I have a 1997 Suzuki Carry with 11,550 km's. It came with stock tires and rims. When test driving I drove it 70km/hr plus it felt like it was flying, I definitely had it floored and it was solid and smooth! I had an ASE certified shop put a 2.25 inch lift, ITP 12 x 7 Sport Track rims with Carlisle All Trail 23x8x12 tires. This past weekend was the test drive. On a smooth black top road it drives fine up to 45-50 km's/hr, but when I hit 60 km's/hr it feels like the truck is going to shake apart. Everything is shaking, truck, dash, steering wheel, etc. Has anyone experienced this? I am open to any ideas and suggestions.:frustration:
did anyone balance your wheels? mine does the same thing with the 23-8-12 all trails but no lift and stock rims. Mine isn't too bad but it shows up at about the same speeds.
This is most likely due to the fact that the tires are not balanced to the vehicle. My truck does this same thing so I am going to go to 13" tires and wheels so I can regain the balance and ride I want.
My 93 carry had the same problem.Stock truck no lift and stock 500x12 tires. I found that the pitman arm bushing was sloppy. And caused the death wobble at 60 KPH. My fix was to put an extra washer under the castle nut. No more wobble all the way to 100 KPH
Check that the centerbore on the wheel fits your hub, you might need hubcentric spacers. Also you might want to check if Carlisle All Trails are rated for 70kph. They only load rate them at 10mph.
frostback, If that is the case what is a hubcentric spacer and where would I find one? Thanks... Mike
I'm not sure you will find one off the shelf you may need to have one machined. You need to measure the centrebore of your wheel and the OD of your hub and go talk to a machinist. I'm not sure this is the cause of your shaking but certainly a possibility.
If it is a 97 Suzuki, it should have the 4 x 100mm bolt pattern. Are you sure that you have a 100mm bolt pattern or is it a 4" pattern (101.6mm)? The 4 x 4" bolt pattern will fit, but it will not be centered to the hub. This will cause the wheel to run eccentric.
I know this is an old thread but I have a 95 Suzuki with the same Carlile alltrails so I figured it was them because you really can't balance the ATV tires and 12 X 7 rims. So I went out and bought 15 inch rims with Toyo 195 45 R15 tires balanced all set to go. Actually the death wobble was worse than the Carlisle's so I really don't understand.. everything is tight underneath and no issues I am pretty much bewildered
I just put new struts & progressive HD springs so I adjusted the camber the truck drives completely straight and I did not get an official alignment but the death wobble is insane right at 65 kmh like clockwork
Update! Been in the shop for a week.. my awesome mechanic from Columbia (who knows these trucks inside and out) went over every mount, bushing, front end and even drive shaft, Etc. replaced Center pivot steering bushing. With a new one from G&M Imports, (thank you Andrew!) checked all bearings and still death wobble. What's next? Wheels are aligned tires are balanced and like clockwork at 70 kmH death wobble occurs. Do I need to press out the bushing and put in bearings somehow? Or make some other adjustment. Truck is a 95 Suzuki in excellent shape with only 41,000kmh
The tie rods might be flexing and then getting into a harmonic, resulting is the Wobbles. Have you added wider tires, or moved the contact patch out buy using spacers?
No spacers. But yea, 15" 195 45r 15" toyo Street tires.. rims are - 11 offset so they are "out" a bit.. I had unbalanced 23 by 8 by 12 Carlisle's on and the death wobble wasn't bad it was more of a heavy vibration. All tires and rims are brand new... thank you for the fast reply! Any fixed to those tie rod ends? Or am I asking this poor little truck to do too much?
Definitely something is amiss. I have a 1995 Hijet, 1” spacers, 14” wheels, 195/60’s and smooth as silk up to 73mph. Engine is red-lining but no wobble.
Back when I played with prepping rally cars, we sused to sleeve them with some pipe. By taking off the tie rod ends, and finding a pipe just big enough to slip the tired into, and then cut it so the threaded ends stuck out enough to get the ends threaded back on, and leave a bit for adjustment. In those days I tack welded the pipe over the rod. Now days I would probably fill any void between the pipe and the rod with an epoxy, or possibly a pourable urethane. Now that I know more, I’d probably figure out how to use a hollow tube and cut off the tie rod ends, and weld them into the hollow pipe. The Engineers at Dodge, had directions in the Direct Connection Rally Manual, on how to split a pipe that was a bit too large, and then put the rod through it, and squeeze the pipe down around them,and weld it all shut and together.
If you have one of the pistol style point and shoot thermometers, yoou can the suspension adjustments by running the vehicle at speed long enough to warm up the tires, then getting temperature readings on the sides and middle of the tread. If they are all the same temp, the suspension and tire pressure are right. Both fronts hot on the inside or the outside, check the toe. One hot on the outside you have too much camber on that side. Move the top in. Hot on the inside too little camber. Move the top out. The engineers who designed the kei trucks were trying to keep the weight as low as possible. They designed the steering for a skinny tire, with the contact patch fairly close to the ball joints. Adding wider tires, wheel spacers, or wheels with more positive offset, moves the center of the contact patch out. This increases leverage on the suspension, and can result in things flexing. The most common issue is the tie-rods flexing, and developing a harmonic oscillation, which typically manifests as the Wobblies at a given speed.
@Capt Ant You may have loose steering components or even torsion bars that need bushings. Also out of balance wheels can cause this as well. Any looseness in the front end causes wobble. Ask any Jeep guy LOL.
Thank you "Jigs" very informative... I was just thinking maybe if I take the mini grinder and buzz off a little bit of my progressive Springs that I got from Harley Rose would that bring the truck down a little bit/ make the suspension a little more forgiving? and maybe not put so much pressure on the suspension. Just adding everything up a little bit.. 2 inch lift then the Progressive Springs/ bigger tires/ offset.. I don't know?... my mechanic was thinking too press out the rubber sleeve in the center link and put in bearings. But I'm thinking that the vibration isn't COMING from that PART, it's coming from outside IN, so just reinforcing that part isn't going to solve the vibration issue don't want to put a Band-Aid (steering damper) on it either.. as it's not fixing the problem. So let me get to that thermometer and see if it's medium rare or well-done!
With that much lift, you could be getting a harmonic from theCV joints binding and releasing. You could probably add spacers between the differential carrier and the frame, to drop the suspension down a bit, and lessen the angles. If you do it there are two potential issues. First, I’m not sure that the steering shaft will extend very far, if at all. So, you might have to figure out how to extend it. The second issue, is that you may not have enough clearance for the front drive shaft, and need to notch the frame. Not certain on a Carry.
So, is there anyway I could possibly remove a little lift? I'm sure the rear shackles I can just re drill holes maybe an inch up and just mini grind off the rest in the rear but what about the front lift? just to bring it down a bit? Or is that not really an option?
You can shorten the springs a bit with a grinder, or go to a lighter spring. if you shorten the spring you need to be careful to not take off so much that it comes loos of the seats at full droop and gets unseated. That can break things, or suddenly cause the lift on one side to suddenly get an inch or so higher, plus cause all kinds of hard to trace clunk noises.
I saw where someone lowered the steering yoke on here and added a spacer above the steering yoke. I think the shaft was lengthened to do that. Did not look like a bolt on affair. FYI: Shortening the springs by any amount will increase the spring rate. If its just a dead coil from the end, not much issue but if its more than that or a live coil, the rate goes up.
