Death Wobble....Now I need new shorts!

A

Afoulk

New member
Joined
Mar 18, 2008
Messages
20
Experienced death wobble for my first time today. I was going down hill, on a back road near my parents house, maybe doing around 45 around a gentle left hand bend, and hit a bump mid turn. All heck broke loose after that. The truck shook so bad I could hardly hold onto the wheel, and the truck did not want to turn for the hard right hander that was coming up fast. I finally got it slowed down enough that it stopped shaking and I was able to make the turn. Pulled over and did a quick visual, nothing appeared loose or ready to fall off.

My question is, where do I start looking? I replaced my track bar with SS adjustable 3rd gen style about 9-10,000miles ago, did all 4 balljoints about 12,000miles ago, and personally did the state inspection myself less than 4,000miles ago. I had a slight bit of play in the passenger side balljoints, barely noticeable, a slight bit in the driverside unit bearing, and a descent bit in my passenger side tierod end, but it still passed inspection. I have a Lukeslink to take care of the tierod end if you guys think that could be the cause of it. I've had a clunking in my steering wheel for quite sometime now, which is usually a track bar, but I figured it was just the lower steering columb bushing since the clunking would actually go away in the winter time. Could it be control arm bushings? I havn't really checked them out to good. I thought maybe it was my shocks (i've got a set of bilsteins I havn't gotten around to putting on yet), but I would think they would have to be all but blown out to make the truck shake that bad over a bump. :bangI'd appreciate any advice or help you guys can give me. Thanks.
 
I experienced EXACTLY the same thing in my brothers truck. I was going between 45 and 55 around a corner and then hit a pothole. I thought I was going to get thrown out of the truck! I finally got pulled over and me and my buddy crawled all over that thing looking for missing parts. We even jacked it up and shook everything but still couldn't find anything wrong.........6 hours later we were on I-80 near Sydney NE, running about 80mph and the front left wheel bearing went out and locked up while going down the interstate. I would've never guessed wheel bearings after the death wobble we experienced but that ended up being the problem. (At least it never did it again after we replaced them)
 
If you have any slack in a unit bearing, get ready to replace it, by get ready I mean get one ordered, they tend to go downhill fast.
 
Does your adjustable track bar use the soft OEM rubber-cored bushings? If so, I'm certain they are the culprit!

The easiest way to check is have someone turn the steering wheel rapidly back & forth with the engine running while you watch all of the steering/suspension components under the front end for unwanted movement. I bet you'll see the track bar moving independently of the axle & frame during transient steering input.

You can R&R the OEM bushings with zero-deflection bushings to remove the compliance from the track bar.

There's a bunch of parts in the front end that are too soft (for NVH quality) and/or undersized (in heavy 4WD truck applications) that can be upgraded to minimize DW, but the best defense is an alignment spec'd with max caster and taking the flex out of the lateral axle-frame link (track bar).

With insufficient caster, bump steer can easily bounce the wheel sideways, which imparts a strong lateral force to the axle; since the soft OEM bushings allow the axle to move under the frame - the drag link (which remains the same length) shoves on the Pitman arm, thus changing steering input... the cycle continues & rapidly increases in both frequency & violence.

It's common for the phenomenom to manifest while decelerating, for instance when braking downhill or lifting at the big end of the quarter, due to weight transfer.
 
Wow XLR8R, I havn't checked out your website in awhile, you've been busy! I have SolidSteels adjustable trackbar on it now. The supplied bushings are made by EnergySuspension, and when I called them about the play in them, he said they aren't a straight polyurethane bushing, they are made to have a slight bit of give in them. Will your ZeroDeflection bushings fit my track bar? He sent be another set of the Energy Suspension ones to try out. I've never heard of anyone having problems with S.S.'s track bars.

I also ordered Suspensionmaxx's Swaybar end links for a truck with a leveling kit.

Other than that stuff, I guess I'll just put the Lukeslink on the tierod end and replace my shocks.

XLR8R, my last alignment was done 8,000miles ago, and they had set the caster at 3.6 for the left and 3.5 for the right. Does that seem normal? I know they didn't compensate for road crown when they did it, cause it still pulls to the right a bit, even though my tire pressures had been even, and the toe and camber were in spec. I thought it was hard on your balljoints though if you run to much caster? Again, let me know if those bushings you sell will fit my bar, maybe I'll try a set of them.
 
