Shutter at takeoff fixed

[VegasRanger]

I know there are tons of threads on the subject, but not many with positive results so I figured I'd post mine.

I had the infamous shutter at take off that's very common on these trucks. Had it since new, way before any mods.

I went to Harbor Fright and purchased these shims: https://www.harborfreight.com/144-piece-body-shim-assortment-67585.html

I installed three shims on each side of the Center Bearing. Two 1/8 one 1/16.

Took it for a long test drive and the shutter is 95 percent gone! I sped up about 10 times from a dead stop to test. My highway vibration is still there however if you have been following my other thread, but at least this part of my ordeal is over.

Only other thing I may do once I test this a little more is pull the bolts out and add some loctite to the threads.

I can't take credit for this though, this was @Porpoise Hork idea that he posted on another thread.

If anyone is wondering, my mods: eibach struts set at 3" and 265/70/17 tires on factory 17s.

 

[P. A. Schilke]

Hi Steve,

You have two problems...you almost resolved the start up shudder which is associated with the rear axle pinion angle dynamic movement. You might fine tune with pinion shims on the rear axle to spring seat. As far as the vibrration, likely the best avenue is to determine the frequency of the vibration. This will tell you if you are facing wheel/tire concerns or driveline imbalance. My guess is wheel/tire. Are your wheels stock or aftermarket? Aftermarket that are not hub centric are the bane of Ranger wheel induced vibrations.... Good luck with your diagnosis.

best,
Phil

 

[VegasRanger]

Hi Steve,

You have two problems...you almost resolved the start up shudder which is associated with the rear axle pinion angle dynamic movement. You might fine tune with pinion shims on the rear axle to spring seat. As far as the vibrration, likely the best avenue is to determine the frequency of the vibration. This will tell you if you are facing wheel/tire concerns or driveline imbalance. My guess is wheel/tire. Are your wheels stock or aftermarket? Aftermarket that are not hub centric are the bane of Ranger wheel induced vibrations.... Good luck with your diagnosis.

best,
Phil

Thanks for the reply sir, here is the report from my NVH app. Stock Ford rims, but new tires. I actually have gone through 2 brand new sets thinking the last ones were bad.

 

[P. A. Schilke]

Hi Steve,

Looks like tire balance relative to first order tire. The second order might be some effect which is ovality of the a tire... Driveline/engine is of little effect.... Back to the tire store???

best,
Phil

 

[Jrel209]

Was it pretty difficult to do yourself?

 

[VegasRanger]

Was it pretty difficult to do yourself?

Super easy. 5 minute job max. Don’t even need to remove the bolts, just loosen enough to slide the shims in between

 

[VegasRanger]

Hi Steve,

Looks like tire balance relative to first order tire. The second order might be some effect which is ovality of the a tire... Driveline/engine is of little effect.... Back to the tire store???

best,
Phil

Well I had my last set balanced over 3 times then bought new tires and no luck. I’m going to try one last thing as far as wheels/tires go. Swap with my buddies stock 17” wheels and tires from his sport and see what it does. If it’s better than I’ll know for sure. Only thing I can think of too is since these AT tires I bought are more aggressive than the stock tires, I feel them a lot more than when my truck was stock.

 

[awd.nv]

Well I had my last set balanced over 3 times then bought new tires and no luck. I’m going to try one last thing as far as wheels/tires go. Swap with my buddies stock 17” wheels and tires from his sport and see what it does. If it’s better than I’ll know for sure. Only thing I can think of too is since these AT tires I bought are more aggressive than the stock tires, I feel them a lot more than when my truck was stock.

JUST for fun, playing along with the tire vibration idea, maybe try another tire shop? Could be their machine is out of spec? There are some nicer balancers as well that apply pressure to the tire while it balances to match real world use. We used to have one at Mercedes, otherwise normal tire shops do not always have them.

Trying your buddies set may do the trick in isolating the issue, before swapping, drive his truck to verify you do not feel anything.

 

[VegasRanger]

JUST for fun, playing along with the tire vibration idea, maybe try another tire shop? Could be their machine is out of spec? There are some nicer balancers as well that apply pressure to the tire while it balances to match real world use. We used to have one at Mercedes, otherwise normal tire shops do not always have them.

