Everyonce in awhile while driving the truck shakes like crazy... you slow down to a stop and start going and all is well. Usually it happens after i slow down then speed back up... any ideas?

 

Check your U Joints on your drive shaft. Especially if the steering wheel starts shakeing also.I am not sure if it could be something about the 4x4 suspension. If it shakes up front or in the rear. But I do know I had a u joint go on me once and it damn near shook the steering wheel right out of my hands right before it went south.
Good Luck AL

 

It's called the "death wobble" and everyone with a 70's F series will eventually experience it. lots of threads on it. do a search

Trac-bar bushings. they're only 20-30 bucks

 

Hate to bring this back from the dead. But what should I search under in the catalogs? Also a bit of a clariffication.... I cant tell you wether its the front or the back that shakes but i'm guessing it starts with the front because it happens after i hit a bump. anyway. Just want to clarify what I need to order because i'm going to order some parts today.

 

I just experienced that same thing with my 77 4x4. I had my mechanic replace the passenger side upper and lower ball joints,driver side tierod end, controll arm bushings, and c bushings. I dont know if it was all those things or just one, but it solved the problem.

 

2wd, 4wd and even 2wd Chevys with their car-like suspension can get the same shakes, it's not related to a single part.

More than one thing is prob'ly loose too.

Go through the front suspension and replace all the parts prone to wear, like the already mentioned radius arm bushings and ball joints and if it applies, the king pins and their bearings... get the picture? :)

It's simple to fix and the trouble will "be gone" when you get done -if- you go at it like you mean business and not pick at it one part at a time.

Are you game? :)
Got any service manuals?
No problem hashing this thing over again right here in this thread either.

I carefully replaced the rivets with bolts on one of my radius-arm's frame-brackets.
My plan is to do the other side too, next time i have the take mine apart. :)

I measured the crap(!) out of my frame and suspension and decided to move one radius-arm-frame-bracket forward almost 5/16 inch "to square things up". :)

The second one is perfect where it is... so I'll remove one rivet and rat-tail-file the hole to match a grade 8 bolt, drive it in ....and repeat until I've got them all replaced before doing anything else. :)

That stuff and a bunch of other silly stuff is what makes my pickup steer better than when it was new. No kidding. I special ordered it in late Nov '74. It steers better than my recently-inherited '91 F150 with 58,000 miles on it and Michelin tires. Better!

http://www.panix.com/~alvinj/file12/toe-in1.jpg
http://www.panix.com/~alvinj/file12/toe-in2.jpg

Drove it home tonight and "parked it ready" to check the toe-in tomorrow. :)
That's the first step to "fixing" that '91's steering. :)
And much later it will prob'ly be the last step after some other fiddling around, too. :)

You can do anything you put your mind to -if- you give yourself plenty of time to do it in.

Alvin in AZ

 

yeah i just need to buy tools! man that can get spendy. I also saw a nice 2.5 ton hydrolic jak for something around $145. But I need to buy a socket set and a whole wrench set before I can go at it. I want to buy quality stuff too not just cheap stuff.

 

Don't buy Husky. They don't back up their warranty. Have a couple buddies that work/worked at Home Depot and they had terrible things to say about the Husky hand tools w.r.t replacement under warranty.

I have all Husky tools myself. They're great... so far.

 

I was thinking Stanley or Craftman. I've never heard of Husky but I'll look into it. I would like to get a whole set of Snap on tools but they are so darn expensive

 

I bought my first set of Craftsman tools in 1955 and still have most of them. I raised two boys so you know why I don't have all of the originals I actually broke a 1/2 breaker bar about 10 years ago. I took it to Sears to get it replaced under warranty. The young lads working there looked at it in amazement. They had never seen one like it. After agreeing that it was a Craftsman the handed me a brand new one to replace it. You can't beat a warranty like that.

Snap on's are definitely for the serious mechanic.

 

i like craftsman also. you can go to the store to replace it. the snap on stuff i have (very little) is a pain to exchange. if i can at all. i used to have garages warranty them for me. snap on is great if the truck stops by weekly.