Persistent Tire or Wheel Vibrations

I have been fighting vibrations since I put new tires on my Bronco. I had a pair of Bridgestones from Sears that were really great grabbing tires, but I couldn't get the tires balanced after 10 tries. I have gone to 3 different Sears stores in Ohio and a independent tire dealer. At about the 6th or 7th try, I replaced the old steel wheels with new cast aluminum wheels and at nearly $100 a pop from the independent tire dealer in my area. The wheels were far the cheapest ones I could have bought. Now I had new tires AND wheels and I was still unable to eliminate serious vibrations. During this time, I was also replacing joints, bushings, tie rod ends, wheel bearings, brake rotors and pads, turned the drums, replaced drive train U joints, and also had the drive shaft balanced along with two front end alignments. Sears eventually replaced the tires at 100% of value and I got a "better" set of Goodyear ATX tires that are truly better riding and handling. While they did balance better, it became only tolerable and worse, it was only temporarily. I am now on the third wheel balance and I thought we had it this time, but after about 100 miles, I started feeling vibration at 65 mph and strong at 70mph again and by 150 miles, I was back to "Suffering" with vibration that was uncomfortable and just plain DRIVES ME CRAZY.

I called two different dynamic wheel balancing places (those bolt on Centramatic type) and it appears the Bronco might not be a candidate due to the need to be able to insert a flat plate between the wheel and the rotor without interfering with the brakes.

I am desperate to find someone that can help me find a solution that works. I am about ready to design and build balancers of my own. Does anyone have any ideas or have you been there? Surely with the oversized tires and wheels, there are folks out there that need and have found a way to balance those tires. I am dealing with nearly stock sized tires 30x15x10.5 ( I think) and just cannot understand why I cannot get a smooth ride. My experience has been sticking calipers combined with warped rotors, bad U joints, and over and over and over again it has been bad tires or poorly done wheel balancing. Given that I think I have eliminated the causes I have experience with, I am back to basically assuming it is the tires/wheels.

Why does a wheel balance generally tend to improve the situation but yet the improvement fail to last much longer than 60 or 100 miles?

Go to discount tire or america tire co and have them balance it, I used to work there and we dealt with MUCH bigger tires than that and rarely had a problem....

if that doesnt work try putting bags of equal? in your front tires..friends of mine have had to do it and it worked

Do you have automatic front hubs? On another note, have you thought maybe a bent axle?

did the old bridgestones start to wear funny by cupping or feathering? That usually points to alignment, but you had front alignment done twice. Does no one do 4 wheel alignment there? Im sorry, im just guessing, but if your REAR tires are wearing funny, then you might need a 4 wheel alignment.

p.s. I USED to work for sears auto, we balanced 35" all the time, and up to 22" rims

Did sears re-calibrate their balancing machines recently?

After 100 miles or so, did the tires NEED to be rebalanced?

has all the suspension components been inspected?

P.S. what year bronco?

Look @ track bar, strg box bolts, etc. as described here by Dave in his "Death (wheel) Wobbles" article for our Broncos.... http://www.jantz4x4.com/deathwobbles.php

fixed link (Seabronc)

Hey Deep,

I had a similar problem and had my tires rotated and balanced numerous times with no success. In the end, my driveline had a crack in it and it was starting to get worse, and thus vibrate. I installed a new rear driveline, and the vibrations went away. Don't know if this helps, but maybe another thing to check out.

diver

You replaced the whole Driveline? What consists of the driveline you replaced?

Right now my 90 is having vibrations, but those are from bad wheel bearings.

Yardape said:

You replaced the whole Driveline? What consists of the driveline you replaced?

Click to expand...

I am not sure of the name of it, but it was the 3-4 ft drive line going from the middle transfer case (between the front and rear drive lines) to the back axle. It had a small crack in the coupling that allows for up and down travel (not sure what that is called), and I had serious vibrations going on. Replacing this drive line took care of my vibrations, so I thought I'd mention it.

Hope this helps.

diver