Explorer shaking violently

Hello everyone. Last night, I changed my front brakes and rotors (probably about the 7th or 8th time in my life that I have changed them, so I'm not a complete rookie).



I have a 2000 Ford Explorer sport. Everything seemed fine, except last night, when I took it for a spin around the block, I noticed that whenever I turned, I felt a pretty good vibration/shaking on the front of my truck.



I took the wheels off again, made sure everything seemed tight, put them back on, and went for another ride. Same thing happened.



This morning, on the way to work, whenever I hit a slight bump in the thruway (and I mean slight), my truck started shaking violently. As soon as I slowed it down to about 25-30 mph, the vibration went away. I was able to get the truck back up to 55 mph and the truck didn't shake again...........until I hit another bump.



Whats going on?

Please help!

 

Jack up front end and grab wheels at 3 and 9 o'clock and push and pull alternately on each side. If you have no movement keep looking. If you have movement, look at tie rodends.

 

How is the torque on the lug nuts? If that's fine, see if you've thrown a wheel weight and the tires are out of balance. Possible you caused this with the brake change, but out of my element to diagnose that.

 

It is doubtful an out of balance tire would give that much vibration. It sounds more like a loose or worn part. I would check all the front end parts for play!

 

I just noticed the part about only shaking after you hit a bump - that's not consistent with an out of balance wheel.

 

I vote for a loose wheel.

 

Some 4x4's use a steering damper....looks like a small lift-gate hydraulic prop...it's normally attached to the steering bellcrank and it's pupose is to minimize steering "jolts". If the damper is bent or damaged (can occur when jacking up the vehicle or where the jack stands may be placed) it can cause an extreme vibration once a bump is hit.

 

It ended up being air that got into the power steering system that was the problem. While changing the brakes, I turned the steering wheel without completely starting the truck. I thought that might explain the vibrations when turning, but was surprised that it would that cause the violent vibrations when hitting a bump on the thruway.

But after turning the steering wheel from left to right about 40 times with the truck running, the problem disappeared.

Thanks for the help.

 

I'd still inspect all the front end parts well! I'm not sure that power steering alone would cause that much of a problem.