know it isn't the harmonic balancer. Steering rack, inner and outer tie rods have less than 3k miles on them. Both front bearings have less than 10k miles on them. Alignment was done when I replaced the steering rack. I do not recall hitting any potholes or the like. Brakes are definitely not old enough to cause this issue. Lug nuts are all tight. It seems to be getting worse, and pretty quickly.

Could this just be a tire issue?
Could this be a ball joint issue? They've never been done. There is no noise like a clunking or grinding, even when turning the wheels lock to lock or going over regular bumps in the road.

Little help, please!

 

[boominXplorer]

How are the tires? Tried rotating them? How long since they have been balanced?

Did it start after the steering rack was replaced?

 

[dr fildo]

The problem started very recently - about 2 weeks ago, but is getting worse rapidly. I'm going to replace the front tires; they could both use replacing.

I was wondering if I should just go ahead and replace the ball joints. I bout the truck with 36,000 miles on it in 2001. They have never been replaced.

I also heard that if I'm going to do the ball joints, I should do the upper and possibly lower control arms at this time, which have also never been replace?

Does this sound right??

 

[JCat]

I am just throwing this out there because it happened to me; Bent wheels.

This vehicle is very sensitive. The slightest thing wrong is amplified 100 times.