I know this has been asked before but I need a little help here. I did a search but didn't find what I needed.

I have a 1996 T100 4x4 SR5. I have had a fair amount of front end vibration for awhile. It usually starts at about 50mph and up.

I've replaced the lower ball joints, balanced the tires(using the bolt pattern not the center hole), and replaced the steering damper.

I've jacked up one side and there is a lot of play in the steering but I can't seem to figure out what specifically is causing it. I'm inclined to replace everything but I'd rather just replace what is needed and not everything!

Thanks for the help!!!

 

My guess would be the idler arm or pitman arm? Mine was doing the same thing and I replaced these parts. But I did do a wheel alignment right after.....hmmm????

 

I would look to see if is the idler arm. The steering box may have some slop and that is alright. If it is a lot of slop you can tighten it up some with the screw on top of the steering box. My suggestion would be to have someone sit in the truck and slowly move the steering wheel back and forth withg the truck off and you look and see what is moving.

Andrew

 

My 1997 T-100 has a strange vibration also. It seems to be coming from the front end but the mechanics all say it's u-joints. So, I had them replaced, and it still has most of the vibration. $300 down the drain! Tires are next on my check list..

My vibration starts at a very slow speed and is gone by the time I hit 50.

 

Thanks for the advice. I forgot to mention that I also installed manual hubs.

I'll have to check the idler arm.

 

Oh yeah I forgot to mention that the vibration from the front of my truck ended up being that the piston in the brakes where to tight and cause the brakes to rub when the tire rotates. Might be a long shot but hey.....I jacked up the front end and rotated each wheel and found this to be the problem

 

wheel balance is typically the problem for vibration. also check the front drive shaft. If a weight came off the driveshaft it will shake pretty good.

 

Ditto on the wheels. Numerous threads on the subject. I went through all sorts of troubleshooting for my vibration problem, only to fix it by replacing the tires. If the tires are bad like mine were, no amount of balancing is going to help it though.

 

If it is a vibration that shakes the front end, but you can feel it in throughout, especially the tranny you might want to look at the u-joint.

In fact this might be exactly what it is now that i think about it. When your drive shaft spins and gets pretty fast your u-joint is breaking up. Eventually it will get really bad and you wont be able to drive much at all.

This is probobly it if the vibration comes at around 50mph, then leave at around 70, when the drive shaft is moving too fast to bother the u-joint too much.

The u-joint costs around $12.00 for a good one, but have fun installing it. The driveshaft is heavy and not so fun to remove at home.

I had to change mine on the side of the freeway-luckily God allowed it to break down next to a auto parts wharehouse (1993 4Runner V6 SR5-the car i used to have)

 

After all this money, time and frustration, I have concluded the vibration is coming from the tires. I brought it to tthe shop for allignment yesterday and while there I mentioned this problem to the mechanic. We jacked it up and put it in drive. It was certainly NOT any of the u-joints or the front drive shaft. The allignment is now perfect and the problem still persisted. Our of curiousity we decided to put new tires on it and drive it around the block. BINGO! Good as new! It seems my BF Goodrich's have developed some flat spots that are hard to see, but definately there. There is nothing wrong with teh tires and they are perfectly safe, so I will use them until they are worn out.

Any suggestions on what to replace them with? I live in Iowa where the mud is like silicone, but I mostly drive on the pavement. I'm not really interested in jacking up the truck or anything. I'd prefer to stay stock.