death wobble.. Fixing it with the steering stabilizer?

[Skinny]

Another good point is the alignment. Yes, you can align a straight axle rig with a tape measure. I have done it. When you are chasing down death wobble, it is money well spent to have it put up on a rack and get some numbers printed off. This way you can see what everything is doing. Most rigs call for 1/16" toe in, I prefer 1/8" on lifted big tire trucks myself. Consult your pro on that. But having not enough toe in or it being 0" is bad. The tires can easily be pulled to one side which starts the death wobble. Just a hair of toe in creates stability in the large rotating mass. Physics I guess.

Get it checked! Keep an eye on your caster as well. Best $60-80 you will spend trying to track the problem down.

 

[84cucv1ton]

the spindle is okay. The race has a few grooves. Somehow. See how it goes hope to get back together today or tomorrow

 

[twomorestrokes]

Has anyone ever come up with a real solution to this? I was almost thrown out the window today lol! I have an ord lift and zero rates. New front springs. Just replaced steering box, king pin bushings and springs, added crossover steering from ord, set for (found it was toed out) and checked other parts. Truck has 32000 miles and old kp bushings were not worn. If anything, the wobble is more violent now! Almost went through a stop sign today because I couldn't settle it down. Help.

 

[86m1028]

That's because of how much play happens in a solid axle front end 4x4. I've see dampers on 2wd. I've even got one on my motorcycle.

A properly adjusted and maintained vehicle will work fine without the damper. It's just when you get a tire or wear in the system that the damper will start "taking up the slack".

Death wobble on a bike (motorcycle) is far more worse than in a truck !!!

 

[Skinny]

Has anyone ever come up with a real solution to this? I was almost thrown out the window today lol! I have an ord lift and zero rates. New front springs. Just replaced steering box, king pin bushings and springs, added crossover steering from ord, set for (found it was toed out) and checked other parts. Truck has 32000 miles and old kp bushings were not worn. If anything, the wobble is more violent now! Almost went through a stop sign today because I couldn't settle it down. Help.

Try swapping your tires front to back and see if anything changes. I would also see if you could swap them out for a known good set.

 

[cucvrus]

It just seems that once you have it you will have it for the slightest reason. I have a few trucks that never had it never get it and I have used them the same way. Then other trucks one thing (tie rod end) is bad and it starts rather subtle at first and just progresses from there. The other truck never greased bald / mix matched tires and worn steering box. Drive it down the same road at the same speed. drives straight and smooth. No explanation that can be carved in stone. Nature of the beast.

 

[twomorestrokes]

Yes, my next step is rotate tires. I have 12 bolts and 37s on the truck and I think it's the PVC warlocks that keep them so unbalanced. We'll see how it acts with the swapped tires. On a side note, this truck does NOT act up on bumps. It's always while braking but it's not a rotor issue.

 

[Chaski]

Has anyone ever come up with a real solution to this? I was almost thrown out the window today lol! I have an ord lift and zero rates. New front springs. Just replaced steering box, king pin bushings and springs, added crossover steering from ord, set for (found it was toed out) and checked other parts. Truck has 32000 miles and old kp bushings were not worn. If anything, the wobble is more violent now! Almost went through a stop sign today because I couldn't settle it down. Help.

In your case it might because you have crossover steering. I have three friends running around in various full size GM rigs with crossover steering. They all have hydraulic assist to help out on the trail and stop death wobble on the road. Any OEM rig with crossover steering has a massive front track bar to keep the axle from defelecting in relation to the frame. With crossover when you turn right your frame and body deflects left in relation to your front axle. This pulls the draglink and makes you turn left, which makes the frame deflect right, making you turn right. This repeats until you slow down. The worst rig was my buddies blazer that is running squishy 52" front springs. After he put crossover on it had crazy death wobble until he put on hydraulic assist.

Hydraulic assist fixes the wobble issue with crossover because it hydraulically locks your tie rod in relation to the axle. Just an idea for a rig with crossover steering. I also don't think it is that much more work to pull the front end apart a little more and replace the bottom kingpin roller bearing. Seems like most people only replace the top pin bushing and spring, ignoring the entire bottom assembly.

 

[twomorestrokes]

Thanks. I had the wobble before the crossover as well. I was hoping it would go away with the upgrade. I wish I would have paid a little more for the gear from ord that had the extra port for assist but woulda, shoulda coulda I guess.

 

[Chaski]

Thanks. I had the wobble before the crossover as well. I was hoping it would go away with the upgrade. I wish I would have paid a little more for the gear from ord that had the extra port for assist but woulda, shoulda coulda I guess.

it isn't that bad to drill and tap your box. I have done a few, if the box is fresh you can do it without a seal kit. The only advice I have is to not drill the blind hole with a drill bit. I have tried to go straight to 7/16 from a pilot bit and once the bit hit the cross drilled port for oil it goes wrong. The cut becomes interrupted and deflects causing the hole to be oversized and out of round. Best way I have figured out is to drill a pilot, then go to 3/8" drill. I finish them off with a 7/16 end mill and end up with a nice round hole for a 1/4" pipe tap. A pair of -6an adapters and you are in business.

