dana 60 front wheels wobble. not death wobble

[richingalveston]

The Dana 60 I installed on my 1009 has some wheel wobble. This is not the death wobble while driving. I do not have a dial gauge to get accurate measurements but at the top of the 16 inch rim, the wheel will move in and out approx. 1/8 of an inch or a little more. With stock size tires it feels like a tire out of balance but when you put 37 inch tires it is much worse. The wobble is about 1/4 inch at the top of the tire.
Rims are good, does the same thing with 3 different rims.
The rotors drag slightly like they are warped but it appears they wobble the same as the tire.

Is it the Hubs or spindles. I think it is just hubs because spindles would only affect camber or caster and not make a wobble.

Could it be both?
I have all new bearings and it does the same thing in 4 or 2wd.

Any and all advise is accepted.

Thanks
Rich

 

[patracy]

So bearings are new and preload is adjusted correctly?

How's the kingpin bushings?

 

[richingalveston]

The axle was rebuilt with all new bearings inner and outer also has new kingpins, bushings and springs. I also had an eaton e locker installed. re-used the hubs spindles and rotors.
I have double checked installation of wheel bearings and re-torqued and reset them per the TM. 50 LBS on inner then back it off to next slot, 160 on outer nut.

When having it aligned they only noticed the camber was out slightly on the passenger side so this could have been the spindle or rotor. Was not so bad that it could not be aligned and they did not recommend fixing it. Of course on the alignment rack I did not see them rotate the wheels any which could have changed the alignment.

 

[Bob H]

If it's not the wheel, it would have to be the hub (bearing crooked?) or hub surface.
If it wobbles when rotated, then it could not have been aligned properly, so once the wobble is eliminated it should go on the alignment rack again.

 

[richingalveston]

I am fairly certain it is the Hubs, just not sure if the spindle could be part of the problem also.
Sourcing new hubs and rotors, going to replace them first and yes, I will have it re-aligned.

This was a GL axle from a 1008. There was not any forklift damage on the truck or drive shafts but you never know what they or the military did to it.

Any additional input is appreciated.

 

[86m1028]

It can only be a few things ie king pins, wheel bearings, spindle loose, loose lugnuts.

 

[truck1]

How about tires out of balance? What method did you use to balance your 37's ? Mine are balanced with beads , no weights on the rim. Pretty smooth ride for a 1 ton.

 

[richingalveston]

Nothing is loose, I have taken it apart and put it back together. I have tried prying on the rotor in all directions and it has no give. All four tires are on jack stands and the wobble is noticeable when you put the truck in drive with the wheels in the air. With no weight on the tires, the kingpins will have nothing to do with the wobble and balance will have little to do with the wheel moving side to side. I do have centramatic wheel balancers that work really well. The axle was recently rebuilt replacing all bearings and seals. All major components were re-used including the spindles, rotors, and hubs.

The truck does not have a death wobble when driving just feels like really bad tires but they are new and balanced. The smaller the tire the less the problem, the big tires wobble a lot.

I can not work on it this week, next week I should have my Hutchinson border patrol beadlocks back from being powder coated. When I get them back I am going to mount just the faces of the rims to the wheels which should give me a better measuring point (maybe I will take a video and post if of the wobble). It is difficult to measure it at the face of the hub, the hub face is slightly rough and a very small diameter and the rotor surface cannot be trusted. The faces of the rim are true and thus I will be able to get the best measurement. This will also give me a bench mark to check the new hubs when I get them to make sure I fixed the problem.

On a side note, I need to get the proper lug nuts for the Hutchinson rims so if anyone has a spec or part number on that please let me know.

Thanks
Rich

 

[86m1028]

Where are you seeing the wobble ?

 

[richingalveston]

It was the Hubs.
I will post a video of the wobble when I get it downloaded from my phone. I put new hubs and rotors on the front and the wobble is gone. Inspecting the old rotors, they were no longer round at the end where the gear is, they were slightly oval.

The back wheels had a slight wobble but not like the front, I went ahead and did the rear disc conversion from ORD and now everything spins properly. I think the rear spindle nut was not tight enough because of the weight of the drums. I installed new wheel studs when changing the rotor but reused the same Hubs. With the rotors on vs. the drums, it was much easier to put the Hub back on the spindle.

It is a big relief, I have been chasing the wobble for a while, I have disassembled and reassembled at least 6 or 7 times including swapping hubs from side to side twice. I was worried my spindles were bad (bent between the bearings) and was really worried my back axle housing was going to have to be replaced to fix the problem.

One problem solved,
Now I can finish getting the problems fixed with the tranny, I believe I have a bad torque converter. It was a new Dacor. Several people have since informed me that they are common to be bad out of the box. I have someone to take it to who will cut it open and fix whatever is wrong with it and even custom set it for me. I now just have to get it out of the truck.

I will post the video of the wobble soon for those who are curious.


Rich

 

[acesneights1]

wheel weights are useless on big tires. Next time throw equal in the tires. That is what I run.