Trying your buddies set may do the trick in isolating the issue, before swapping, drive his truck to verify you do not feel anything.

Yes sir. Tried three different shops. Two did road force balancing and one did old school spin balancing. That was with the old tires. Haven’t rebalanced these new ones yet. I just got them installed two days ago.

 

[ctechbob]

Would there be an advantage to using the shims as opposed to just using some washers (Provided you can get the correct thickness)?

 

[wanted33]

Steve, just out curiosity what brand tires are you running now?

 

[navsnipe]

I know there are tons of threads on the subject, but not many with positive results so I figured I'd post mine.

I had the infamous shutter at take off that's very common on these trucks. Had it since new, way before any mods.

I went to Harbor Fright and purchased these shims: https://www.harborfreight.com/144-piece-body-shim-assortment-67585.html

I installed three shims on each side of the Center Bearing. Two 1/8 one 1/16.

Took it for a long test drive and the shutter is 95 percent gone! I sped up about 10 times from a dead stop to test. My highway vibration is still there however if you have been following my other thread, but at least this part of my ordeal is over.

Only other thing I may do once I test this a little more is pull the bolts out and add some loctite to the threads.

I can't take credit for this though, this was @Porpoise Hork idea that he posted on another thread.

If anyone is wondering, my mods: eibach struts set at 3" and 265/70/17 tires on factory 17s.

Two suggestions.
1. Now that you know what thickness shims it took to eliminate the shudder make some shims that cover the full surface area of the flange. I am using 1/2" of shims made from some flat steel bars I picked up from Home Depot.

2. Get some longer bolts and use blue locktite. I used flanged 10.9 grade M10-1.50 x 50mm. This gives plenty of thread capture and some additional length if you need to shim more. Most auto parts stores carry these.

 

[Porpoise Hork]

@VegasRanger glad that the shims helped resolve the shudder. Mine also had a little hint of shudder after shimming the center bearing. What struck me as odd was it was inconsistent and seemed to do it more when the truck was cold vs if I had been driving for more than 30 min. When looking up issues with this transmission and torque converter shudder led me to discover that Ford has had issues with properly filling the 10R80 by as much as two quarts. This is well documented on multiple different forums and TC shudder along with some of the other issues I had like erratic, harsh shifting, random delays shifting into reverse as well slamming into reverse from drive are all possible symptoms of low fluid. I checked the fluid level (pain in the butt) and found it to be underfilled and took it to the dealer and had them re-check it and they confirmed it was about 1.5 quarts low and topped it off. Since doing so, the inconsistent shudder is gone, as are the other issues I had been having. So it might be worth checking the fluid level or have the dealer check it the next time you take it in.

 

[VegasRanger]

Steve, just out curiosity what brand tires are you running now?

Goodyear Wrangler UltraTerrain . I like them so far. They're pretty smooth and quieter than the Wildpeaks.

 

[VegasRanger]

@VegasRanger glad that the shims helped resolve the shudder. Mine also had a little hint of shudder after shimming the center bearing. What struck me as odd was it was inconsistent and seemed to do it more when the truck was cold vs if I had been driving for more than 30 min. When looking up issues with this transmission and torque converter shudder led me to discover that Ford has had issues with properly filling the 10R80 by as much as two quarts. This is well documented on multiple different forums and TC shudder along with some of the other issues I had like erratic, harsh shifting, random delays shifting into reverse as well slamming into reverse from drive are all possible symptoms of low fluid. I checked the fluid level (pain in the butt) and found it to be underfilled and took it to the dealer and had them re-check it and they confirmed it was about 1.5 quarts low and topped it off. Since doing so, the inconsistent shudder is gone, as are the other issues I had been having. So it might be worth checking the fluid level or have the dealer check it the next time you take it in.

I will definitely look into this.

So quick update. Today I got to really test drive the truck since my commute to work is 20 miles one way. I have to say that the truck overall feels a lot smoother now, even on the highway. I still have some vibration but I did notice that it's been significantly reduced compared to before. Most of my testing yesterday was done on the streets since I was mainly testing take off shutter, and I only did a quick highway test, but today I really got to feel her on the highway. A little more fine tuning and I think I'll be good.