96 Ford Ranger 2wd- vibration

[remus96]

I have a 2wd 96 Ranger with a 3.0 V-6, and I have been having this strange vibration problem. When I take the tires off to do something (work on brakes, rotate tires, whatever..) and then put them back on, about a week or two later I start feeling this vibration. I just to make sure the lugs are all tight and even right away...but that doesn't help. The vibration at speeds of 65-70 mph. So normally I have taken it in and got the tires balanced. This usually solves the problem, I have gone through this cycle three times now and I have also had the u-joints replaced, front wheel bearings repacked and even tried a new set of tires. Recently I took the tires off to rotate them and then a week ago the problem came back. I wanted to find out if anybody has had this strange occurance.

[shadetree351]

Tires can get out of balance like this. Hopefully you have what they call a 'lifetime balance' on your tires, so you only pay to have them balanced once. Since you've already done the u-joints, balance sounds like the culprit, unless the u-joints weren't put in properly.
Shadetree 351

[vita]

I've noticed similar problems with my 97 4.0L 2WD, although not quite as quickly as yours. I've had two mechanics tell me it is due to the suspension the 97 and older Rangers have. According to them, the suspension chops the tires up, and gets them off balance. When I had on a pair of BFG AT tires, it was the worst. Essentially, you could see that the tires wore unevenly on the front two. I have to rotate them much more often than normal to keep it from vibrating. I've had quite a few alignments and so forth, but none of them have helped much. Makes some sense to me, the most I've been able to keep a set of tires on it is for 29,000 miles (17,000 for the BFG ATs) and I don't peel out or abuse them. Hopefully that will help give you something to look into.

[jmurnieks]

I have the 96 4.0 and had a similar vibration problem. After taking it to the mehani it turned out that there were only balancing weights on the outside of the rims. He added wieghts to the inside of the rims and that seemed to help quite a bit. After a year it is still pretty good. SLight vibration, but that may be due to the suspension.

[dish]