Somethings wrong again! Swayin on highway?

[95offroadx]

my truck is all over the road! its soo hard to keep it goin in a striaght line, holding the wheel tight with both hards! and the bump steer is pretty bad. Even though its align'd better then before. Oh and i have the front sway bar only but always had, there is a awful lot of play in my steering it seems


can i fix this? or am i just gonna have to sit back and deal?

 

[conig]

are you lifted any chance the steering extension is loose if so?

how are your tie rods?

 

[dman726749]

check all bushings on the susp..tie-rods, radius arm bushings...shocks...make sure everything is tight and up to snuff......

 

[DeRocha]

If your ball joints and tie rods, drag link, and radius arm bushings are good then A worn steering gear would be to blame.. I replaced my entire front end suspension components.. (ball joints, tie rods, sway bar bushings, Radius arm bushings, axle pivot bushings, and had my x aligned)... it was ok at low speed, but highway speeds required constant steering input to keep it in a lane .. I replaced the steering gear and it rides better than new...

 

[95offroadx]

im pretty sure its something wit the steering. because i just had the front end worked on. Now how what would i look for to see if its the steering extension(or whatever its called)

 

[Brutus93]

Damnedest thing... just tonight I was on my way home from work, and I I had my truck suddenly pull left all of a sudden. I was going about 80Km/h (about 50mph for you yanks) and it suddenly jerked to the left and I almost spilled my beer (just a joke of course!) Ironically, I just replaced 3 out of 4 shocks on it (doing the last one on saturday) and the ride to work was fine except for the bouncy front left (bad shock). I tried to re-create it but could not do it. I know the LH radius arm bushing is toast, and I am going to replace it before the snow flies, but that makes it pull to the right. Why did it suddenly pull to the left? Any suggestions? BTW.. I just had this safetied 10000 Kms ago (6000 miles) and the ball-joints and tie-rod ends were all good. Even checked them myself and had no play in them.

 

[Brutus93]

Sorry, I meant RH radius arm bushing.

 

[unclemeat]

Check your tire pressure. My X 5.5 sl does the woble. it helps to run the max tire pressure and have all four at the exact same tire pressure. It seems that all lifted gen I X wobble. I think the problem my be related to the traction beams, and my guess is that the only way to really fix the problem will be to cut and turn the traction beams.

 

[wanderer351]

Damnedest thing... just tonight I was on my way home from work, and I I had my truck suddenly pull left all of a sudden. I was going about 80Km/h (about 50mph for you yanks) and it suddenly jerked to the left and I almost spilled my beer (just a joke of course!) Ironically, I just replaced 3 out of 4 shocks on it (doing the last one on saturday) and the ride to work was fine except for the bouncy front left (bad shock). I tried to re-create it but could not do it. I know the LH radius arm bushing is toast, and I am going to replace it before the snow flies, but that makes it pull to the right. Why did it suddenly pull to the left? Any suggestions? BTW.. I just had this safetied 10000 Kms ago (6000 miles) and the ball-joints and tie-rod ends were all good. Even checked them myself and had no play in them.

last time this happend to me...actually EVERY time this happened...I ate a bearing...the inital JERK is the roller bearing retiner breaking free...then you slide/melt the roller bearings untill you get home....(or to hooters to meet with one of the club members for a beer and parts swap)...and you go out to discover your truck has a locked up wheel..


my vote..check there...or check to see if you chucked a brakepad...

 

[sn0border88]

you will probably just ahve to deal with it, I do. What you are describing is not as bad as my normal driving. You learn to drive it like that and it never bothers me anymore.

 

[jtison]

I know the LH radius arm bushing is toast, and I am going to replace it before the snow flies, but that makes it pull to the right. Why did it suddenly pull to the left? Any suggestions?

Think of each front wheel support as a triangle, whose three sides are the axle, the radius arm, and an imaginary line from the front differential to the radius arm bushing. If you change that plane, you change the alignment of that wheel.

It only makes sense that if you change the position of that rearmost vertex in any direction (up/down, back/forward, side-to-side), you're going to get an abrupt change in toe, caster, or camber. You don't have to move it very far, either. Toe and camber changes of just 1/16" (that's 1.59 mm for you Canucks ... sorry, couldn't resist ) will change your thrust line, particularly if the two front wheels are changing at different rates/times. If you feel a violent change, all I could guess is that there's quite a bit of motion on that RAB vertex ... maybe it's not just backwards-forwards.

For every pull in one direction, expect a corresponding pull in another when the force vector on that front wheel changes. A trashed bushing means that RA is moving around ... it won't keep moving in just one direction. That motion means that you probably are getting metal-on-metal wear, too: make sure the bracket itself is carefully inspected for cracks before you bolt that new good bushing back on there.

I have the same problem you have; that's how I know all this. Mine's parked until I gather up the $$$ to get all the work I need done: not only do I need RABs, I also need suspension and brakes. I think I'll just add a new catback exhaust system and take all the pain at once.

My suggestions? Get the known bad RAB replaced ASAP, check the bracket on that side, and also check the other RAB (and its bracket) out while you're at it. You'll also need a FEA. Now's also the time to rotate tires if you haven't already messed the fronts up too badly.

Good luck!