Truck gets a little squirrly after DJM?

AllanB · Mar 5, 2012

I installed a DJM lowering kit several months back. Two things happened when I did this. FIrst the harmonic dampener( I guess that is what they call it) that is on the drive shaft started rubbing the exhaust. Well I figured that I wouldn't worry about this on a test drive, I would drive it and adjust for pinion angle. I didn't make it very far and the harmonic balancer came loose. Is there anyway to put this back on. I can spot weld it, if that is ok and it will still work. If not, who sales a drive shaft?
Second I have noticed that when I have it at WOT, and I get out of it at say 70mph+ the rear end will get a little squirrly. When your running 100mph or so, it is more noticable. The other day I was in a curve, not a real hard curve, but I had it to the floor, in the middle of the curve I got out of it. It got really squirrly, enough to scare the crap out of me. I have checked and double checked the supension and everythng is tight. My guess is (with the springs flipped from lowering it) it is the torque reaction to the leaf springs? Kind of like axle wrap but at a higher speed. I know it isn't axel wrap, but I am guessing the same theory. Time for Caltracs??? Or is something else causing this?

SouthFlstrokin' · Mar 5, 2012

What do you mean by squirly? Explain better. Your susp should be stiffer then factory. Are you still using the factory shocks? You need to be using shocks that are made for the drop.

AllanB · Mar 5, 2012

"Squirrly" I guess that is a Mississippi sayin. What I mean is, wh a en I get out of it, the truck kind of does a semi- quick sway side to side, but only in the rear. It feels a little like when you hydro plane on water, but it is only the red end not the front end.

cfdeng7 · Mar 5, 2012

Personally I think any pick up is squirly at wot around a corner lol. Do you have swaybars? Are the end links shorter with the djm kit?

SouthFlstrokin' · Mar 5, 2012

I don't think he used the right shocks...

baddkarmaracing · Mar 5, 2012

Do you have any kind of trac bars at all? I had an el camino with southside bars on it that would do that sometimes

AllanB · Mar 5, 2012

SouthFlstrokin' said:
I don't think he used the right shocks...

I don't think they are very good shocks but they are the correct length. I ordered them with the DJM kit. They are DJM shocks. But saying that, they are not real good shocks and I am going to buy some more. I am still reading asw much info on some of them as I can. Any suggestions? One of the guys that drives a lowered truck on here (Unbroken) said to run King shocks. They were supposed to be really good. I will order a set for the rear and see if that helps. The first few times it did it I thought it was just the road. So then I started trying to make it do it again. Quickly figured out it wasn't the road. It is not that bad so that it would cause you to wreck. But bad enough that yesterday when I was running about 90mph in a curve and it did it. It took about 20 minutes for me to pull the seat out of my ass. That is when i decided I have gotta do something about this now lol.

AllanB · Mar 5, 2012

baddkarmaracing said:
Do you have any kind of trac bars at all? I had an el camino with southside bars on it that would do that sometimes

Don't have anything at the moment. This is one of the reasons for posting this to find out what some of the best options are based on other peoples experiences with these lowered trucks. I need some trac bars of some kind for traction purposes anyway. So getting the truck stabilized and not swaying around like this would be an added bonus.
Did you get the problems solved with the El Camino?

SouthFlstrokin' · Mar 6, 2012

I added a set of hellwig swaybars on my 95 Chevy that I slammed and they significantly reduced the sway. It felt tighter then my buddies mustang.

SAK · Mar 7, 2012

It sounds like axle wrap to me. The suspension is unwrapping and causing it to happen. Cal-Tracs will not fix this problem because they do not control axle wrap when you let off the gas.

JAP · Mar 7, 2012

As far as the damper, just take it off and have the shaft balanced.

SouthFlstrokin' · Mar 7, 2012

SAK said:
It sounds like axle wrap to me. The suspension is unwrapping and causing it to happen. Cal-Tracs will not fix this problem because they do not control axle wrap when you let off the gas.

What does then?

AllanB · Mar 7, 2012

JAP said:
As far as the damper, just take it off and have the shaft balanced.

I will try that. Dayum, I would have thought that is Ford went throw all the trouble to put that on there, it wouldn't have been that easy just to balance it out with weights. But I will sure give it a shot. Gotta be cheaper than a new shaft. Thanks Jap.

JAP · Mar 8, 2012

I just remember guys smacking the damper off with a hammer and having then rebalanced back in my FTW days. I don't see why you couldn't either way.

SAK · Mar 8, 2012

SouthFlstrokin' said:
What does then?

These:

One Up Offroad Bolt-On Traction Bars w/U-Bolt Flip - 1999-2010 F250/F350 2 & 4wd

JAP · Mar 8, 2012

Also Allen, keep in mind that you have a big engine hanging up front and nothing in back. The truck IS going to be squirrely. There's probably a 70-30 weight bias being nice...

AllanB · Mar 8, 2012

JAP said:
I just remember guys smacking the damper off with a hammer and having then rebalanced back in my FTW days. I don't see why you couldn't either way.

Now that is seriously wanting to reduce weight. If it worked for them, I don't see why it will not work for me either. I will let ya know how it comes out. thanks

AllanB · Mar 8, 2012

I hear ya, but ths only happened after the lowering kit. Trust me, when it does it you will grab the steering wheel tight. It will definitely get your attention. I am going to relocate the batteries to the rear It's not much weight, but I guess every little bit helps.