I recently purchased a '93 w-250 4x4 from a "buddy" of mine. It has a quite annoying front end bounce, or up and down shake[not side to side] at about 45mph and up. It feels exactly like a severely unbalanced tire or rim, and thats what he told me it was, so I bought it. I recently put new tires and rims on the truck and my vibe was still there. I have torn out my hair trying to find the vibe, did all standard checks such as wheel bearings kingpins steering components etc. I have isolated the vibe to the front of the truck and when checking leaf spring bushings I notice one bushing is missing the steel sleeve inside and is completely egged-out!. Please note that the truck has a complete aftermarket lift with skyjacker springs front and rear using poly 2-piece bushings. My question is has anyone experienced a worn out leaf spring bushing on any of thier vehicles and does it produce the symptoms I described?. This shake and vibe is driving me crazy!!. Thanks in advance for any info you guys can provide.

 

On my Ramcharger trail vehicle with front D60 I always had worn or ripped apart spring and frame bushings, they never gave me a vibration like your describing. My vibrations have always been tire/rim related, it is also possible the brake rotor itself could be out of balance, maybe some mud in the cooling fins or it might have lost it's balance weights in the fins. Is the vibration violent enough to where you can't go over 45?

 

if its not there or worn out, obviously it needs to be there. it might not be the main cause but i am sure it isnt helping the situation, having one worn out or missing one will lead to the other end failing soon as well as it is putting that much more stress on it.

jiMMy

 

If it is the front bushing, I would also expect you to have a shimmy (side to side) problem. The rear bushings, however, will let you "bounce" because the play keeps the shock from dampening properly. Did you check your shocks as well?

Let us know how you make out.

 

I would change to rubber bushings anyway to help the ride. Definitely check your shocks too. Don't wait too long, if it's metal to metal, that spring eye will be gone in no time.

 

You may want to have your rotors check for warping... If they have been allowed to go too long without re-surfacing they can warp and cause similar symptoms.

pb...

 

The bushings are cheap, under $10 bucks. IMO there was a loud clang when you hit a big bump. steering damper may help also if not already there. I also have had 0 luck these days trying to get good tire balancing done. Try to find a shop who can spin it on the truck and see which one it is. That was how I finally remedied my tire probs after 6 or 7 spin balances on the so called latest equiptment. Its only as good as the operator running the balancer. How much weight is there on each front rim? try swapping for the 2 best of the 4 wheels.
let us know what you get.

 

when this happens will or can it be dangerous to drive?

 

yes it can. It is likely to need the king pins to be rebuilt.

 

skyjoker says it all. Your 93 uses a 5/8's front spring eye bolt. Skyjoker does not have 5/8"spring eye bushings. They tell you to remove the steel sleeve from the 1/2" bushing they send you. They also tell you someone changed the bolt size.

To this day it is still a problem with them. BTDT with skyjoker.

Jungle on RC Central makes a 5/8" bushing kit to fit skyjokers.

 

We have had this talk before Philip.
I got a box with both sized bushing in my Skyjacker 6 inch lift kit, 10 years ago.