I own a 1987 Toyota Pickup 4x4 5 speed 22r single cab. I've replaced the ball joints, shocks, pitman arm, idler arm and put a new wheel bearing on the passenger side (this was a while back). I got new tires and balanced. It did the shaking before and after these new tires. I havent touched the tie rod ends but have checked them. They have a little twist play (forward and back from grabbing the tie rod fasteners) but both ends are solid and secure on both sides. Havent serviced or touched the driver side wheel bearing. I've checked both the driver side and passenger side wheels for play. The amount of play is in millimeters. The service manual I have says millimeters of play are within reason. From 40 - 55 I have varying severity of front end shake. Usually at 40 it is the strongest and I fight the steering wheel. It can be felt going forward straight and turning to the right more so than the left. I've tried looking up stuff but most of what I find is for solid axles and death wobble. This feels like it but I know they use different types of steering. I'm wondering if anyone could give me any good advice without me sinking more and more money right now since I've already invested tons and I'm trying to have it ready for a 12 hour round tri . The shaking isnt present at 65 mph. Thanks for all help and information.

 

tires might be balanced, but the wheels could be bent, which shows up at speed.

 

What you’re describing is almost always attributed to tires and/or rims.

Poor quality off brand tires would cause it. If you look at the wheel weights on the rim and see a ton of weight crammed on the rim this is usually an indicator the tire installer ran into problems.
as Wallytoo mentioned, a bent or custom (aftermarket) rim can also cause issues.
You can try rotating the tires front to rear and see if it changes. Bad tires/rims on the front makes your steering wheel shake, when they’re on the back you’ll feel it in your seat.
if you had worn steering or suspension components that should have been revealed when you had an alignment. It would make it tough to get consistent measurements if something like a tie rod end or balljoint was worn out.

 

Thanks for the replies. The rims are the 2013 Tacoma Prerunner base rims. I've switched the front driver side tire with the rear tire from the same side. I haven't switched the passenger side. The tires are some goodrich R/T tires. I have another set of rims and tires I could try just to see if the shaking would still be present. Itd just be a lot of work just to put those tires on and then take them off. Today when driving to work, I noticed that if I'm going around 40 or so and start braking the shaking will immediately stop. Does that sound like another symptom in favor of poor balance or bent rim? Is there any possibility it's my steering damper and the steering wheel shake shimmies my tires back and forth?

 

Hmm, good tires and rims. I’d try putting two of your extra rims/tires on the front to see what kind of change it causes. You can leave the rears alone for now.
Shaking in the steering that starts to come on 40-50mph, at its worst 55-60, and goes away at speeds over 65mph is almost always due to the wheels. But other possibilities exist. Did the alignment have any yellow or red flags?

 

Exactly how and where are you getting this "play"? Where did you read that there was an acceptable amount of play, this is a loaded question really.. There should be no noticeable movement fore/after (laterally) or in/out (vertically) when you apply these forces manually. This movement is only intensified when underload from for example the 3000# vehicle pushing on it instead of the much smaller force you can apply by hand.

If you have lateral play.. I'd start with having your tires rebalanced, then check the wear and reset the wheel bearing preload. This is essentially free if your tire installer sells " lifetime balance and rotation " with new tires, and only costs you your time. Loose bearings combined with the slight imbalance from rocks lodged in the tire tread destroy bearings.

If you're seeing vertical play. This is going to be more than time and labor most likely are the ball joints of the control arm and possibly issues with the CA adjustment cams.

 

Good points. And checking the wheel bearings that were recently replaced is a good idea. Newly installed wheel bearings can quickly become loose if you don't do the tightening procedure exactly right the first time they are installed.

Can we assume all the parts replaced in the front were done to solve the shaking? Or did the shaking materialize at some point after some of the front end parts had already been done?

