Steering wheel wobble.....Help?!
 

Hey all, new to the forum and i have an issue already. I just bought a 95 4runner with 38.5 mudders and at about 3o miles per hour the steering wheel wobbles pretty good i know this setup wont ride like a cadillac but i really dont enjoy spilling coffe all over my lap or changing lanes when i don't want to.The suspension is all stock and a bit worn but i checked the tie rods and ball joints which dont have alot of play and i did replace the frame mounted idler arm on the passenger side ( it had a ton of play ) which didnt help at all. Any insight would be appreciated i dont have the money to just replace parts til the problem goes away. Thanks in advance! BTW THIS SITE ROCKS !:guitar:

Red explains Yellow. :hillbill:

:guitar:

The Wabbit is right, though you might have an uneven tire wear. they could be cupped. as you said, you can't expect much with the size and nature of the tire as far as the the ride is concerned. only thing that will help is keeping them rotated, aligned and properly aired.

I wanna see pics of this all stock suspension that's a bit worn sporting 38.5 tires :)

x2 on that one

sounds like it needs to be trailered to the trails with those tires. How's you steering stabilizer? Idler arm?

maybe you need like, 4 steering sabilizers :D

I hear that helps


http://128.83.80.193/scarysteering/scary68wes.jpg

Wow, bleeder...if I hadn't seen it, I wouldn't have believed it. That's almost as good as the guy with 14 Rancho shocks on the rear of his Toyota.

Is that a high and low steer kit? Looks like it's made of PVC pipe.

How much sheet metal did they have to cut to clear the tires.
.......and about those pictures.

lmao, I dunno; I do see 2 drag-links now that you mention it!

I just Google image searched "scary steering", and this was one of the first links :D

To the OP, though, seriously...throw on a set of 31" tires and see if that wobble goes away. You have a ton of rotating mass there that is nearly impossible to balance. It's probably worn your entire front end right out.

X's 2


on that note, I have a hard time seeing a STOCK IFS setup handle 38's for very long... now, if it's been converted over to a stock solid axle, well then, that's a different story :roll: but yeah, I'd like to see some pictures of this setup...


oh and LOL at the Wabbit's 1st responce :hillbill: I just now read it, lol

I be willing to bet them big ass tires wore out all the tie rod ends as well!

ok i actually have experiance with this... im running 38x12.5R15's that are worn to the extreme, cupped out of round and all out of wack, i first put them on and it wobbled so bad i couldnt go 30 miles per hour. put them on the balance machine at work and they worst wanted 45 ounces! lol. so i through as much as i could on and got them down to about 20 or 15 ounces, the front tires i balanced out with only 20 ounces. and guess what, i can fly down the freeway at 70 miles per hour with minimal wobble. speedo is about 5mph fast around 65 and read 75-80 (bouncy needle)

so i would reccomend trying to balance them.

I seem to have a hard time keeping 31's balanced, much less 38's...

lol



maybe it's all these hard launches off the light :D

Big tires are notoriously difficult to balance simply because there's a lot of rubber in the treads that's a long way from the rim and wheel weights are real close to the axle. You might try the airsoft bb trick. Also might want to replace your suspension bushings with polyurethane.
Steering dampener(s) might help, like 'bleederdude posted above. :D

Stock SFA isnt much stronger than stock IFS :hillbill:

He said he has no money so used smaller tires are definetely in order.

yeah, its a pretty interesting ( scary ) truck but i didnt do the work i got it this way, gimme some time, i'll make it right

The idler is brand new, the steering stabilizer.... well it aint new and i also thought that it was the problem. I have seen some advertised for $50-$75 ( any suggestions brand wise?) i just wanted to see how many of you guys confirmed my suspicions before throwing a ton of money at this truck.