Jitters on bumps

brian2sun said:
Read, he said his shocks are brand new kyb shocks a couple times now.

I don't think steering rack bushings would give your symptoms (mine just had really sloppy steering when mine wore out). But there's any easy way to tell if they're bad. Get down on your left knee right by the driver's door. Rock the steering wheel back and forth a few inches with your right hand as you look at the rack itself under the truck. If it moves at all, your bushings need to be replaced.

I agree with j-money$$$ that the sway bars shouldn't make a difference for this issue. I run no sways too and don't have your problem. Your stock coils may be shot or more likely, your control arm bushings are worn.
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Hey i just did the check on my steering rack, and yes I can absolutely see it moving. I imagine that the rack should be able to move a little when under extreme stress since its held in by rubber bushings. But im no expert on the matter. I just orderd the polyurathane set today. Thanks for the advice
 
1985taylor1925 said:
Hey i just did the check on my steering rack, and yes I can absolutely see it moving. I imagine that the rack should be able to move a little when under extreme stress since its held in by rubber bushings. But im no expert on the matter. I just orderd the polyurathane set today. Thanks for the advice
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You will find it doesn't move at all when you get the new ones in.
Mine moved very, very slightly, and the new ones made all the difference in the world.
 
1985taylor1925 said:
Hey i just did the check on my steering rack, and yes I can absolutely see it moving. I imagine that the rack should be able to move a little when under extreme stress since its held in by rubber bushings. But im no expert on the matter. I just orderd the polyurathane set today. Thanks for the advice
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notrayray said:
You will find it doesn't move at all when you get the new ones in.
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x2. My rack has zero movement at all now with the new bushings. Maybe mine was so sloppy I didn't notice the death wobble since it felt like driving a boat anyways. My rack had at least .5" of play in it before the new bushings.
 
Time

1985taylor1925 said:
About long long did it take you? Any special tools needed?
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It took me around 3 hours to complete. If I did it again it would take about 1.5 hours. I spent a considerable amount of time fighting one issue: The "center bushing" as it is called in most of the writeups fits between two pieces of metal tabs. These metal tabs are like the bread of a sandwich and the bushing is the meat of the sandwich... well, the tabs (bread) were slightly too close together when I was trying to push the new bushing (meat) back into it's location so I could bolt the thing back in.

After many (many!) tries and almost a divorce from my wife since she kept coming out to ask when I'd be done, I just had to bend the upper metal tab (top bread of the sandwich) up a little bit to fit in the new center bushing. I accomplished this using a jack and holding a long screw driver on top of it so when I jacked up the jack the screw driver pushed up on the top tab very slightly. Litterally, it was like 2MMs that it needed to move.

Hope that made sense. They say it's the little things in life that bring you joy... in this case it was the exact opposite.

Also, I suggest a c-clamp (somewhere from 6" to 8") to use to press out the old bushings and press in the new bushings.

This is entirely something anyone could do, I'm FAR from a mechanic and I did it :).
 
As I stated previously. I have the jitter as well and this is after all the bushing and such were replaced. The bushings I am using are the Energy Poly ones.

The only other variation in this equation would be the tires then. The truck had Michelin LT Load range E on mine, so I am thinking it is more a tire issue then suspension. I am going to lower the pressure significantly to see if this helps my situation.
 
SSmokybear said:
As I stated previously. I have the jitter as well and this is after all the bushing and such were replaced. The bushings I am using are the Energy Poly ones.

The only other variation in this equation would be the tires then. The truck had Michelin LT Load range E on mine, so I am thinking it is more a tire issue then suspension. I am going to lower the pressure significantly to see if this helps my situation.
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I have already lowered the pressure in my tires significantly. It didnt make any difference. Im convinced it is the ball joints or a arm bushings, or possibly a combination of several things. Your situation may be different than mine though. I just got new tires on my 4runner, and it didnt affect the jitters. So I dont think tires are my issue
 
So i just changed my steering rack bushing last night. The steering is a little more stable. No more movement in the rack. But it did not change the jittery shake, which confirms that is it something in the suspension. What should I address next? ball joints?
 
1985taylor1925 said:
So i just changed my steering rack bushing last night. The steering is a little more stable. No more movement in the rack. But it did not change the jittery shake, which confirms that is it something in the suspension. What should I address next? ball joints?
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Ball Joints are a good place to start. if your runner has a lot of miles and they haven't been changed it is good insurance no matter what. they can and do fail and when they do it's hard on the front quarter panels. I would also get under the rear and check each and every suspension arm end. if there is any play it could be your issue. good luck.
 
I have a similar feel--if I go over certain bumps at certain speeds, it feels like the 4Runner just jumps around. It reminds me a lot of my old Mustang with its live rear axle. I'll be watching this thread to see if anyone finds a fix...
 
g8rdmd said:
I have a similar feel--if I go over certain bumps at certain speeds, it feels like the 4Runner just jumps around. It reminds me a lot of my old Mustang with its live rear axle. I'll be watching this thread to see if anyone finds a fix...
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my fear is that im gonna replace 20 things on my front end before the issue is solved. Honestly i cant pinpont anything. when i lift the front end and shake everything to death it all feels tight. tie rods, ball joints, a arm bushings, hubs. im getting frusterated with it. but something is definately loose or shot in my front end. seems to be getting progressively worse
 
notrayray said:
Have you put a wrench to anything to see if it's loose?
Lugnuts, strut bolts etc?
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Ya i actually just checked all the lugnuts tuesday, and the I changed the front struts myself and rechecked the torque about a week after installing them. I also checked the tighness of a arms and control arms, ball joints, tie rods, and the hubs. and i just changed the steering rack bushings tuesday. steering rack no longer wiggles. You can shake the thing to death, while on the ground, or shake one tire at a time while on the jack, and everything feels tight. Thats why im at a loss for ideas right now. Im probably gonna order ball joints tomorrow and just go from there
 
I also have vibration problem. I had slight jitters above 65 mph. Found local shop that has GSP9700 and lug adapter. I showed service bulletin and they showed their flange plate adapter. Everything looked right and they did the balance. After that my truck shakes like crazy above 55 mph. It also depends on the road condition, bumps, etc. I checked tire pressure and it is the same as before, 34 psi. I'm convinced that balance is the problem. Even my wife noticed shaking of the whole truck and before I just had steering wheel jitter. I'm going back to the tire shop and see if they can balance again at least one front tire to see what's going on.
 
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Bumps at speed.

I have the same symptom with my 2000 SR5 with bumps at speed. Everything on my truck is really tight compared to other vehicles i have drove with the same mileage (100,000). I am almost sure i could use new shocks (waiting till i can afford lift) but I believe my E rated cooper discoverer st's 265-75-16 45 psi and the narrow wheel base of these vehicles amplify to the problem.
The jitters only happen at speed with moderate bumps and holes. Its not something I cant live with though.
 
Here is what happened to me. My 97 4Runner with stock wheels and 265/70 R16 tires had slight jitters after hitting the bumps on the road. Did GSP9700 balance with lug adapter and it was horrible. Whole truck was shaking above 55 mph after hitting the bump and sometimes I had to slow down all the way to 50 mph for shaking to go away. Went back to tire shop and they did regular balance with hub adapter and everything is great now. There is still slight jitter in steering wheel that last for no more than 1 second at some bumps, but I hope that will go away once I'll get that Polyurethane Steering Rack Bushing Kit from Wheeler's Off-Road. So I don't know what happened in my situation, whether it's a bad lug assembly that tire shop has or something else but I feel like I wasted lots of time chasing some fancy balance just to make my ride horrible. I'm done experimenting with balancing adapters.
 
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