Yeah - we rolled out a bunch of stuff for the 2nd & 3rd Gens this spring!

I don't know what size bores your aftermarket trackbar has - if you find out the I.D., I can machine a set to fit if they're different. If the urethane bushings are high durometer, they ought to be OK - but check the movement as I posted earlier to make sure! It's easy to see (and a little scary :badidea:)

I prefer a HD heim with urethane grommets for the endlinks.

Have the driver's side caster set a degree higher, and the other side to 5*+ (as much as possible)... that'll help with the road crown.
 
Isn't anything over 5* hard on the balljoints though? My track bar bushings have about a 1/8" of movement in each one when I start the engine and work the wheel back and forth. I'll get a measurement of the inner diameter of the the ends tonight when I put in the bushings S.S. sent me.

Put the Bilstein shocks on last night, and I think that cured my clunking in the steering wheel. The RF upper shock mount was a little loose, allowing the threaded part at the top of the rod to move around through the metal washer over the top bushing. The threads were all chewed up there and I had a heck of a time getting that washer off. The new Bilsteins ride great, its like a new truck!
 
Last edited:
Check the steering stabelizer like mentioned- I swapped on a dual set up and this cured my wobbles.....
 
My 95' used to do this 3 or 4 times on my way to work every day for about 3 months.You get used to it!(I'm lucky to be alive) LOL a mount for something broke off the frame on my 95'. My brother welded it up and not a prob since. Wish I could tell you what it was....
 
I honestly think the stabilizer just masks the issue.. A dual stabilizer certainly isn't needed..

Mine was the driverside axleshaft u-joint. I replaced absolutely everything on the front end and it ended up being a damn u joint. And that was a shot in the dark. 45 mph, hit a pothole and the thing shook so hard that the cars next to me nailed the brakes and dove off the road.
 
yeah mine shook so hard I saw God. So many things can cause this tho.
 
Well, got the steering stabalizer replaced, replaced the trackbar bushings, installed the SuspensionMaxx swaybar links, and rebuilt the pass. side tie rod end with the lukeslink last night. think steers awesome now! I'm a little upset though. I checked the balljoints out, and they'be got between 1/16" to 1/8" of play in them. I've only got 12,000miles on the damn things! I will never buy parts from Napa again. My first set from them only lasted 3000miles. This is the set they gave me to replace them. And yes I do grease them....every 3-5000miles actually. I mean yeah, they have a lifetime warranty, but I'm getting really tired of doing them all the time.
 
we had a used truck go through our shop that did that. it had been dirt hilled prior to being traded in and the steering stabilizer was missing. man talk about pucker factor, went to wobbling at about 60 on the freeway. that damper really makes a difference on bigger trucks. hope with the new suspension parts she rides smooth for you.
 
Well, all seemed well up until this afternoon after work. I've got my clunking in the steering wheel back again. Checked everything I installed this week, and nothing is loose. I guess all thats left is the lower steering column bushing? No play in the steering shaft ujoints yet either. Between fuel prices and all the money I've had to sink into the front end, and then to not have it perfect yet, its enough to make me wanna sell it and go back to a Jeep again.
 
Afoulk said:
Well, all seemed well up until this afternoon after work. I've got my clunking in the steering wheel back again. Checked everything I installed this week, and nothing is loose. I guess all thats left is the lower steering column bushing? No play in the steering shaft ujoints yet either. Between fuel prices and all the money I've had to sink into the front end, and then to not have it perfect yet, its enough to make me wanna sell it and go back to a Jeep again.
Click to expand...

the Jeeps are where my steering problems started.. LOL. The only reason I've sunk so much money into the front end of my truck was because I knew what to expect after having the Jeeps.

Oh and I never grease my stuff. Everyone that babies their trucks and are on top of greasing constantly seem to have way more issues. 150 or 160k on mine now and never been greased (Ball joints and tie rods)
 
Yeah, I been greasing mystuff every 3,000-5,000miles, and you see how thats working out me:(

I used to have a 05 Wrangler, and never had any problems with it suspension wise.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top