Ok this morning I head into town to get some plugs for my daughters Neon, and am doing about 65 down a two lane black-top road( yea I know..)... at any rate, I am approaching a stop sign and start to brake when the truck starts wobbling like a wheel is coming off...shook hard enough to pop open glove box and **** near put me in the ditch. Felt like a carnival ride, and not a very pleasant one
I get her stopped, check the tires, underneath, everything is good. Make it on into town and back home with no further problems. Go out and try to get it to do this again, and find that if I am going over 50-55, and brake, it will start doing this, but not every time....
Get under and check EVERYTHING I can think of, nothing wrong, tie-rods, leaf springs, shocks, ball joints are good, rotors and drums were checked when I bought it in June, driveshaft aint bent, cant find anything .... ABS system is disconnected, but I cant imagine that causing this...

any ideas?

 

Not sure yet but have a couple of questions. When this happened, did the steering wheel shake from side to side, or was there nothing unusual? How about the brake pedal? Any unusual sensations?

 

I know the answer. Its the upper ball joints. I bet this is a 4 WD isnt it? Mine did that, it felt like the **** tires were flopping around and the whole front end of the truck is bouncing side to side.

What happens is the nylon cups get work and the spring inside the cup start bouncing side to side. Everything feels tight because the spring in the ball joint assy gives that impression, but the nylon cup is shot.

When mine did it Id have to brake really hard and jerk the wheel to one side to get it to quit. I went to 3 different shops before a 4WD specialty shop knew what it was without even looking.

 

wouldnt it be the nylon bushings in the kingpin that are worn.

jiMMy

 

Thats what Im talking about, perhaps I used the wrong name. Its under the steel cap held in by 4 bolts with a grease zert on top.

 

My vote... Ball joints

 

I got my new nylon bushing cups and springs from Parts Mike Parts on the internet. He has everything for the D 60 front axle in stock, at much better prices than I could get locally. Not to mention, I couldn't get what I needed locally anyway.

It is pretty easy to change the bushings and springs. If everything else looks good, you can just take the cap off the pass side, and the arm off the driver's side and pop the new parts in . . .

Just double check the tie rod ends while you are at it -- normally they go fast when the upper king-pin is bad.

 

My vote is the track link.

 

Yeah, that's your problem Chris - your track link is missing!

Gallows- No track link on a 1st gen, they have leaf springs.

 

OK i like going against the general idea,,mine did a very simalar thing last summer,i also thought was the front end,,but it turned out to be a caliper sticking, i didnt figure it out for a couple weeks when i noticed one on the left smoking. just my two cents good luck

 

This is more than a brake chatter or shimmy, the whole front end dips and bounces 6 inches side to side. You feel like your about to lose the wheels. Its a 10 on the pucker factor when it doesn it with a 53 ft trailer in traffic.

Normal suspension--
Bad front end--------

 

loch,

I have a bit of a sticky caliper on my truck, and it has started to do that. I believe it is the caliper as the problem doesn't happen every time. As well, when I let the brakes off and re apply them, the problem usually goes away. Did you do your caliper and solve the problem totally?

 

Yes the problem went away completly after the caliper,,and also mopar this wasnt a brake chatter it was very violent thing,thats why i put 920 bucks replacing every component in my front end,,by the way the 920 bucks did not solve it,,

 

I would suggest taking it to a reputable spring and alignment shop in your area. Many will check the front end free hoping to get the follow-up work. I know I've got three SaA shops around here that would gladly check for free. I deal with all three weekly as customers with our aging fleet.

And I don't mean having some 17 y/o GREASE MONKEY from a QUICK-LUBE OIL CHANGE joint check it. They are trained to tell ya that the shocks, struts, brake pads, ball joints, exhaust are bad.
(and that's on a 2005 model with less that 1000 miles on it)

 

Chrisryen,

I see your from Kansas, so am I. Call Tinks Auto and 4x4 in Salina, thats who fixed mine. 785-827-6204

By the way this weekend is the Mopar show at Heartland Park in Topeka. If you come by, I'll be in a white 4dr turbo dodge spirit. I't will be in the show and down the strip.