Used D1 with mods and issues.

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Author Message   Paul L Schexnayder (Pablo83) Posted on Wednesday, July 10, 2002 - 06:44 pm:    I bought a D1 at auction a few weeks back. It has a detachable rear swaybar, the Rotoflex has been replaced with a universal joint, and the steering dampener has been relocated to the front of the axle. I�m not sure if it has any other mods. When I hit a bump at highway speeds the rigs shakes back and forth violently until I slow down significantly. What could be causing this? The rig is a dark green 98 D1 and the title was from a Utah BMW financial services company. I assume it was a trade-in or repo. Does anyone happen to know who this used to belonged to? I�d like to find out if anything else has been done to it.   Blue (Bluegill) Posted on Wednesday, July 10, 2002 - 06:50 pm:    BMW financial serv is/was also known as Land Rover financial services = mainline financer for dealer-purchased vehicles. They have too much of my money shakes could be bad steering dampner or loose steering components. Pull steering dampner (aka steering stabilizer shock) and see if it still acts as a shock, or has it failed. As long as you're under the front end with some wrenches, see if anything is loose.   Paul L Schexnayder (Pablo83) Posted on Wednesday, July 10, 2002 - 11:46 pm:    I got her back together and took her out for a test run. The first bump I hit made her shake like an earthquake. It shook her up so hard the hazard lights came on even though the button is not depressed. Now I can't get them to turn off, even when the key is out of the ignition. I don't believe the button is broken because the hazard light indicater on the dash (red triangle) does not light unless I depress the button, but the exterior lights stay on all the time. Any solutions for this one?   Clif Ashley (Cta586) Posted on Thursday, July 11, 2002 - 12:19 pm:    That is the inertia switch. Nothing is wrong. It thinks that you were in an accident. I have done it before, and mine goes off when I turn the car off, and turn it back on. This has not been the case with most of the people I have talked to though, but I don't recall the procedure. There is a simple solution. I will post again if I recall, my apologies.   Buddy Posted on Thursday, July 11, 2002 - 01:10 pm:    Depress the intertia reset button under the hood....passanger side, close to the window.   Blue (Bluegill) Posted on Thursday, July 11, 2002 - 01:54 pm:    and if you're shakin that bad, something is definitely wrong! Did you check the steering components?   Paul L Schexnayder (Pablo83) Posted on Thursday, July 11, 2002 - 04:02 pm:    No shit something's wrong. I really shouldn't drive it right now, but the problem only happens at highway speeds so I don't know how else to test it. The rig makes a pretty effecient paint shaker right now. When jacked up all of the steering components seem solid. There is some freeplay in the front diff. I can spin one wheel about 5 degrees defore the diff starts spinning the opposite wheel. I will remove the steering stablizer tonight to check it out. My Haynes manual suggest toe-out on the front wheels. Is this right? If so, how do the tires center themselves after a turn?   Blue (Bluegill) Posted on Thursday, July 11, 2002 - 04:06 pm:    I'll bet you a cold Beck's Dark that it's your steering stabilizer. Is your current stabilizer the stock OEM piece? I'd imagine it's an aftermarket shock if it's been relocated.   Blue (Bluegill) Posted on Thursday, July 11, 2002 - 04:10 pm:    you only need a couple mm of toe-out. With these beasts, the miniscule amount of toe-out is negligible.   Paul L Schexnayder (Pablo83) Posted on Thursday, July 11, 2002 - 05:17 pm:    The stabilizer is a Rancho 5000. Is the OEM shock better? The Beck's will be warm by the time it arrives in Arizona so I won't honestly be able to take up up on that bet.   Doug W Posted on Thursday, July 11, 2002 - 05:25 pm:    What size tires are on the truck? The reason I ask is if a wide tire is stuffed on a 7in rim, this can cause a severe walking very similar to what you described. A j@@p buddy of mine had this problem on his trail rig. This was about a year ago and I think its more prevalent to certain tread patterns. It would just about shake you out of the j@@p. Just a thought if the suspension components don't point to anything. -Doug   Blue (Bluegill) Posted on Thursday, July 11, 2002 - 05:41 pm:    Quote: The stabilizer is a Rancho 5000. Is the OEM shock better? Rancho might have gone bad, maybe damaged or just plain gave up the fight. I wouldn't replace with OEM, I'd replace with an Old Man Emu (OME). I'm suggesting the stabilizer as the culprit since I've had exactly the same symptoms as you, and after quite a bit of work at the dealer (replaced very slightly bent track rod and re-torqued all bolts), it turned out to just be a bad OEM stabilizer shock that the dealer somehow forgot to check. Others have had same symptoms and problem was bad stabilizer, loose steering bolts, bad steering bushings, or tires out of balance. Quote: The Beck's will be warm by the time it arrives in Arizona dry ice & styrofoam, man I've got 2,000 lbs of the stuff sittin on a job sight right now!   my96disco (Trevorh) Posted on Thursday, July 11, 2002 - 05:56 pm:    Blue, What type of job 'sight' would that be? Trevor   muskyman Posted on Thursday, July 11, 2002 - 06:05 pm:    mine did the same thing when I got it, you could go highway speeds till you hit a bump . then shack shack shack till you slowed way back down. I replaced the completly gone panhard rod bushings and then the front control arm bushings and balenced all the tires, and it was gone.   