[ken sampson]

well i have a 1998 ram 1500 4x4 ,,,this is my problem on ocasion it will feel like i,m driving over rumble strips on the side of the hiway its very random and intermiton and only last for a second or 2 tops and only between 60 and 80k's ive checked whell bearings and replaced them shocks been replaced tires are fairly new .... now when this happens it does not affect the steering at all !!!!!!!!!! it does not pull the vehichle to one side !!!!!!1 it just feels like a rumble strip i,ve been looking for the problem for 2 months now please anyone with some advice? :help:

 

[89smurf]

My 98 ram did the same thing, does it stop if you move t case lever back a bit, to just before it would click into 4wd?

 

[H Justin H]

My truck did that after an off-road trip. The lug nuts on the front drivers side were just about to fall out along with the tire. I doubt that's your problem though...

 

[ken sampson]

it only does it in 2wd and between 60 and 80 k it doesnt matter if i'm in a corner or not everything appears to be tight i havent had it in 4wd for long periods of time but it engages in and out fine like i said it doesnt affect the steering wheel at all and doesnt pull the truck to one side or the other,,, ive checked all u joints there fine man this is really ######## pissin me off i cant find it tires are all torqued down ,, skid plates are all tight engine mounts seem to be fine too ,,, if i speed up or down it goes away ,, but its so itntermittent that its hard to find,,,what can it be?

 

[Anarchist]

check your muffler and pipes at some RPMs it can shake the truck if some thing is two tight or lose, look at your hangers, see if tires have separated , check hubs what km you have on your truck, are your tires balanced?? you might think they are, sounds like they are out of balance or a tire is separated, can you feal a vibe in the seat or shake the steering wheel , if you have over 170 km and have not done new hubs you should think about it ,anyhow try the tires keep us updated

 

[89smurf]

When it happened to me I finally gave up and took it to the stealership, they told me it was a front axle bushing. So i let them change it as it was too cold out for me to do it. So i don't know exactly what but it might be something to check out...

Also i just had a really weird vibration type noise thing going on in my truck since the summer. Turned out to be the TC.

Those might be a couple things to check out. Hope that helps.

 

[ken sampson]

what do you mean by the tc? and all my hangers and exhuast are good;;;;;;;; hubs were changed 6 months ago truck has 150k on it and if it was the tires wouldnt it shake or shimmer through the steering wheel? and all the bushings seem to be like new and tight there is nothing felt through the seat it just feels like a wierd vibration comming from the front end but not affecting the drivability and like i say only periodically and for very short time periods

 

[89smurf]

TC = Torque convertor

 

[ken sampson]

its not the t/c it's to random and it would do it for longer periods and probly more on a shft

 

[Grantman31]

I have had my experiences with vibration. Mine would do it between 60-70 mph, then go away if I went under or over. My situation was interesting, because at the same time, I had bad axle joints and hub bearaings. I replaced all of those, and the vibration was still somewhat there, just not as prevalent. I had gotten my wheels balanced several times (kept bringing it back and telling them that I still felt vibration). Another shop finally got it right. Maybe you threw a weight or something? That could cause vibration. I threw one on the highway when someone slammed on their brakes in front of me and I had to mash mine and swerved off into the emergency lane. The rumble strip actually threw my weight. If it is not that, I have heard of people having an unbalanced driveshaft, or ever stranger, the weight that is WELDED onto the driveshaft coming off..Unfortunately, lot's of things can cause vibration..Let us know what you find!

 

[MUDDOG]

i had a vibration in my 1500 ram between 60-80 mph. Felt like there was something wrong with the tranny, but the shift points were good. truck would rumble. Sounded weird. i have dual exhaust with no cats so its hard to pin point things based on noises. The rumble would only happen for brief moments and at certain speeds like I said. After long periods of being pissed off...............it finally turned out to be the timing chain and gears. Ever since the truck has been awesome. I hope this helps you. I know how it is to have problems that no one seems to be able to solve. Screw the stealership.............thats a last resort.

 

[ken sampson]

well this is where im at now? after going hunting for a few days and using the 4x4 in gumbo i have found out that it,s either my hubs or the 4wd actuator it seems that it wants to jump out of 4wd and some times i have to back up to get it to engage when i do that though it klanks hard in the left front hub and it feels like something is not meshing properly in the hubs also its not engaging properly it takes some time to engage into 4wd and like i said some times i have to back up a foot or two or stop then engage it ? go figure i,m lost ffs any ideas? the vibration is still there in 2wd and it seems that it comes with slight acceleration any ideas guys?

 

[Grantman31]

I have to roll forward a foot to engage my 4X4, probably something you can do about it, but I wouldn't worry about that. The hub issue, maybe your hub bearings?

 

[vw97ram]

I'm having the same exact problem. After you slow down and the vibration stops, does your truck make a really strange sound if you turn to the right?

I've had over $1,600.00 of work done to try to find the problem, so far I've got new front end u-joints, wheel bearings, pinion bearing in the rear axle (mechanic thought the noise was traveling up the drive shaft).

The noise went away for the whole summer, but just the other day it started back up again. It doesn't seem to affect the drivability at all. And will come and go with the bumps in the road. By this I mean that if the vibration and noise starts, it will stop and start again as the front of the truck slightly bobs up and down with the slight bumps in the road. This is what makes me think it is something in the front end and not the torque converter.

One other thing, don't know if this means anything, but after one session of the vibration I crawled under my front end to take a look. I noticed that the area where the shift motor is in the front axle was very warm, not exactly hot, but realy warm. I didn't have the 4wd engaged at all, so I can't figure out why that area of the axle would be so warm.

Man, I hope someone out there has an answer for you, cause this damn problem has been driving me nuts. I'm just about ready to scrap the whole front axle and replace everything.

Good luck.

 

[ken sampson]

wow

well here it is guy's i think i finally found the problem :rck:
it seems to be the 4wd actuator in the front diff thats screwing up ,,, whats hapening is that it's actually trying to engage it into 4wd as your driving and the splines and the hub inside the front diff tube are not meshing but actually the fork in there is worn and allowing the hub to slide over and make contact with the one axle as if it was told to engage the axles even though i havent engaged it inside the cab i,ll post more as soon as it gets out of the shop and fill you guyz in more thank for all your help

 

[Grantman31]

Wow, never would have thought that one, but it makes sense! That contact would definitely promote vibration, it's just funny how it is speed sensitive. Hope it works out well and doesn't hit your bank too hard!

 

[luke01]

I have the same problem ... please let me know the out come ... if its what you say would a posi lock system fix it ?

 

[luke01]

so any input what ever happened with this problem ????? any one have any solutions

 

[ken sampson]

yes it was the 4wd actuator thank s guyz

 

[QCRam]

This is probably the bush mentioned, one pic shows the melted plastic that is all that was left of mine, this is inside the outer shaft, and the pin on the inner shaft runs in it. When it fails, the outer shaft can drop down and the tips of the splines can rub against the collar. The replacement bush I got from a bearing distributor, is a sintered bronze one. I think this is the material they used to be once, according to some Jeepers.