Hey friends,
I know there are tons of discussions about the suspension of the Excursion. I've read on this site and lots of others over the years. I purchased my 2000 2wd 7.3 Excursion new in July of 2001. It's been a great vehicle. I have about 320000 miles on it today. I am wanting to continue racking miles on it, or in it.

As for the suspension. It first became really apparent when I changed tires at about 80,000 miles. (for whatever it's worth, 3 of my 4 firestone tires catastrophically failed within those 80,000 miles. Fled from Firestone, have never had another blowout.) Firestone tires for the Ex were never recalled. At 80000, my tire dealer gave me a couple of choices. Uniroyal for about $550, or Michelin for about $800. I went the cheap route and made a Disney trip the next day. Couldn't keep my radar detector on the windshield. Felt like bad pavement, everywhere. When I made it back home, by dealer exchanged for Michelins and the problem almost went away. But, it never went away.

As the tires wore, the vibrations, or shudder, or bounce, or wobble, increased. I would go back and ask for rebalance, which seemed to help. Over time, I pulled drive shaft and had balanced, with u-joints. I changed shocks. Added Centramatic Balance Rings, put truck on rack and ran at highway speeds with and without wheels, added sway bar to rear, added Roadmaster active suspension to rear springs, changed speed sensor, changed transmission and torque convertor, and more. But there was always something still there. Almost everything I have done has made the ride better, for a short time.

So here I am back wanting to decide exactly what is going on. I haven't changed all the suspension parts, but there isn't slack, or it isn't obvious. This problem is much more pronounced when using the cruise. That has been the case from the beginning. To the point where many times I just don't use it.

After my latest push for an answer, I found a few videos online of before and after of suspension changes in action. So I grabbed my camera and crawled under my truck a couple days ago. I've taken a few videos, some at highway speeds, some slower going over curbs, pot holes, railroad tracks. At the slower speeds, some of the clunks are more obvious. I hope it's allowed to post links to our own videos. If not, I can redirect to my You-Tube channel I've set up for them. If you search on YouTube for Ford Excursion 2wd Suspension Problem, I'm close to the top. I can, and will take more, if you guys have suggestions. I took my latest video today of one of my front shocks, which shows wear at the bushing. Tightened the front wheel bearing on passenger side and replaced fronts today with Rancho 9000's, and ordered a set for the rear. Also ordered the Ford OEM steering stabilizer setup, my truck didn't come with one stock.

So here are my videos, unless I'm told not to post. I tried to embed, but don't believe that's allowed in these areas.

Sometimes in the videos I'll blow the horn when the trembling is the greatest.








And my video from today of the bad shock bushing:

 

Welcome to the Forum!

First of all GREAT job of posting video of your problem... most don't and it makes diagnosis "over the air" much easier. (I don't do it, but sometimes wish I had the camera to do so)

The only things that I can see as potential problems are:
1. Your front swaybar bushings look to be wallowed-out. They can be a big source of rattles and clunks.
2. I think I can detect just a little movement in your lower ball joint in the one video. It may be my eyes mixed with moving video, but it looks like there is.

Ball joints will cause serious drivability problems even just a little play in them.

Also, you said you have tightened your wheel bearings. Have you ever changed them? New bearings and races went a long way toward tightening things up on mine. I didn't notice any real noise coming from them, and I could not detect any play when pulling on the tires from top to bottom. When I took them apart, they "looked" good. But after replacing them, I was surprised at the difference in overall driving characteristics.

Just some thoughts for you. There are others who are more knowledgeable than I on here so I'm sure they will chime in soon.

Good luck!

James

 

Ditto on the wheel bearings, that's a lot of miles on them and they're relatively cheap. Personally, I'd change front and rear.

Another suspect would be the radius arm bushings. If those are bad you would feel the clunks in the floor, near your feet and probably have steering issues at highway speeds.

The cruise thing is strange - do you feel the shudders in the steering wheel? Does it decrease when you let off the go pedal?

I've never seen a 2WD Ex with a steering stabalizer. you shouldn't need one and it may mask the real problem. How are you mounting it? Are you making some brackets, find a kit, or did the F250's come with them or something?

 

Great videos. What camera did you use and how did you mount it so well?

The shock bushing is completely gone and I also hear some noise which could also be the shock itself. How old/how many miles are on the shocks ?

Like what DNS46 said; the swaybar bushing seems well worn. They are super easy to fix. I could not find a urethane replacement for the 2wd so I just went with stocks ones. Mine were completely done. Also did the end links.
Let us know if the shock replacement did anything.

 

Anyone ever hear back from Taz??

 

Nope that was his ONLY post...

 

That's too bad. All the time he took on those videos.