It's hard to see and it took me a few times to realize it. Plus that was with the old Energy Suspension mounts. Now that these are bouncing, I might be able to.

How are your U-joints, swing bearing and mid yoke?

 

I replaced the carrier (if that's what you mean by swing bearing and mid yolk) a year and a half ago with a Ford unit. The u-joints and slip-joint nose (blue coating was coming off) were replaced last fall at a very reputable drive line shop.

 

Chris,

As a trial, you could note where those weights are attached on the inside, ink the rim so they can go back, but remove them and use adhesive weights right in the middle of the rim. Someone I knew had a tire issue that was only cured when the weights were put in the center. At one of the training sessions, it was discussed that weights at the rim edge can induce some wobble.

It might be worth a try considering what you've gone through.

 

Thanks, Jack. I have also decided to ditch the x-codes, as they accentuate every crack in the road.

 

Here's part of a write-up I posted in my rebuild thread about vibrations:

"Pre-existing #2
Since I put Cooper all-terrains on in early July, I've been dealing with a bouncing condition on certain sections of road that I drive everyday. This got noticeably better when I switched from Coopers to Falkens, but it hasn't gone away. Not long after getting the Coopers I replaced the worn out P-code front leaf springs with new X-codes and that didn't affect the bouncing, even though they accentuate every little imperfection in the road. It's been suggested that the softness of the S&B cab mounts is the cause or at least making it worse, but I didn't notice it getting worse after they were installed, and that was after the Coopers went on. Possible causes I can think of include, a bad tire, bad wheel, or bad shock, but all shocks were replaced last summer and the two rears passed the compress/extend test last week."

Also, I took a look at the cab mounts today. They are so soft that I could feel the compression changing with my left hand by pushing up on the nerf bar with my right. Not sure what that means but they are definitely softer than my old stockers and the energy suspensions.

 

You're right, the only term I could think of was "swing bearing" for some reason. Yeah, that rules that out, unless these trucks are REALLY hard on driveshafts/u-joints/yokes.

I hadn't seen your build thread. I honestly didn't think about a tire and that just reminded me of something. I had a bubble coming up on my left rear tire which was a BF Goodrich All Terrain. I noticed it when I was fueling up. That was the source of the bouncing at first. I can't believe I forgot about that. I was about an hour and a half from home and had to buy a new tire as I didn't want to risk that one exploding on the interstate. I bought a new set of tires after that and put that replacement tire on as a spare. Anyway, my bouncing returned a little after that and that's when I looked at the driveshaft.

Good tire brands are supposed to have a mark on them that shows the installer where to locate the valve stem for better balancing. That might not be on the tires that are made for these trucks, I'm not sure. I want to say my General tires didn't come with any marks. The installer just has to guess where to mount them and probably doesn't even get the best balance. They wouldn't balance them until they're fully inflated anyway.

I did notice last week, one of the colder mornings, the cab seemed to bounce a little more. But it was a one time thing. I would want to see if it did that consistently and we haven't had anymore mornings that cold since. But in logic, it seems like the colder it was, the harder the mount would be and it wouldn't bounce. Like it would bounce more when it was warmer and be more pliable.

 

Not so much a build thread as it is a journey through all the problems and repairs I've made to the truck since I bought it two summers ago. It's not all suspension and drive line stuff but there's a lot of it in there. Prepare for a long read if you go there.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...g-with-it.html

You looked at the driveshaft after you replaced the one tire, or after you replaced them all?

The lack of a valve locating mark might affect the amount of time it takes to balance the wheel, but if they're using a road force balancer it shouldn't affect the quality of the balancing because the machine will tell them if they need to rotate the tire on the rim.

The mounts might be harder, but so would the tires and springs which would logically result in a harsher and possibly bouncier ride overall.

 

I replaced all 4 tires after the one had the bubble in it. When it bounced after that is when I started looking at the driveshaft. You're right about the balancer, that's just what I've heard and if you end up with a tire that's hard to balance or takes a lot of weight, it might pose some problems. Just a thought. I guess I'm not familiar with a Road Force balancer. I'm usually right there when they're balancing my tires because I know the guys. I've never seen it tell them to rotate the tire on the wheel.

 

I went in for a rotate and balance and one front was 2oz out and the other front was out by 1oz. Definitely smoother at high speeds, and also reduced the bouncing sensation. It's still there, but now it feels like it's just the engine sputtering like it should be in 4th gear instead of 5th and/or it's having trouble pushing the exhaust out through a plugged-up muffler at 1500 rpm's.

I asked about the wheel with 4oz of lead on the inside lip. That one had a road force value of 14, which according to the manager, is very good, and not often seen on AT's. He also said sticky weights aren't as effective because there is no ability to adjust lateral balance when using them. I wouldn't know if he's telling the truth. He may just be trying to talk me out of another free tire replacement.

 

Huh?? What does that have to do with body mount bolt torque???????

 

 

You wouldn't think anything at first BUT, the cabs are bouncing. I just recently changed out my cab bushings to the SB Filters Silicone mounts. The cab keeps getting worse about bouncing, mine does anyway. I'm very temped to buy a Ford mount for the rear and change it out. Even those deteriorated, they didn't let the cab bounce.

 

@Fuzzpuss If you were to buy Ford bushings, would you get the rubber or the foam? Mine came with the foam and they deteriorate quickly but I don't know anything about the rubber mounts.

 

I've only owned 03's so I have no experience with the foam bushings. Whatever happened to having solid plastic bushings made?

 

I second guessed that idea after what you said about the delrin. I looked on McMaster Carr for a suitable material I could buy but it would be a gamble not knowing which material would be suitable. I'm sure someone out there could pick a material that would work just fine but I don't really know what I'm looking at. Also, the measurement of a COMPRESSED bushing would have to be dead on or it would put the cab in a bind I would think.