Vibration, tire squeaks easily

[gavin]

Well I've had an odd vibration, but I have no clue how long it's been there. I drove around with a bad cv-joint in my front driveshaft for a quite a while, so I have no clue when this vibration began. But it's there with or without the new d/s.
Anyway, I only really feel it around 50+mph. I thought just maybe, it had to do with my TT, so for ***** and grins I loosened the torsion bolts a couple turns.. no help, so I loosened 'em some more.. no help.. but now the ride height is closer to the same front and rear.
Also, after lowering it back down, I seem to have even more wander. I have never had an alignment done, so I know this is a possible issue. But here's the weird part; the driver's front tire squeaks under even some-what minor turns, like I'm makin a 90* turn, not goin really fast or anything, and I can hear the tire squeak. It's never done that before... And then on my way home from work tonight, there's a large dip in the on-ramp, and when I hit it, as the truck dipped into it, I heard my tire squeak again. The tire shouldn't squeak when the suspension is under compression or rebound, should it?

I know I still need to look into getting an alignment done.. but before I didn't have the money, and now I don't have the time seein as how I'm workin 2 jobs so that's about 14 hrs/day. Also the wheel weights are still there, so I don't think it's that. What's the possibility of it being a balljoint? And for the wander, what's the chance of it being a TRE? On my first real weekend I'm gonna check out a couple things, but was hoping to get a little feedback now so I have a better idea of what to look for.

 

[jimbo74]

its not the tire squeaking its worn out torsion bar adjuster pads.. do a search for it been covered several times... this can also make the alignment worse and wander can result

an alignment should be done anytime any suspension component is changed or modified, an alignment should be performed after any torsion twist

 

[gavin]

nope, it's atleast one of the front tires squeeking... unless a metal on metal rub sounds like rubber on concrete, lol.
I've also noticed my tranny shifting down when cruizing on the highway at 70, with cruise control, on a flat'ish road. Almost as if something is binding up. Not sure what to look at though.

I guess I should also add, that's it not so much a vibration, as a shudder.. the whole truck shakes goin over like 50'ish. Gonna take out the front d/s to see if that might helps, other than that, I'm clueless...

 

[mechanix]

Does your fron driveshaft have a double cardon joint? I have seen these in the past wear out some and the rubber inside the joint makes a "squeek" sounds kinda like a bad u-joint does when it is going bad. Only time have I ever see a tire squeek is when the alignment is off. I would have this checked out.

 

[gavin]

no, it has the cv-joint style driveshaft that was replaced a few months ago.. and I know I need an alignment... it got worse when I lowered the torsion bars back down to close to original height.
I don't know if that would cause the wobble I have.. I mean, sometimes the steering wheel is straight when I'm driving straight, sometimes it's ****ed to the left, sometimes ****ed to the right.. it feels like the tires themselves wobble back and forth, but I lifted each side up yesterday, and everything felt good.

 

[mechanix]

When you jacked the vehicle up did you jack it up under the lower control arm or the frame? This does make a dffrence when checking for ball joints. You need to jack it up under the lower control arm as close to the tire as you can get. This will "unload" the suspension and make put the suspension in close to the same spot it is when going down the road. Next you need to lift up on the tire and look for any play. I was getting some noise from my 97. I tugged the top and the bottom of the tire in and out and got nothing. I put a bar or a long pipe under the tire and tried to lift the tire and got ALOT of play from the lower ball joint. I hope this helps. And if you alignment is waaaay out of wack you will get a tire squeeking.

 

[gavin]

I jacked it up from the control arm, not the frame.
The shaking/vibration/shudder wasn't the driveshaft... it's still there. I'm thinking it might possibly be a u-joint on the rear d-shaft?
I'll try the prybar when I get a chance... which won't be for another week.

 

[gavin]

somethin else I forgot to add... wether or not they're related I don't know... and I stated this earlier, but driving down the highway, even with cruise control on, my RPMs will jump up 200'ish or so, intermittently.. and for no apparent reason (ie, going uphill, or whatnot). Not sure if it does that when not in O/D though.