I'm in the process of completing a straight axle swap into my '85 Ranger. I used a '78 Bronco rc d44. I am using coils. When I test drive it it gets a really bad shaking in the front of the truck. Has anyone else had this problem when doing a swap like this? I'm thinking about putting the toe to 0 or 1/16" in or so. Am I on the right track to getting this thing drivable?

you have the tracbar nice and tight?

yes.

Probably a caster problem....what size tire are you running?

got any pics of the front end. when you do the alignment on the tires. measure it with the vehicle weight on the axle. you may have bad ball jionts to. you want a toe in of about 1/8 to a 1;4 of an inch.

I'm running a 36" TSL the shake doesn't start happening untill about 40mph. Ball joints are new. i can't post up any pictures tonite but I can tell one thing that is F'd up is my track bar angle, it doesn't match my drag ling by about 8 degrees, so I have some bad bumpsteer.

sounds like tire balancing

Originally posted by Nobody
Probably a caster problem....what size tire are you running?


ah ahh ahhhh caster *cough* *cough* check your caster angle :D

OK i know, its your rims. i had the same problem on my 91 explorer with 33's. it's those crappy black steel rims, ya i don't blaim ya, i did the same thing, 50 buckas a rim is hard to pass up espcialy when you want to get them darn things on there.

well i went to five diff chains and two diff private shops, and even tried it myself(have the machines at school), they nor i could ever get the jopb done.

sooo, the only thing that you can do is buy rims, sh1tty huh?!!

Yea I got those black steel wheels and as far as I know the tires are not balanced, but I am talking about one helluva shake here. It starts small then increases to where it jerks into the lane left of me. To the left every time. I should probably mention that I have no shocks on it right now. How can I check my caster angle?

get some shocks awn the baych 1st, then test it

Originally posted by BchillN
Yea I got those black steel wheels and as far as I know the tires are not balanced, but I am talking about one helluva shake here. It starts small then increases to where it jerks into the lane left of me. To the left every time. I should probably mention that I have no shocks on it right now. How can I check my caster angle?

I tried driving my bronco once without shocks, and it was not fun....... Definately get some shocks on there. A steering stabilizer wouldn't hurt either.

If you tires aren't balanced, and there are old weights on the wheels, remove them.

Does it shake always or just all of the sudden start shaking? If it is the latter it is called "death wobble" Follow all of the suggestions above. When I stuck my coilover D60 under my fullsize bronco I had the same thing. It can be caused by a number of different things. After you've tried all of the above and still cant get it to go away, go with hydro assist. You'll never have the wobble of any kind of bumpsteer anymore.

The shake starts all of a sudden at about 45mph. It magnafies to where I can hardly control the truck. I am going to get the wheels/tires balanced today, then I'll try again tonite. I'll let y'all know if there is any improvement.

If it starts and doesn't quit till you drastically reduce speed then it is the death wobble

Death Wobble is it all right.. There's something loose in there. It will start when the unbalanced tires start to Oscillate enough and only way to stop it is by slowing down to a near stop.

The trackbar being off the angle that bad could be a major contributor, but check it for tightness, also check the back of your Radius arms to make sure the bushing there are nice and tight.

IF you keep having it, and can't figure it out, do like Rob says and go hydraulic assist.. you'll never feel it again..

I agree with Smart Ass. Get some shocks in that bad boy. Coils need shocks in a bad way or they oscilate real bad. once they start there is nothing to stop them. I've seen any number af cars with Mcphearson struts up front with the shock worn out and the front tire is bouncing along like there is no tomarrow.

Eric

This sounds just like another guy on this board dangerranger33 wonder if IP's were checked it would come back as the same person:flipoff2: If not welcome :flipoff2: If so then how :rainbow: is that:question:

Originally posted by racinhound
This sounds just like another guy on this board dangerranger33 wonder if IP's were checked it would come back as the same person:flipoff2: If not welcome :flipoff2: If so then how :rainbow: is that:question:

That's funny :laughing: :laughing:

I can't figure out why my boat is sinking :confused: ..........ohh by the way, there's a hole in it. Do you think if I threw my fat girl friend out, that might fix it? :rolleyes: :flipoff2:

Take the girlfriend, and flip her over so you could have a reverse cut girlfriend.

THEN put her in the standard cut hole and it then it will run backwards, sucking her into the hole, thereby plugging it. :rolleyes:

Ok we all know that you've got death wobble but it makes no difference because you've got no shocks. Come back and talk to us later, we're busy :flipoff2:

I put the tires back on after balancing them and the shake was still there as bad as ever so I took some caster out and now I can drive at 50mph comfortably, but I'm still a little nervous. Maybe after I align it and get shocks on it it'll be allright.
Thanks to those who have helped me out with this.

replace any of those bushings

:question: how did you get the caster out , mine seems to stuck
right were i started :D

I got Coby's arms so it took all of 2 min to take some out. I ended up with 1 degree pos caster.

lets see some pics of this thing @!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1