My BII has a vibration problem when going at speed, say 70+ mph. There's no abnormal wear on the tires; these were balanced not too long ago and the aligment checked out OK. The vibration depends on road speed, locking or unlocking the front hubs makes no difference, and it doesn't matter whether the clutch is in or out.

The vibration's not really bad, but it's annoying.

I checked the driveshaft and all four CV and U-joints appear solid. The only place I can find any play at all in the driveline is where the front driveshaft enters the transfer case. There's a little side to side play and a bit more up and down play. It's not a huge amount. The closest U-joint moves something like 1/8 inch. Is this normal?

Thanks,

Richard

 

If locking/unlocking the hubs doesn't affect the vibration, that should eliminate the front axles/driveshaft as possible culprits (unless the hubs don't unlock when unlocked).
Any chance you can get the shop that balanced your tires to check their balance job? I know on one occasion I had to take a tire back three times before they got it balanced right.
When checking the alignment, they should have checked the other suspension components (ball joints, tie rods, etc) for wear (can't properly measure alignment angles with bad suspension components). Did they? Maybe double check those things.
Shocks worn?
Driveshaft out of balance?
Just some ideas.

 

The history on the vibration problem is that I took the BII to a tire place for an alignment check and they said the radial arm bushings were shot and needed replacing, which may or may not fix the vibration. I took it then to a Ford dealer (Perry Ford, Poway) and they replaced these bushings, the tie rod outer ends, balanced the tires, and checked the alignment and said everything was now okay.

A couple of months later, on a 4WD road, I noticed that it was making some strange squeaking/grinding noises and then that the steering wheel was cocked over on straight roads. It turned out that the passenger's side radial arm bushing nut and heat shield had fallen off. I took it back to the dealer and got them to fix this and refund the almost $1,000 that they had charged me for their previous work. They noted at that time that a rear shock was leaking.

Subsequently I replaced all 4 shocks myself, as well as replaced the sway bar bushings, some of which looked worn, with James Duff urethane bushings.

The vibration isn't as bad as it was originally, and I think it was temporarily fixed. Could the urethane bushings be responsible?

I've pretty much had it with "professional" mechanics, especially the dealers. On another occasion they (another dealer) left the sprout disconnected and it ran poorly until I happened to notice the connector lying on the radiator cowling.

 

I would take the rear drive shaft out and check your cv joints,they are not easy to check on the truck. I would think real hard on replaceing the rear cv shaft{ there are junk!!!!!} with a good u-joint one.

 

Could be as simple as a wheel/tire balance problem, esp if vibration is not always there, you can drive into and out of it.
Doesn't matter if tires were balanced yesterday, could be poor balance job or lost/thrown weight(s).

Or- Check all u-joints & cv-joints.

 

I had a vibration problem with mine even when it was new and when it was under warranty the dealer check everything and could not find it. After the warranty expired I bought some new aluminum wheels mostly for the looks but the vibration was gone. Why the dealer didn't think of it I don't know but that took care of my 87 BII problem. You might want to try that.

 

Could be the input shaft in the transmission or the pilot bearing worn out. I had this problem with my 87 Ranger....thought it was clutch related,but while replacing the clutch ,it was the pilot bearing wornout by the input shaft with a warnout input shaft bearing in my FM145 Mutsubishi (5 speed)transmission. Be sure the fly wheel is rebalanced and resurfaced. Hope this helps....Mike

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I noticed that the passenger side radial arm bushing seems to be separating from its bracket and looks slightly torn up in addition. I suspect that the threads on the radial arm cut up the bushing's housing when the nut fell off the radial arm and the abraded housing in turn cut up the new bushing. I've made an appt. to take it back to the Ford dealer next Tuesday with the same complaint as before. I'll let you know what transpires.

BTW, there's no change in the vibration with the clutch in or out.

 

The dealer said the problem was due to out-of-balance tires. The cost was $32 and change out the door. I've yet to verify, at high speeds, whether or not this really fixed the problem.