Hi Everyone,

First post and not quite a powerstroke owner yet. Thanks for having me on the site.

I test drove a '99.5 (I'm pretty sure since the powerstroke badge is on the door) SRW F350 automatic with a flatbed dump and 63k miles. Bone stock with gauges. Real nice shape and doesn't get driven much. The owner had surgery over the winter, so he didn't drive it at all except for plowing his driveway. I took it out with him yesterday and as soon as we went down the road, it started shimmying. It only happens with a very light throttle and the speed is irrelevent....we were traveling between 30-55 and I was able to get it to do it at any speed. Sometimes it's just felt in the steering wheel (kind of like a front wheel is out of balance) and when it's real bad you can feel it in the seat too and the steering wheel shakes worse. Since it's not tied to speed, it's not a tire imbalance problem. This only happens with very light throttle...if I give it more throttle it goes away, and if I let off the throttle, it goes away. I mat the throttle and it runs great. I told the owner I'd buy it if it was fixed, but I wanted to post a question here to get some ideas on what it might be. The guy was nice, seemed honest, and everything I saw (shop and other vehicles) were well taken care of. Any ideas?

The issue sounds similar to this thread I found, but there's no noise.

Thanks for any help you can give.

 

After doing a google search, I found this thread from this site and this TSB. Could this be the issue? The owner told me the tranny was rebuilt at 27k miles, and he bought it with 30k miles. He thinks the truck was primarily used for plowing before he bought it since it had a sander on it and a strobe light on the cab roof. He doesn't know who originally did the tranny work.

If the tranny's properly rebuilt this time, should that eliminate future issues?