Wobble that keeps pace with tires...

[irongun324]

I have a wobble/oscillating sound, seems to be coming from the front/passenger corner of my 'burb. It has new tires, shocks, alignment, and now wheel bearings. With the wheel bearing it seemed to get better but is still noticeable. There isn't any severe wobble in the steering wheel or floor, just enough that I can hear the oscillating sound that keeps pace with the tires (new tires, balanced supposedly, swapped rims and it didn't follow the rim).

I'm wondering if it could be the ball joints? Or axle bearing?

If I check the wheel for movement, I can grab 6/12 on the wheel and I'm able to pull the bottom towards me less than 1/4 of an inch, but it's not fluid movement. Like the lower ball joint "clicks" towards me, and if I let go it clicks back. Does it both sides, so I wondered if that was normal movement?


ALSO, when I have a vehicle next to me, I hear a "clicking" sound reflected from the rear of the suburban it seems like. This also keeps pace with the tires/axle. Assuming it's not the lower ball joint clicking I talked about above, what could make that sound in the rear?

Thanks guys!
-Trey

PS - If anyone is in North Alabama (Near Huntsville) and familiar with these things, I'll gladly go for a drive to get another opinion.

[rcbildr]

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but when you check the ball joints like that, there should be no movement. Have you tried taking the wheel off and see if you can get movement? The joints on my 85 burb were so wasted I could get movement with the wheel off and with the wheel off it made it easier to see where theing were moving.

Also, I had bad luck with a tire shop balancing my tires...I had to go back three times for them to get it right. What's the tire pressure like on the fronts? Are they the same or very close? I had the same tire shop patch a tire for me and the patched tire was 5lbs higher than the other side and it had a slight wobble. Once I aired it down the wobble was gone.

[irongun324]

When I had finished putting the wheel bearing back together, I could make the bottom of the spindle move in the same fashion, with the wheel off. The upper joint doesn't budge though.

So, bad lower ball joint? If so, are the Moog replacement recommended always, they say special on them like they're unique and not OEM.

I haven't checked tire pressure to be certain, but I did swap a different wheel onto that corner and it didn't follow the wheel.

What does everyone run their truck A/T tires at for tire pressure? I'm used to putting my car tires near max for less rolling resistance/mileage. The truck has Kumho Road Venture A/T's (brand new, 6ply) on front, and Summit A/T Trail Climbers on rear (2ply).

[Rogue_Alphonse]

My '87 diesel used to make a slight click or clunk in the rear only at slow speeds, and it was just a sound- no jolt or vibration. Turned out to be the spider gears in the rear chewing themselves apart. It was a 10 bolt GovLock though. It never hurts to pop off the cover and see how the guts look inside.

As for the front... that's a new one for me. Mine didn't wobble when its lower balljoint was on the verge of snapping BUT it does sound like you have a bad lower balljoint. Do you have manual or auto hubs?

[irongun324]

I'll have to investigate the axles. Been procrastinating that, and a slow transmission fluid leak.

Let's see if this works:

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...eat=directlink

That's the driver side, and it's worse than the passenger, but they both do that. Yay!

Also, where do the axle lines go to? At least my front axle has some sort of line coming off the housing up into engine bay....

[Rogue_Alphonse]

YEAH that's a bad balljoint for sure! Change them out as soon as possible! Mine were a bear to get apart, and it only had 100,000 on it at the time. My only downside was I had a grinded and modified car fork rather than the right tools.

While you have it apart to change ball joints, it's a good idea to just change the universals in the axles as well. That'll eliminate the possibility of that being an issue later on.

As for the lines... do you mean the black rubber hose running from the diff housing?

EDIT: I think I know what you mean... the line goes from the middle upper part of the diff housing and into the vapor canister [why there I have no idea] it's just a vent, really. My '88 has the nipple to put a hose on and no hose on the rear diff. Nothing has come out of it yet!

[irongun324]

Both front and rear axles are 10 bolt. The only way to check fluid is to take cover off?
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[Rogue_Alphonse]

Unfortunately... and the only way to refill them is by the plug that's halfway up from the bottom of the housing. Your front should be in good shape no matter what differential-wise, it's the steering and drive components that would make a wobble... whether you have a bad axle and/or a stuck auto hub [if that is possible... I always eliminate those]

As for the rear clicking noise... check the driveshaft universals before anything. that could be our clicking noise. Check out the brakes too for anything that's sticking and letting loose late or whatever. If you find no issues, pull off the rear cover, have both wheels off the ground, the trans in neutral, and spin everything to check out the spider gears inside. Hopefully you don't see this:

[Gyawo]

The only way to check fluid is to take cover off?

Take a small zip tie(1/4 wideish) and cut it so that it is maybe 4-5 inches long. Make a 90 degree bend one inch from one end, presto diff fluid check gauge. You can dip it in the fill plug, the fluid should be on the 1 inch 90 bend. From there you can wipe some of the fluid on your wrist or paper towel and see what the condition of it is. If it isn't on the bend, you know its low, if it is and you just want to see the condition you can just fish it in until you get some fluid on the zip tie.

[irongun324]

Well, long time on this update, but just in case.

Basically they wobble isn't truly gone right now, but has improved, and I have data giving a reason for it. The 'burb sat for 2 years, and the tires on the rear are the ones that were on it while it sat. They were out of balance (fixed now), but the tire shop also measured their "flatness" so to speak, and both were pretty sore in that department, not something that can be fixed short of new tires. They had some equipment that plotted this and they show you the results.

In the process, when i put the tires back on the burb, my clicking also went away. I'm presuming one of the old weights was touching somehow maybe, but not sure. Either way I couldn't reproduce it today. Even had the rear-end on jackstands, in gear rolling, or in neutral had spinning, and couldn't make it occur so I could trace it.

Case closed, for now...