OK, I'm going down my list of MAJOR things I need done on my '99 Discovery I (w/163K miles), and now I want to address this one: when I drive it at about 45 mph on, the steering wheel shakes VIOLENTLY if I hit any kind of bump, and it feels like the truck could just go flying off the road at any moment! There was another similiar post on here a month or so ago, but I was told by a neighbor that it's the ball joints. I've already replaced the shocks and springs. I just wanted to get your input on whether it would be the ball joints. It makes sense to me, but before I spend $700 to get them done, I thought I'd consult you guys first.

 

Use your jack and suspend the front tires of the ground, use a long bar under the tire and try and pry up on the tire to see if you have play in the ball joints, also hold the tire at 12 an 6 pulling one, pushing the other, and see if you get any movement in the joints.

 

When you replaced your shocks, did you remember to replace the steering damper?

 

Any of your bushings, tie rod ends, wheel bearings and the swivel ***** can cause this along with a ball joint. Check them all before you take on the ball joints and as already asked, have you ever changed your steering stabilizer?

 

Mine does this too. I inspected the front end with the tires off the ground and did not find anything loose. A steering stabilizer would cause this? The shaking will continue for quite a while once a bump around 45 starts it. Strange thing is the speed sensitivity, just weird.

 

I'll have to ask the mechanic who did the shocks if they checked the steering damper.

 

If your truck has 160k + miles and the steering damper is black or looks stock, i'd bet it has been overlooked. You can check it easily by removing the lower retaining bolt and seeing how it plays. If you compress it and it doesn't extend on it's own, it needs to be replaced.

 

A steering damper will not move at all on it's own, if you compress it, it will stay compressed. It should have a certain amount of resistance to move it. This happened to me a while back and it turned out to be the swivel pin pre-load. Check out this link to show you how to adjust it yourself.

http://www.***.hiof.no/%7Efrodehaa/swivelpinpreload.htm

 

"A steering damper will not move at all on it's own, if you compress it, it will stay compressed."

Well I stand corrrected - I guess the Bilstein unit I installed last month was defective. Go figure.

 

lol, I didn't try to sound like an ***, but steering dampers should not expand. They offer equal resistance, if it expanded your steering would pull that way.