Need Help: wheel shudder diagnostic

[Afrikaaner]

so now that i finally took the time to get my car back on the road, i am reminded about the fact that i have some suspension or brake issue(s), i'm not sure which. symptoms i've noticed:

*brake shudder like a warped rotor, even when i had on brand new rotors/pads, though the new goodies seemed to mitigate the issue a little for a while
*when i ride over uneven pavement (like a wide crack running in the direction of the road) the car shimmies to one side or the other, and kinda goes back and forth
*when driving at highway speeds, i get some vibration like i threw a wheel weight or i need an alignment/balancing

so i was wondering if you thought my idea of it being a worn kingpin was outlandish or if you had any better ideas. i had gotten the surface the rotors sit on cleaned when i got an alignment a while back, one or both of which helped significantly for a short while, but after a few days it was back to the same old nonsense.

your thoughts?

[Afrikaaner]

actually, i happened to stumble across some info while researching another topic, im thinking tension rods. what do you think? seems like a much more common issue than the kingpin...

[Sdavne]

check ball joints sometime before theygo they only happen rairly but if u lift the car and try moving the wheel back and forth and if it wobbles ur ball joints are going but if not also check wheel bearing or even struts first step of struts going are hat u said and if u puch the car down it should not bounce s thats a couple tings yo car try, scott

[Afrikaaner]

thanks for the reply, scott. i had the car over a pit yesterday, and i was able to confirm the tension rod bushings look like sh*t, so either way i want to replace those. also, they're FAR easier than doing a ball joint haha. so i'll replace the tension rods first (i'm thinking SPL and get the brake ducting too), and see if that doesn't clear the problem up. and the struts seem to be in solid shape. they do feel like they're significantly mushier than they should be, and they're on my list to replace, but they need to last another 10k miles before i have that kind of cash again

-boer