vibration at 60

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Matthew Runals

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First and foremost I want to thank you all for helping me in the past and hopefully you guys can help me with this issue.



when I hit 55-65 there is a vibration I feel in the steering wheel. I know at that speed that can be as simple as a wheel miss balanced but here is my issue. I have just had my wheels balanced and I put brand new moog outer and inner tie rods on the rack and pinion. There is still that shimmy. I noticed I had a nail in my tire and so I thought that could be the issue, bad air balance between the front tires. I put a plug in the wheel and balanced the air pressure and its still there. I have also had my rack and pinion replaced just over a year ago, it had 120k and was starting to get really sloppy. When I was putting in the tire plug, I reached in and pulled on the inner steering rod to see if there was play. The rod could move slightly, left to right, and I could hear something sound as if it was loose. I checked the pinch bolt and it was tight. I didn't look under the boot at all. Any thoughts? I should comment that it looks like the people who put in the new rack and pinion sprayed that white lightning grease stuff on it to make sure it was tight...i guess that was their reasoning. didn't know if that stuff would cause the rack and pinion to multifunction.

 
I have had the shimmy in my 2005 since new. New tires, rotation, balancing never got rid of it. I know in past years there was an issue with the steel drive shafts being out of balance but that was supposed to be cured when they switched to the aluminum drive shafts. I have the aluminum shaft but I may still have it balanced if I ever have the time and money and convenience of a shop that does it.





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If you are still using the wrangler rts oem tires. It could be uneven wear an the inside tread.
 
4x4?
 
Please update your profile, you only need to do this ONCE. Click "M" next to your name. :supercool:
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Vibration in the steering wheel is usually a wheel balance issue. Also check the wheel weights on the rim....if you see more than a few ounces, you probably have a tire that is way out of round or defective. Sometimes just rotating the tire 180 degrees on the wheel will allow it to be balanced better.



Next issue would be front-end alignment. When they replace the tie-rod ends they should have, and probably did a toe-in adjustment. However the fact that you had to replace the tie-rod ends indicates you may have some really uneven wear on your tires. If that is causing the vibration, you will probably have to replace the tires.



...Rich
 
Update your profile with year of your Trac. From what you've written I'd look at ball joints and tie rods - inner and outer.
 
Rich, I right abot wheelweights. If I see more than 2oz I make them spin the tire on the rim and rebalance. If it does the same, the tire may have a roundness issue.
 
I have the same problem, good tie rods, new ball joints, wheels balanced... I found my problem, it's the lower steering ujoint right before the shaft goes into the steering gear box. With the truck off but the key in so that the steering wheel doesn't lock, quickly move the steering wheel left and right while someone listens under the truck... If there is any play at all, they will hear a metal banging sound as you shimmy the steering wheel left and right. At 60MPH, even the slightest play will cause a very noticeable vibration.



Haven't had mine fixed yet, still trying to figure out what annoys me more, the vibration or my leaking exhaust manifold.



 
Thanks for all the help guys. I'm going to get my tired unbalanced today. Had a slow moment and realized I never got the tires balanced after the accident. I have general grabbler tires and the wear is even, even before I replaced the inner and outer tie rods. The upper and lower ball joints are both new, within two years. I would to think they are already worn out. My wheel is straight but the wheel might be out of balance. I did update my profile.
 
Just my experience with General tires, but I hate them. All of the General Tires I ever owned wore unevenly and were out of round within 10K miles. I remember one set that I removed and you could actually see with the naked eye that the tire was way out of round !!!



Now that you said that you had General Tires, I would look at the tires as the problem first !!



...Rich
 
I will get the tires looked at again. Wasn't able to get them rebalanced...didn't have the patients to wait. You know I have heard of bad luck with general tires getting uneven but I have never had that problem and this is my second set.
 

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