I've been having some suspension problems with my truck. 184,000 miles lifted with OME since 44K.

1) Front End: Really harsh ride off pavement and on pavement when hitting bumps, potholes, and when pulling in and out of my driveway which has a good size rise at the street. It's sounds like something is loose maybe but it's hard to explain. Put in new coils and shocks which did eliminate some of the noises I was hearing and helped the ride so maybe I had bad shocks, not sure. Everything looks good except all 4 ball joints having split boots and have lost a lot of grease. Can't find anything loose. I replaced the sway bar bushings as I noticed they were due for it.

2) Rear End: Feels like (I hear it also) something is shifting back and forth anytime the axle flexes. Everything seems nice and tight. Removed the spare just for the heck of it even though it was snug to see if I still felt the shifting, which I did. Replaced rear shocks and springs and the sway bar bushings. I Installed new rear brake shoes recently and noticed that there was a lot of grease inside the drums, especially passenger side. Is this an indicator of failed axle seal? Could that cause the shifting I feel?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

So your problem with the front end is that you STILL have noises after the shock replacement? I bet its your ball joints. They can make a lot of noise when they go out. And when they do go out, its a catastrophy. Replace them NOW. And look into why they went out. Its probably the angle you have them at with the OME lift. You need to get a diff drop on there to get the angles back to stock.


On the rear end, I would check out all the bushings on your control arms, upper, lower, and panhard rod. And yes, your axle seal failed (unless your low on brake fluid, check to make sure) and you need to replace it and inspect your rear bearings ASAP. If its been leaking for a while, it could have gotten into your bearings and washed the grease away. When you take the axle out, see how much play you have in the bearing and if its smooth or not. You'll have to have a press to remove and replace it.

Here's just a couple more ideas for places to check for problems:

In the front have you ever replaced the lower control arms due to wear on the bushings at the pivot? The two bushings per arm are not considered a separate replaceable part - you have to buy new control arms that come complete with the new bushings. I know I have some play in that area and need to replace mine - just haven't gotten to it yet. I'm pretty sure there's harsher forces on those bushings after the truck is lifted for years so it's more likely that we'd see accelerated wear in that area. It's not easy to check if there's play there, but while you're replacing other ball joints, you should be able to see if the lower control arms can be wiggled while you have the lower ball joint separated from the lower control arm.

In the rear, one other possibility regards the holes in the frame mounts or axle mounts that have gradually wallowed out over the years. I say this from experience as I could see that my bolt holes have gotten worse (oblong and not round) through the years. So I had washers welded in place at least at the frame side of the rear lower control arms to improve the situation. I found washers at the hardware store that are just barely big enough for the bolt - I think one part is english and one is metric, but the point is that it's intentionally a tight fit. Then I had the washers welded over the bolt holes to make a tighter hole as well as a thicker wall for the bolt to rub against every time you brake or accelerate. You may or may not have that problem, but you'd have to inspect your truck to see if the same applies. Caution: always only remove one control arm at a time and you should be fine. Check the other control arms for severe damage before removing the first one to make sure all the control arms are actually attached and in one piece. Since you have the Sonoran Steel adjustable panhard rod, that removes some play in the suspension by removing the rubber end(s), so there could easily be the same problem of wallowing out the mounting holes due to increased binding in the 5 link and less rubber to absorb the side to side tension or vibrations. So check the ends of the panhard rod to check for any damage there. I'm happy to have always used the stock panhard rod, so I can't relate to that one if it's one of the problems you're experiencing.

Thanks for the input guys. I really appreciate it. The axle seal has failed and I'm gonna have it replaced hopefully next week. I'm going to check all the control arms bushings myself since those are things I know I can do. I'm not gonna mess with axle seals. I've never replaced the lower control arms due to wear on the bushings at the pivot but while I'm replacing all 4 ball joints I will check it out.