Thanks Ron, I had to do a lot of scrolling to get this far. Back to the original question; How long has it been since the front shocks were changed? The reason I ask this is because I have bought a few used Dodge trucks and vans. A couple of them had never had the front shocks changed and were a handful at certain speeds under deceleration because the front suspension went into uncontrolled bouncing. First time this happened, I carefully (10mph) drove the truck to the dealer the next day (after cleaning out the cab). The service advisor told me that the front suspension design caused the bouncing to occur when the shocks gave up the ghost. This was a reminder to change them while they still had some damping left. The bouncing starts around 40 mph by design. The worse the shocks are, the quicker the bouncing starts, and it only occurs when you let off the gas and transfer a little extra weight to the front while traveling in a straight line. Had a van one time that I couldn't even steer when the bouncing started. New shocks on the front fixed every instance of this that I have ever run across. It's really scary when you let off the gas for a light and all of a sudden WHAM WHAM WHAM and it sounds and feels like the whole drivetain is falling in the street. Sound familiar?

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If a MedAlert bracelet is the only bling you wear......You might be getting old.

Oh I doubt that they've ever been replaced. And yes, it does sound exactly like what is occurring. Thanks for the tip. I guess I'll have to add that to the list of to-do's once I get an engine in it.

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'83 D150 225 2BBL

In a perpetual state of improvement...

www.handymanjosh.com

Did you replace the universal joints? If not, that could be it. I recently had a U-joint munch the needle bearings in just *one* of the 4 caps. The result was that the driveline was perfectly smooth just cruising along, but either applying power or coasting would rattle my fillings. It took me a while to find because unlike most failing U-joints, there wasn't much play because the cap opposite the failed one was still tight. I had to really twist on the driveshaft to see the telltale movement. Of course when I actually popped the joint apart and bearing grit fell out of the cap, it was obvious :p

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