so as some of you may know I have had a pretty bad death wobble for about a month now that I have had to live with until I could get the time and money to fix it (this weekend and next week) anyways I was under the hood yesterday and decided to push down on the truck to try to pinpoint this clunking sound I have been hearing and out of the corner of my eye I see the shock come up off the top of the shock tower almost an inch! I wonder how much this has contributed to the wobble! I also now know what will be the first the thing to be replaced.

so now how bad are the front shocks to replace? I will do it by the rave manual just looking for a quick heads up before I start to look into it. do I have to remove the springs?

 

The loose shock has nothing to do with the wobble.

The fronts are not as easy as they look, drivers side you may need to remove the air box.
You will need a strap wrench to keep the shock body from turning.
No you do not need to remove the springs.
The rears are a piece of cake as long as the nuts are not rusted into place.

 

Like spike said, the airbox has to be removed for the drivers side. The shock tower retaining rings tend to break the studs, or at least here in the north-east where we deal with rust issues. The lower shock nut is a PITA, as you can only get 1/8-1/4 turn on it at a time. If you place a jackstand under the frame and let the axle drop(extending the spring,opening it up), I was able to squeeze in channel locks to grab the shock to keep it from turning.

But it was not a bad or hard job by any means.

 

For your death wobble, you need to plan on checking the tires for air pressure, irregular wear and balance, is the steering stabilizer new or original, how about the springs? Most likely you are looking at anything from warn or loose wheel bearing, preload on the swivels, bad bushings, bad tie rod ends or all of the above. When where the swivels and bearings last serviced.
As for that shock, if it is original, it isn't worth trying to resecure, replace them.

 

they are being replaced as they are dead! bearings were both done this year, panhard rod bushings were done about a month ago, going to do a handful more bushings this next week (possibly a kit). the tie rod ends still feel tight. The swivel pin preload is what I have been thinking (steering feels loose with alot of bump steer) but I am not sure how to test it, I was under the impression it was by a spring balance but apparently for ABS it requires a special torque wrench adapter? not sure where to get that or how to measure it).

 

so I have decided my attempt at resolving my death wobble will be to replace the front shocks (this is more because they need to be done) and replace both upper swivel pins with the stc226 kit (upper pin, bearing, and 2 washers) and shim packs (and maybe bushings after swivel pins are done). I am under the impression that to do these swivel pin kits I do not need to tear anything down with the exception of the brakes for access, and I also am under the impression that even though rave says to use the special torque wrench adapter tool to set the preload I can in fact use the fishing scale method used on older rovers (I found this info on another forum). If anyone has any disagreement with this please let me know as I don't want to get half way through this job to find out I have to then tear apart the whole final drive and buy a special tool I will never use again! I am also curious since many people mention swivel pin preload how did everyone else determine the right preload? I am under the impression that guessing then driving then adjusting and so on would take quite some time considering whats involved.

just looking for any advice from those who have done it so I don't run into any surprises

 

Talk to AntiChrist, he has done this many times and will not steer you wrong.
I have never done it so I cant tell you how/what to do.
But PLEASE keep us posted.
Take pics if you can so I can make a write up.