Any logical reason my 97 discovey will have drastically different ride characteristics from one day to the next? New shocks and struts ome medium duty. Lots of new bushings, not all. All fittings at correct torque. Some days the truck seems to absorb the road and ride nice and others it seems to shake with with every minor road defect. Same roads everyday.

 

Could it be related to sloppy transmission that occasionally shifts erretically? Electrical signals miscommunicating?
Anyone?

 

You done u joints?

 

Tom. Great idea. Way overdue as in never done. Ill start there. Needs it anyway so it cant hurt. Seems to be more play than there should be when twisting transaxle by hand. Thanks.

 

Update. Haven't replaced u joints yet, but yesterday the truck rode like a dream.
Question: how does wheel speed/ speed sensor talk to transmission.
The problem "feels" like there is no suspension at all. As if the wheels don't know they are slowing down or speeding when hitting bumps and not absorbing them. I really don't understand the finer points of the electronics and what they do to help the ride, if any.

 

What your saying makes no sense

Wheel sensors go to abs ecu

Transmission feeds speedo

If you have HD springs and no extra weight it can ride bad, if you lifted and left sway bars on it can ride bad

After u joints adjust swivel pre load these 2 items can drasticly effect drivability

 

Haha. I know it doesn't make sense. If it made sense i wouldn't be looking for input.

I guess i need to get codes read. Abs acts up occasionally and may also be part of the issue. I just don't know. Is there a decent reader i can pick up and work myself or is it better to take it to a shop.

I apologize for not knowing more about these systems. But again thats why i thought to ask you guys.

As for my MEDIUM DUTY suspension, i do carry more weight than stock 100% of the time. Front and rear. And the question at hand was happening before i replaced shocks/springs. So this issue is not related, i don't believe. Lift is minimal. Sways are still on, but thats the thing...ride is Great sometimes. Its not a constant bad ride. Im leaning towards electrical. Thinking out loud. Ill study the systems this weekend so i know wtf I'm talking about.

Ill probably bite the bullet and take it to dealer. I cant find any good indy shops around here. Thanks for trying.

 

dealer will just rake you over the coals, vehicle is too old for them to know what to do esp if you modified it they will just take your money


if abs is acting up open the fuse box under hood and pull the abs pump fuse with a Phillips head, even working right it is nfg, I tried adjusting the sensors and such to no avail and it sucks when you hit the breaks and it kicks on for no reason and the car will not stop unless you let off and hit brake again fast




if you did shocks springs and all bushings, swivel preload, u joints, there is also the trans and motor mounts, can be bad but look fine, took out my trans and rolled it on the side and 1 mount fell apart but looked fine so...


it is hard to say over the web what is normal and what is a problem heck could be a bad belt in a tire

 

Possible bad swaybar links. Mine rode bad and after I took off the swaybars, it was a totally different truck. My swaybar links were a bit seized so I prevented suspension movement.

 

Mine rode bad after lift handled bad too till I removed the sways, the rear one the links became inverted and jam bed the bar to the rear stopping the suspension from working right