 

[tstone]

I have had the same problem with several of my trucks including my two shop body units. The repair for my problem was solved with replacing the nylon bushings and the springs. Some of the bushing and spring sets come with springs that are not as strong (compression wise) as the OEM's. The way to overcome this is to install large spacers (I used flat washers from Tractor Supply) to compensate for the weaker springs. Keep adding washers until the spring has the proper compression which eliminates the wobble. Springs, overtime, will weaken and need to be replaced even if hey have not been used; this is the case for our 30 year old trucks.

Other front axle designs have tapered bearings for the kingpins at both top and bottom, this is a superior design. the CUCV's don't. I think this is the achilles heel of the front axle design.

 

[Skinny]

I have 12 bolts and 37s on the truck and I think it's the PVC warlocks that keep them so unbalanced.

You have a very bad combo here for death wobble. The Goodyear 37's just from age are probably the culprit, then throw them on a rather heavy rim assembly and add more rotating mass beadlock rings...I can't even imagine what this would do. I would throw some fresh stock size tires on from another truck and see what it does before going any further.

 

[cucvrus]

Mr. Crusty has 4 new HMMWV 24 bolt rims and 37" BF Goodrich Baja tires with the bead locks and run flats. No wobble at all. Like I said it seems that some trucks never get it. I have been fortunate and only had it on one truck over 20+ years. I replaced all the steering linkage, steering stabilizer, brake calipers, brake pads and had the rotors cut and the problem never came back. I still think that tires have a big part in it. Nothing I can say without a doubt 100% to fix it for sure. I never added lift kits big tires and steering crossovers into the recipe to add to the problems. I replaced a few tie rod ends on the Jersey Indian while I had it here last year. They said the wobble was gone. Any updates on that?

 

[twomorestrokes]

Today my plan rotating the tires and replacing the stabilizer. Not much left to try but it's getting worse the more I work on it which is wore discouraging than I care to admit. It's almost constant now and more violent than ever. I think the severe toe out that it had was actually keeping the truck more stable by putting a bind on things. I'll update later.

 

[Skinny]

CUCVRUS...So you never deal with modified vehicles but are giving advice on them? You said that a guy runs oversized tires with zero issues but the OP's problems are probably the tires. You've fixed deathwobble but are not sure how it truly was resolved. Posts like this help absolutely no one and really just rub people the wrong way in my opinion.


A toe out is bad in general but being near zero creates instability and a better chance for death wobble to kick in. You want to stick with the standard 1/16 to 1/8" toe in and possibly a notch more with larger tires. The slight extra drag helps out.

 

[cucvrus]

CUCVRUS...So you never deal with modified vehicles but are giving advice on them? You said that a guy runs oversized tires with zero issues but the OP's problems are probably the tires. You've fixed deathwobble but are not sure how it truly was resolved. Posts like this help absolutely no one and really just rub people the wrong way in my opinion.

Boo HOO cry me a river. I am just trying to help. If you have nothing to offer but grief. Zip it. I was only offering help. NOTHING MORE. In my business I must fix things all the time that I did not create or agree on. I never said I 100% knew his issue. I was brain storming ideas. If you don't like it to bad. Life is full of disappointment for some and challenge for others. I proof read it and I think you are being rubbed the wrong way many times. Not my choice to be offensive. Just helpful. So lets NOT start the crap again.No wobble here. Goes down the road straight and true. So I am not even getting in your little Mr Know it all act. It is all yours.

 

[twomorestrokes]

So anyway, aside from that, I just drove it around awhile after rotating the tires. Too early to tell just yet but the truck drives better and hasn't done it yet. The tires that are now on the front have no balance weights whatsoever. The ones I have moved to the rear have all sorts of weights from the farm equipment elevator trying to balance them. It may be time to pull the weights off and add shot to all four tires.

 

[twomorestrokes]

So after more driving, so far so good. From what I can see on my personal truck, it was primarily a tire issue that started the wobble issue. The issue was always brought on while braking and once started, would not go away until muscled over to the side of the road and stopped. Very violent. I'd assume that when the brakes were applied right when the tire was ready to hop it would cause this bad wobble. Good luck!

 

[Kaiser67M715]

More typically then not, lots of weights mean it was close to balance before, and adding a larger weight then needed upset the balance, and gave the illusion more weights were needed.

I've static balanced tires for a few years(personal cars/trucks) and my dad has done it since the late 70's early 80's, and occasionally we get a "professionally balanced tire with more then 5 oz of weights, and the static balance says it needs barely a 1/4 oz- all of a sudden the tire vibration the vehicle had is gone.

Very rarely when I static balance a tire does it give me an issue, and in one moment I recall very well, all it was was a case of needing to swap weights from one side of the rim to the other; we use crimp weights, and sometimes the weights are not even side to side typically by no more then a 1/4 oz though


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[twomorestrokes]

Agreed. I'mnold enough to have used a bubble balancer at the Ford dealer and then the "new fangled" dynamic balancers. I'm sure the truck will smooth out the rest of the way when I pick the ten pounds of weight off the rears lol. I'll use shot if I need to go further. I wish I wouldn't have put the PVC beadlocks in there but I don't feel like breaking everything down to remove them. That's a real pain.