Need some help..

Snedge

Snedge

Comp Diesel Sponsor
We have a 2014 3500 in our shop. 250,000 miles on it.
We've replaced a broken exhaust manifold, and repaired a charging issue that turned out to be a bad wire at the alternator.
All good there, but the customer also complained about an intermittent driveline vibration.

The truck drives along just fine, but then all of a sudden, and out of nowhere, it feels like a wheel is coming off, and you can barely control it.
We did find the sway bar broken away from the frame and we've repaired that, and a bad u-joint on the front driver side axle. All fixed, and figured the sway bar combined with the joint was the issue.

Nope.
Same scary deal out of nowhere. It's an Asian automatic, and the fluid is nasty. We found a pretty good amount of copper colored shavings.
I'm wondering if the torque convertor could cause this ?
Any ideas ?
 
steering wheel shakes or the whole truck wobbles?

I had this happen on a 2010 once, and the bolts holding the steering box were loose.
 
sootie said:
steering wheel shakes or the whole truck wobbles?

I had this happen on a 2010 once, and the bolts holding the steering box were loose.
Click to expand...

It's hard to explain. I haven't personally driven it so I'm only going off of word. It's like an entire body vibration. We'll still a pry bar on the box and see if it feels loose. Thanks
 
Assuming the front driveshaft has been checked?


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Sounds like the old "death wobble". Does it happen at higher speeds? Like above 45mph?

A trac-bar can cause it as well as a bad steering stabilizer. Do the newer Dodges have a steering stabilizer?
 
Sounds kinda similar to an issue I chased for a few yrs on my truck. Mine ended up being the rear axle needed rebuilt. About how mine started, would come and go somewhat randomly.

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Sounds like any one of about 20 possible problems Jeff haha. I got nothing helpful to add but curious to see the outcome.
 
A loose track- bar that has a loose joint can cause that problem. The thing is, it might seem tight till youn put a lot of pressure on it. My experience is it feels like it going to literally toss you off the road, and in order to get it to stop you have to slow down.
 
Need to know how violent it is too. Some peoples idea of a terrible shake is nothing more than a tire out of balance lol. No specific speed or rpm?
 
Wheel bearing. Left front. No indication that it was bad. We had the truck blocked up running it on the garage floor and that wheel locked up. Pulled the wheel, and couldn't turn the wheel at all with a pry bar across the studs and caliper removed. Smacked the hub a couple times with a hammer and it freed up.
New bearing installed, and we can't see anything visibly wrong with the one we removed..
But, it's fine now. I have never seen anything like this with a wheel bearing. That wheel apparently was trying to lock up while driving but the mass of the truck denied it. It sure was a scary situation to be in. I'm guessing that's what destroyed the u-joint and sway bar in the first place.

There you have it.
 
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My wheel bearing went bizerk when it went out. Locked up and I drug it across the bridge to get to a safe spot. I might be on YouTube haha I realized that fisherman were filming from a boat and looked in my rear view and noticed the long black line. I initially thought a caliper locked up. It got so hot it melted the plastic/seals out of the ball joints and axle u joints.
 

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bateman said:
My wheel bearing went bizerk when it went out. Locked up and I drug it across the bridge to get to a safe spot. I might be on YouTube haha I realized that fisherman were filming from a boat and looked in my rear view and noticed the long black line. I initially thought a caliper locked up. It got so hot it melted the plastic/seals out of the ball joints and axle u joints.
Click to expand...

Yep, I'm still skeptical on this whole deal. We are going to put some miles on it before I will call the customer. I'll report back here if the situation returns, but so far it's been perfect.
Any wheel bearing failure I've ever experienced or repaired was obviously junk. Noise, play in the wheel, heat, either all of the above or at least a couple symptoms.
 
bateman said:
My wheel bearing went bizerk when it went out. Locked up and I drug it across the bridge to get to a safe spot. I might be on YouTube haha I realized that fisherman were filming from a boat and looked in my rear view and noticed the long black line. I initially thought a caliper locked up. It got so hot it melted the plastic/seals out of the ball joints and axle u joints.
Click to expand...

Those slicks?
 
Red Sleeper said:
What was the outcome here? Did the hub fix the issue? Has the customer returned with the same complaint?
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It's fixed.
We put about 75 miles on it over a few days without an issue. They picked it up Monday. We plan on tearing that bearing apart a some point just to look.
 
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