Blue (Bluegill) Posted on Thursday, July 11, 2002 - 06:55 pm:    My brain baked in the sun under my hardhat for too long today (it's hot & humid now over here in Phx). I meant job "site". Pullin old abandoned underground storage tanks. After you suck the product & sludge out, you triple-rinse them and then introduce x pounds of dry ice to displace the explosive atmosphere left from the hydrocarbons. We've got some 10k's and a 15k tank, so need lots of dry ice. A little leftover ice goes home with me and makes nightly beer drinking fun for the whole family.   CEJB Posted on Thursday, July 11, 2002 - 10:10 pm:    Sounds pretty scary- this truck has definitely seen off road use - or more likely abuse. I'd also check the tightness of all the bolts holding all the important pieces together.   Jake Hartley (Jake) Posted on Thursday, July 11, 2002 - 10:23 pm:    Check the shock towers. If they are cracked, loose or broken, you will have a hell of a shake.   Al Posted on Thursday, July 11, 2002 - 11:28 pm:    Sounds like the shocks to me. Park the truck on level ground and push down on each corner, see if it shakes excessivly, a good shock will go down when you push on it and right back up when you let go, no more or no less.   Paul L Schexnayder (Pablo83) Posted on Friday, July 12, 2002 - 11:17 am:    Well, it's not the steering stabalizer. Shock towers are okay and panhard mounts are in good shape too. I am most suspicious of the freeplay in the front diff, so I removed the front drive shaft, locked the center diff, and took her out for a ride. I haven't had the shake return yet, but I need to do some more driving before I am convenced.   Curtis N (Curtis) Posted on Friday, July 12, 2002 - 01:19 pm:    I dunno Paul. 5 degrees of freeplay sounds about right when you spin the front wheel. Plus, diffs tend to either work or not work. Mine got a little sloppy before going bad, but it did not last long before "POW!". You said this was back and forth...not side to side right? If you have checked all of the bushings and the steering stabilizer, I would look at the freeplay in the T-box. Maybe even the rotoflex. Also - check the radius arm bushings. This really sounds like a bushing issue, but the T-box could cause that effect if it was getting sloppy. Either way, get it fixed soon! We don't want to bang up the underside of your Nissan again next time we are out! Curtis   Doug W Posted on Friday, July 12, 2002 - 04:17 pm:    So what size are the tires and rim? Stock rim?   DaveB Posted on Friday, July 12, 2002 - 07:37 pm:    Before you go and spend any cash on new parts, check the condition of the tires and tire balance. My '98 D1 went into violent shakes when I hit bumps around 50 to 55 mph. The shakes would go away when speed was reduced. The culprit was the tires. Mine got prematurely trashed since my POS LR dealer never rotated the tires durring the scheduled maintainance for the first 30k miles (while under service warranty). I'll bet there isn't anything seriously wrong with your rig- Just the tires. Take your truck to a tire shop, they'll charge around $10 or $20 to check all four tires for balance. That will tell you right out if you have a big problem or just tire problems. Good Luck, Dave   Eric Posted on Friday, July 12, 2002 - 10:14 pm:    I'm also voting for the tires. Check the inflation pressure. It could be over inflated, some tires bulge funny and really effect the balance. Also, MUST DO THIS, have someone follow you in a car and observe which wheel is hopping around. It would not surprise me if the culprit is on the rear axle!!!! The front diff play sounds about right to me They use a watts linkage in the rear, which can be tricky to see and trouble shoot. Do you feel the steering wheel vibrate when you get the wobble? If not check the rear suspension. Push on the side of the bumper with your foot to make the body wiggle.... listen for any clicking noises. That would indicate cracks at the frame perches, or missing bushings. It does not take much on a rig that tall to get a real hum dinger of a wobble though. I still think the tires are the main suspect here. What tires are you running?   Joe Still Posted on Monday, July 15, 2002 - 01:08 pm:    I'll take a worn out steering box. Got any leaks? Mine had the "Disco rocks" until I replaced the steering box to get rid of a massive leak. Guess what I fixed by accident? The old box had a worn out set of lower bearings that apparently set up an inital vibration that fed all the rest ( slightly worn damper, slightly unbalanced tires, etc. Just another thing to check. If you are leak free then you're probably ok with the box.   Paul L Schexnayder (Pablo83) Posted on Monday, July 15, 2002 - 01:28 pm:    I've got stock rims and tires. I took it for another test ride without the front drive shaft and it started to shake again, so the diff probably isn't the issue. I'll have the tires balanced in the next few days.   Paul L Schexnayder (Pablo83) Posted on Monday, July 15, 2002 - 01:30 pm:    What's a good pressure to run in the stock tires?