Shudder and Shimmy Fixes

[tbsimmons]

With the posts of the shudders that I have seen, my truck did the same thing pulling the fiver.
It felt the same as it did in my lifted 04. Well I played with the pinion on the 04 and nothing ever changed. Then I pulled the rear drive shaft out and lubed up the splines and it was gone.

Instead of taking the drive line off the 08, I thought I would spray some grease in the rubber cover. Well now it has almost no more shudder on take off while pulling fiver. If the splines were as dry as the ball joints, see below, then I can understand this. Now I will take the drive line out and grease the crap out of it.

Ball Joints
GREASE THEM. My truck brand new took about 2 pumps on the ball joints, and almost 1 on the tie rods. This pissed me off. I have had a little shimmy in the front that Ford only told me it was because it was a 450, well it did not feel like a rougher truck shimmy, it felt like a bad ball joint to me. Well dry ball joints will do it. GREASE THEM.

[nick092186]

Yeah I agree GREASE them because now I have bad ball joints on my truck and now I need to put out $1600 on new ones. Would it even be worth it to try going to the dealer since my truck is lifted? Truck has 50,000 miles on it.

[tbsimmons]

If you have an extended warranty then yes.
But I hope you have better luck with extended plans than I do. I do not buy them anymore, sold the one back prior to selling the 2004. They try to wiggle out of paying for anything. SO in my eyes, any extended plan is a POS.
1600 is a little high for parts, but total job, that does not seem that bad. For my 04 I thought the parts I paid were in the 250 range at my fathers shop, which say not getting them for cost is 400-500 with tax and stuff.
1100 labor is not that bad. Will take a while, I dont remember the flat rate though.

[nick092186]

Well I have a friend that has a shop that could do it for less than 1600 without a doubt...Thats just the estimate I got from the people that were GOING to do my alignment. Just don't know if I should even waste my time with the dealership cause like you said they try to get out of everything.

[tbsimmons]

Dont expect then service plan to pay at all then.
When I had enough I was in the same position with ball joints on my 04. I called them and found the problem. They wanted to come by and verify the problem, 3-5 business days. The was on a Friday at my fathers shop, 2.5 hours north of where I live.
I told them that I could send them the ball joints with pictures. Not good enough.
They would not even pay for the parts.
They also stated if the truck had been lifted at all then everything was voided. Well called the salesman after this one and got my money back.
(2) chances for them to pony up, power steering pump blew the front seal, they paid for half, ball joints, paid for none. Extended plans can go to hell in my eyes.

I have been on the other side working on peoples cars when I worked for my dad. There would be days I would spend 3-5 hours on the phone, hold, faxing, discussing the problems for them to approve a 2 hour job. They all say they pay and time for shops to get approved is almost none, which they all are full of crap. I have dealt with a lot of them and they are all the same. I got paid flat rate, so no wrench time no money. So I just quit accepting peoples cars with an extended warranty. I would tell them to go to the selling dealer for them to deal with it. Some of the time even the selling dealer did not want to deal with it either.

[Harley350]

Originally Posted by tbsimmons

With the posts of the shudders that I have seen, my truck did the same thing pulling the fiver.
It felt the same as it did in my lifted 04. Well I played with the pinion on the 04 and nothing ever changed. Then I pulled the rear drive shaft out and lubed up the splines and it was gone.

Instead of taking the drive line off the 08, I thought I would spray some grease in the rubber cover. Well now it has almost no more shudder on take off while pulling fiver. If the splines were as dry as the ball joints, see below, then I can understand this. Now I will take the drive line out and grease the crap out of it.

Ball Joints
GREASE THEM. My truck brand new took about 2 pumps on the ball joints, and almost 1 on the tie rods. This pissed me off. I have had a little shimmy in the front that Ford only told me it was because it was a 450, well it did not feel like a rougher truck shimmy, it felt like a bad ball joint to me. Well dry ball joints will do it. GREASE THEM.

Which splines did you spray, at the transmission? When you say drive line are you talking about the drive shaft or the axles? Thanks!

[tbsimmons]

Drive line, from tranny to rear end.
Where the carrier bearing is, right behind that is a slip joint with splines.
Cut one of the metal bands off so you can slide the rubber cover.
Juice it up. Replace the rubber cover and use a zip tie where the metal band was.

[Harley350]

Thank You!!

[Harley350]

I still had a shudder after I lubed the splines so I installed a 3/16 spacer to the carrier bearing and now the shudder is gone. BTW, Ford said they all shudder and this is normal. I really hate dealers, the majority of them are so ignorant.

[tbsimmons]

With me having a 450 might be a little different. I don't have blocks in the back.