Y’all experience the body shaking more with the top removed? Mine’s developed a mild and somewhat random shake after I took the top off. My old k5 shook a ton with the top off but unsure with these trucks and before I go diving into possible things I thought I’d check to see if it’s normal.

For reference, in the month I’ve been driving it it’s never had this shake. I changed the pitman arm and took the top off and now it’s got this random mild shake. Pitman arm is tight and torqued correctly. Maybe the tighter pitman arm is magnifying some other looseness I didn’t feel before?

 

when parked, or driving down the road?

 

Driving.

 

The shell puts a fair amount of weight on the back, pushing down on the rear suspension.. If you have aggressive tires or odd wear in the tires the lack of weight may allow tire vibration to radiate through the vehicle. Also stiff shocks or springs without the added weight could do the same thing. just a few possibilities.

 

Tires have probably a 100 miles on them so doubt it’s wear or off balance but it’s possible I guess.

Thinking along those lines, I wonder if the weight off the back is transferring more weight on the front end and exacerbating the work out parts I know I have.

 

Tires were just a thought.
If the vehicle vibrated/shook when stopped then engine and/or mounts related items would be the initial focus
But if it's when moving than tires, driveline, etc would be looked at first.

Edit: as a rule, new tires tend to cross that possibility off the list. Unless they're some aggressive mud and snow tire, or something with tread suited for offroad. Those can shake from day 1

 

need to isolate the failure mode better, as jim indicated.

for example, since "body shake" is the symptom, it shouldn't be felt in the steering? does speed make a difference? is it worse over rough roads? etc.

fwiw my 4runner has a lot of spring lift, when it's loaded up for a trip it rides smoother, even just the weight of the top on vs. off makes a difference.

 

Tires are just a 31" street tire. Never experienced this until I pulled the top off and also did the pitman arm. Speed or rough road doesn't seem to make a difference other than it being more noticeable. I've got it isolated to something front end cause the other day I went to hit the brakes (also brand new) and felt it in the brakes and the steering wheel. Maybe a wheel bearing or ball joint. It's hard to describe but it's like a small death wobble type feel. Not as severe as death wobble but that same type shimmy that happens. Sometimes I can see the hood and fenders shaking but the steering wheel doesn't move (could be from the slop in the box). I'm starting to lean toward the weight of the top kept the load off the front and with it gone it's exposed an issue up front. Been needing to go through the front since I'm pretty confident it's all 1989 original with 200k on it. Just more work.

 

Check wheel bearings for play, then check rotors for run out. When I got mine, both outer tierod ends were pretty bad. Inners were stellar.
If it passes both those inspections you might try rotating tires front to back to see if the shake moves.