I have death wobble

I got my leaky water pump replaced about two months ago, and when I picked it up, the indie said I needed sway bar linkage fixed. I said nahhh, and he said, "aren't you feeling any (demonstrated wobbling steering wheel)?" I said, "nope." Well, now I am.

I took a look at a lot of the death wobble threads and got an alignment just now. Aaaand on the way home from the alignment, death wobble!

So is it the swaybar linkage like the dude said????

Crazy rocking if I hit a bump that disrupts the right side of the ride. Used to cease if I jerked the wheel rapidly left, as in changed lanes, now only disappears if I slow all the way down and start again wheels forward. Was not aware that m streets had SO MANY LITTLE BUMPS but boy am I finding them now.

 

well since we cant actually see under your truck........anything that's loose will add to the death wobble....lay under the front end while someone turns the steering wheel and look at the tie rod ends, jack it up and check the wheel bearings for play, .....having said all that...it seems that a lot of us have found that the panhard bar bolts are loose and or the bushings are beat....we can save the swivel ball adjustment discussion for later....my 98 also had loose bolts holding the steering box in place

 

Sway bar won't cause it, I have no sway bar

Check steering box bolts, pan hard bushings and bolts , all steering parts ( tie rod ends), swivel pre load, and any other bushings

Does it drive straight? May just need a little toe in on one side

 

Could also be front shocks. That solved my problem.

 

I got the alignment done, so it's not toe in. It WAS off, and I appreciate the new alignment, but it didn't fix it. I'll look into shocks.

It drives straight and fine. It brakes straight. When I got it back from that repair (Water pump), the steering was tighter than I like it to be. That leans me toward something steering related.

Thanks for addressing sway bar linkage -- I read the forum and was pretty sure that wouldn't be a cause. I wonder why he was aware of the wobble weeks before I was... weird.

 

I'd do the following in this order.


-Check your panhard rod. Have someone rock the steering wheel left/right while you watch the bushings at the frame and axle.
-Check your toe-in/toe-out. Did the alignment shop give you a print out of your specs? If so post it here. Many death wobble issues are a combination of things and sometimes the final bit of relief comes from giving the front a little bit of toe-out.
-Check your Tie Rod Ends on your drag link and track rod. I would assume the alignment shop would have done this and recommended changing them if they were bad. But then again they might have done a sh*tty job and not even touched them.
-Check the swivel preload at each wheel. Its kind of a pain in the butt as you have to remove the drag link and track rod, but that gives you a chance to check those at the same time. You may need to tighten up your swivel preload by pulling a shim.


Other contributors could be shocks, shock bushings, and loose steering box(although it sounds like this may have already been tightened up a bit).

 

Check your front tire pressure, too.

My alignment shop did me a "favor" by putting in almost 40psi all around. LR recommends something like 26-28 in the fronts, cold.

Mine was wobbling and shimmying all over the place and reducing the PSI all but stopped it.

 

I'm leaning towards a bad shock on that side, bad as in no gas left in it. You should hardly notice the road surface. Tires are another item to add to the list. If they're old, cracking they're not doing you a favor in the wiggle, wobble department and they should have an "E" or "XL" rating. Anything under that and the truck is too heavy for them.

 

pics?






why is this scored/fresh metal scratches on it?




rubber shreds










what's the pink stuff at the panhard bushing??

 

The "pink stuff" on your panhard looks like it might actually be the "orange" poly bushing that Atlantic British sells maybe?

Regardless it looks crushed to me.