suspension upgrade/rebuild

[wr2001]

My 93 limited is handling the roads really bad. I cant drive past 60 on the freeway without the whole truck shaking and vibrating. I don't want to get ripped off so I would like to know what parts I need to replace to make the truck feel brand new again. I redid the radius arm and shock on the drivers side only but only made the problem worse. My tires are pretty bad (have new ones waiting) but would still like to know what will make it feel brand new again???

 

[leftoverture]

Have you had it diagnosed by a shop? It's impossible for anyone to tell you what needs replacing when we have not seen the vehicle ourselves. What did the shop say needs to be done?

 

[surf]

You might want to consider replacing the passenger side shock as well. I ruined a pair of new tires because my front shocks were bad which cause the tires to vibrate at highway speed. By the time a replaced the front shocks the tires were already cupped.

 

[arco777]

Usually worn out suspension parts won't cause vibration. Alignment issues and clunks and squeaks and rattles, yes. Vibration, no. I would look at the tires and wheels first. Old tires can be unevenly worn, have flat spots, or just be imbalanced due to weights falling off or internal damage. Wheels can be bent by hitting curbs or major potholes. I have had three different wheels that could not be balanced and would cause shakes at 55-75mph, because the wheel itself was tweaked.

That said, it is possible in some cases for new tires/wheels to be only a temporary fix if your suspension is badly screwed up. Even a new tire can end up scalloped after spending time on a vehicle that is far out of alignment. Then you'd have a vibration.

You might want to check how your old tires were wearing. You can tell a lot about the suspension condition and other factors by how they wear. Reading tires is something you can learn pretty easily with a little research and a little experience.

 

[R&T Babich]

Usually worn out suspension parts won't cause vibration. Alignment issues and clunks and squeaks and rattles, yes. Vibration, no. I would look at the tires and wheels first. Old tires can be unevenly worn, have flat spots, or just be imbalanced due to weights falling off or internal damage....

X2 - also, check for a separated belt by jacking it up & spinning it to see if it's still round.

 

[arco777]

Also check your driveshaft U-joints and the shaft itself. A bad u-joint or a dented (out of balance) driveshaft can cause vibrations too.

 

[Michael94Ex]

My 93 limited is handling the roads really bad. I cant drive past 60 on the freeway without the whole truck shaking and vibrating.

I have been lurking on these boards for a while and joined for this thread. I have a 94 Sport and recently have had much the same experience. It began to shake very noticeably at highway speeds. One shop balanced the tires. Not much difference and it grew worse in time again. Another shop told me that one of my tires had a loose belt. I swapped out the spare to isolate the tire and the shaking was even more pronounced. By now it could be felt even at 35 mph. It scared me enough that I was not driving it at all by then. I decided to put new tires on. The tire shop told me that there was play in the front bearings. I replaced those too. That took care of most of it. I plan on replacing all five shocks before too long because there is still a pronounced shake when taking a turn at highway speeds but for straight driving vibrations are not really that noticeable.

One word of warning is to make certain that the bearing keeper nut is not overtorqued on the front discs. It can produce some weird effects including heating of the hubs and might even contribute to bearing failure.

TL;DR - Check your front wheel bearings. Mine had about 180,000 miles on them before failing but they seemed to be the culprit.