 

The wheel bearing on the passenger side was replaced because the wheel had a visual wiggle to it as it rolled down the road. When I disassembled I noticed someone who messed with the bearings before me had forgotten the tabbed washer inside the hub. I dont remember exactly where it was sandwiched or went but I had already bought a new bearing to install. I kept the old bearing since it didnt really have any defect. It was just missing one of the pieces from a wheel bearing kit. I replaced the shocks and ball joints because of the mileage and years of neglect on the truck by previous owner. The play is lateral, not vertical. And its maybe two or three millimeters of play. I dont have any abnormal noises or any other crazy symptoms. Maybe my wheel bearings are loose. Would it at intermittent speeds like I'm having? Maybe I didnt tighten it properly but it's been a while since I did the work. Maybe 25,000 miles now. And the Louisiana roads I ride on arent ideal. I can try rotating the tires around and then checking and repacking the wheel bearings if that sounds like the best and most likely culprit.

 

Idler arm and pitman were replaced just to give me better steering. It was pretty loose after 33 years and 302,000 miles.

 

Well, can't hurt to check the bearings. The first time you install new wheel bearings the procedure is slightly more involved. Repacking existing bearings is a little more straight-forward. Just be pretty methodical on the reassembly and tightening. If you don't have a decent manual I can post the pages from the FSM.

Not knowing your vehicle or it's history I have to be open-minded to other possibilities, but I'd do my best to eliminate the front tires and wheel firsts. If there were worn steering or suspension, or frame issues, the alignment would have been difficult to do well.
I've seen tire separation at the tread cause a wicked shimmy, but shoot, you can feel that at 5 mph. Driveshaft issues(like u-joints) tend to be strongest at takeoff, and you feel that more in your butt, not the steering wheel.
Just for the sake of asking, the snap ring in the 4wd locking hub that goes on the end of the front driveshaft was there?

 

After work I went and disassembled the wheel hubs on each side. I checked the hubs and bearings and regressed everything. For time sake, I only worked with the outer bearing . But I spun the hub with outer bearing and pieces out off. My bearings sound and feel good. I'm going have the tires balance checked tomorrow since two tires have tons of weights on each side of the rim. When I disassembled today, the snap ring was on both sides. The driver side hub (first time inside it), is missing the screw that goes in the end of the CV shaft and is missing a bolt for the manual hub. That kinda frustrated me.

 

Ugh, missing pieces. May not be the problem, but doesn't instill confidence.
You may already know this, but a tire balancer breaks down the tire into zones, very much like a pizza. Imagine your tire as pizza cut into 10 slices. The larger the sidewall the bigger the slice. Now you start to see the challenge of big truck tires.
So when you spin the tire the balancer identifies which slice needs weight, and how much. The problem is, you gotta put the weight closer to the end where it tapers to the point, so you have a pretty narrow area to work with. That's why high profile tires are so mush harder to balance than a low profile tire.
Sometimes you can rotate the tire on the rim and find a place that needs less weight. Just a bunch of weight piled on the rim tells me the installer didn't spend much time, or wasn't trained well
Cheap, aftermarket rims were notoriously hard to balance no matter what you did, but since you have oem rims I wouldn't expect issues unless they're damaged.

 

I changed the drag link, the tie rod ends and fastener (I had bought it already) and the steering stabilizer. The front end shake is gone. So it must have been one of those parts. I also plan to replace the driver side wheel bearing just to have piece of mind for everything. Since that's the only part I havent replaced now. Now I'm trying to figure out the name of the seal on the passenger side that leaks where the CV axle goes into the front ifs diff. Is it called the inner axle seal or axle housing seal? Are those the same thing? I'll order off of Marlin crawler so if anyone knew the exact part name, that would help lol

 

Wow, good work. I had to replace a lot of those parts because they were pretty flogged when I got the 4Runner, but it hadn’t developed symptoms like yours. Steering was a bit sloppy.
heres a parts view of ifs. Are you looking for 41304P?

 

Thanks! That's the exact part I was looking for. It started leaking after a hour long excursion through a tractor road full of mud in Louisiana. Without a skid plate, my breather got caked and the seal failed. So I'll order that and just keep spending money.

 

On the same website it isntisn't coming up with that exact part but instead the one below that on the (SUBS) line. Will that be a perfect substitution?

 

Yes.
it’s not so much a “substitution” as a super-ceded part number. Often times the new part number reflected slight design changes, and by issuing a new part number Toyota and the dealer could distinguish new stock from old. But the fit will be 100% dead on.
Glad you checked the website yourself, I took a educated guess at the model number info.