Offroad Trailblazers and Envoys

Steering wheel shake

Something not working right?

by Nynex » Sun Feb 28, 2016 7:00 pm

So I finished my lift install and new tires and rims Saturday. Today I got it aligned.

Image

I have a shake in the steering wheel between 50mph and 65mph. It's mild but I have to fix it.

Obviously I'm leaning toward balance. Brand new rims and tires mounted and balanced by tire rack. I sent them an email to see what they do in a situation like this.

BUT. I rotated my front tires with the back and nothing changed. So I'm possibly leading toward my wheel spacer adaptors?? 1.5" spacers 5.0" to 5.5".

Any ideas?
Last edited by Nynex on Sun Feb 28, 2016 7:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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by Trailblazer1 » Sun Feb 28, 2016 7:09 pm

Run out in your hubs possibly, your adapters may not be true to the hub so it causes a shake.
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by Trailblazer1 » Sun Feb 28, 2016 7:09 pm

It looks great though nice job
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by Nynex » Sun Feb 28, 2016 8:11 pm

Trailblazer1 wrote:It looks great though nice job


Thank you... I'm very happy with it. But the shake has to go.

Trailblazer1 wrote:Run out in your hubs possibly, your adapters may not be true to the hub so it causes a shake.


I think it has to be the adaptors. I rotated the tires front to back and the vibration is identical. I guess I need to rotate the adaptors from front to back and see what happens?
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by Moots1288 » Sun Feb 28, 2016 8:58 pm

Nynex wrote:
Trailblazer1 wrote:It looks great though nice job


Thank you... I'm very happy with it. But the shake has to go.

Trailblazer1 wrote:Run out in your hubs possibly, your adapters may not be true to the hub so it causes a shake.


I think it has to be the adaptors. I rotated the tires front to back and the vibration is identical. I guess I need to rotate the adaptors from front to back and see what happens?


Check your hubs, and the balancing
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by Nynex » Sun Feb 28, 2016 10:11 pm

Moots1288 wrote:Check your hubs, and the balancing


What do you mean by hubs? The wheel bearings? They were both changed about 5k miles ago.

I hope it's the balancing. But I can't believe when I rotated the tires around the steering shake is exactly the same.
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by Lil Papa » Sun Feb 28, 2016 10:32 pm

I'm having the same peoblem. you are not alone!
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by Jrgunn5150 » Sun Feb 28, 2016 10:45 pm

[quote="Nynex]
I think it has to be the adaptors. I rotated the tires front to back and the vibration is identical. I guess I need to rotate the adaptors from front to back and see what happens?[/quote]


That's a solid plan. Did you re-torque them after a bit of driving?
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by Nynex » Sun Feb 28, 2016 11:12 pm

Lil Papa wrote:I'm having the same peoblem. you are not alone!


Let me know what you find please.
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by Nynex » Sun Feb 28, 2016 11:16 pm

Jrgunn5150 wrote:That's a solid plan. Did you re-torque them after a bit of driving?


Yes I checked them when I rotated the tires. But only drove it less than 10 miles. The steering wheel shake was noticable right away. Nothing loosened up.

I'm probably not going to be able to do anything more until the weekend. I get home right around dark... Unless I get crazy and start messing around at night in my driveway.
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by TBYODA » Sun Feb 28, 2016 11:18 pm

did you remove the rotor retaining clips?
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by Nynex » Sun Feb 28, 2016 11:23 pm

Image

Honestly I never checked for them. I only learned about them researching on this site today. This is a picture I took after taking the strut out. I don't see any??

When I remove the wheel adaptors I'll definitely be looking closer at this. Thanks!
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by markmc » Mon Feb 29, 2016 4:42 am

When mounting the adapter to hub:
Tighten the self centering lug nuts by hand (only snug) in star pattern.
then tighten with torque wrench to 95ft lbs also in star pattern. DO NOT OVER TIGHTEN.

When mounting wheels to adapter:
Use the same steps as above.
Taking the weight of the tire off the studs by crow bar or using your knees will help center the wheel on the adapter.

Most common mistake is to just slap the tire and wheel on the adapters and tighten with impact causing misalignment and warpage..
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by Rickalicka18 » Mon Feb 29, 2016 8:44 am

Would the bolts being too tight translate to the shaking of the steering wheel? I have this same kind of problem but It only shakes during initial starts on hard to moderate acceleration then goes away after it hits second gear or about 35-45 mph.. It feels like the vibration is happening in the front of vehicle too. It actually shakes so much my interior lights come on if I accelerate too hard... Haha.
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by SnowBlazer » Mon Feb 29, 2016 10:15 am

I have a shake at around 65 mph as well. We torqued my spacers and wheels to 100 ft lbs each. Maybe I should loosen and re-torque?

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by Nynex » Mon Feb 29, 2016 10:54 am

markmc wrote:When mounting the adapter to hub:
Tighten the self centering lug nuts by hand (only snug) in star pattern.
then tighten with torque wrench to 95ft lbs also in star pattern. DO NOT OVER TIGHTEN.

When mounting wheels to adapter:
Use the same steps as above.
Taking the weight of the tire off the studs by crow bar or using your knees will help center the wheel on the adapter.

Most common mistake is to just slap the tire and wheel on the adapters and tighten with impact causing misalignment and warpage..


I tightened the wheels and adaptors exactly as you said above. Star pattern snug, and then I actually went in a star pattern to 50 foot pounds, then a star pattern to 95 foot pounds.
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by markmc » Mon Feb 29, 2016 6:44 pm

Keep in mind that most tires are not perfectly round.
Road Force balance will help.
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by HawkeyeC25 » Mon Feb 29, 2016 11:54 pm

markmc wrote:Keep in mind that most tires are not perfectly round.
Road Force balance will help.

:Iagree:
I currently have the same condition. Not bad enough I'm going to worry about it yet. But I have had many oversized tires on trucks in the past and they never seem to balance at ALL speeds. There always seems to be a certain speed that makes them have a little wobble/shimmy. Force balance has definitely given me the best result in the past. Didn't do it on this set, but I may soon.
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by markmc » Tue Mar 01, 2016 5:13 am

Another factor in the mix is the wheel..it also can be untrue from the rim bead to the lugs.
any time that the machine process requires removing the part from a machine to machine another step you run the risk of off-center.
Adapters and spacers are 100 percent machined on a CNC lathe without removing the part for another operation.

i would suggest lifting the truck off the ground just so that you can rotate the tire.
Use a block of wood close to the tire and spin the tire to see if the tire runs true.
If the tire hits the block of wood in one spot as it rotates then there is a issue with the tire/wheel.
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by Nynex » Tue Mar 01, 2016 7:42 am

It's 95% better now. I pulled off the front tires and adaptors, checked for any debris between the adaptors and rotors (found nothing), rotated the spacer 1 lug and re-torqued them down to 95 foot pounds.

Thanks for the help everyone.
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