Death wobble issues

cummins.1

cummins.1

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Joined
Jan 22, 2008
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Hey guys, just wanted to get some ideas on this. I've spent many hours reading and been on about every forum you can think of looking for a fix, anyways I have a 03 qcsb 4x4 that has death wobble bad, truck is completely stock as far as suspension. I bought the truck 2 years ago, when I got the truck it had death wobble when going highway speeds, the place I bought it from went ahead and fixed it for me, they installed upper and lower ball joints along with the new updated steering, the only thing they did not replace was trac bar bushings. This seem to fix it for the last 20,000 miles, the other day on the highway, found when switching lanes around 80mph, truck got death wobble. I decided to replace trac bar bushings along with new steering stabilizer shock, I also had an axle u-joint on passenger side squeking so I also replaced that as well, everything else is tight, all tie rods, drag link, everything, the only component that has play is the gear box, but I cant see this causing it. Now I can't go over 45mph with out getting horrible death wobble. Is it that I didn't replace driver side u-joint or what, whatever I did made the problem 100% worse. Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
 
Did you get the wheel bearing bolted in properly after you replaced the ujoint? How tight are the control arm bushings? Yes a loose gear box will allow wobble.
 
death wobble is a result of many different things, if the ball joints and tie rods are tight, get a good alignment, wrong caster angles will give you death wobble like crazy, with my 03 i got mad and torched the front suspension off and added a pure performance long arm and never had death wobble again, i also upgraded from the y-style steering to the newer t-style along with a pure performance adjustable track bar, tires dont cause death wobble but they may amplify it or encourage it to start
 
Jack up one side of the axle to where the tire is in the air. Get someone to work the steering wheel back and forth, while doing so watch to see where the slack is coming from.

X2 on the loose gear box.. Also, bad/chopped tires can fuel the problem even more.
 
Sorry for getting back late to yah guys, I definately got the wheel bearing back on properly, I've already purchased new ball joints to drop in just to get those out of the equation, I also have another axle u-joint so I can replace the driver side, control arms are next if the ball joints and u-joint doesn't help. Smoked, does the long arm involve lifting the truck? Also Red Sleeper and LREIFF, is there a way to tighten gear box. I already tried the bracket that bolts to sway bar and to gear box, doesn't work.
 
Not sure if Lee and I were getting at the same thing. I meant check it to make sure it's tightly bolted it to the frame. (should be 3 bolts) Lee was probably talking about slack within the box itself which too can add to death wobble.

After you replace the ball joints and u-joint, if you still have the problem I'd find a good friend who will let you swap front end parts from truck to truck.

Also, do you have excessive play in the steering wheel?
 
Steering is tight as could be. Thats what I dont get. It drives like a brand new truck til you hit a bump around 45 a good alignment probably wouldn't hurt I've had to rotate tires a few times due to wear on the outside front passenger tire
 
I went round and round with my 04, replaced everything! Same thing couldn't go over 50. Well the only I didn't change was tires put brand new tires on it and its gone
I had bfg all terrains. Just my experience.
 
Take this how you want. If the ball joints are not loose or dry do not waste money replacing them. I would invest in 09 style steering linkage and if it's got internal play, a new gear box. Also, a set of quality control arms will do way more for handling than you could ever imagine.
 
aer212 said:
Have you replaced the steering dampener?
Click to expand...

I put the 08 steering on and all new moog ball joints, wheel bearings, track bar bushings, steering dampner, borgeson steering box, steering box brace, rotated tires re balanced tires couldn't get rid of it. Got rid of then bfg's its great now. No wobble for a few months now.
 
Before you go and throw more parts at it other than the ones you already have, go get a $60 alignment. Like SMOKED said, caster makes a big difference.

Edit: Check this out.
Ram steering specs
 
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