I just got the steering intermediate shaft recall fixed after forever..The dealer put a plastic thing around the old shaft. It does help the looseness and some of the clunk in the steering. The column bearing seems a little loose.

But now I have a return of the oscillation at highway speeds after hitting a bump. This hasn't happened in 15 years or more.. although I don't drive it on the highway all that much.

The odd thing is its very unpredictable when it will occur. I can drive over the same road at the same speed and it will not happen. It never seems to happen at any speed under 45mph..

I was told about a "death wobble", but not on my truck, only 2500 and 3500s.. It is similar, not as bad as some of the utube videos..but definitely similar.

I can get it to stop by slowing down and turning left to right quickly opposite to the vibration. Mostly it stops after 10-15 second but its when I hit under 45mph.

The dealer wants $500 to change the track bar. The said 'maybe' that will help and help the wandering. They said the BFG AT 265s tires may be the cause and should changed to a narrower or different tire.

They said the tie rods, steering dampener and steering box is good. I checked them no looseness, and no movement on the pitman shaft.

This used to happen when the truck had 4000 miles and the stock goodyear tires. ..I find the dealer's story hard to believe, but not out the realm of possibility.

Any ideas what it could be ? I have new shocks, hubs, rotors, brakes.

 

4X4? Mine did the same thing as yours, it was due to a worn hub assembly. Time for a DIY front end check, hubs, ball joints, tie rod ends, etc.

 

+1

it's not your tires, unless they are not balanced correctly. check for play in:

-ball joints
-tie rod ends
-control arm bushings
-track bar bushings
-shock bushings
-u-joints
-pitman arm

download an FSM and read how to check these yourself. i'd expect that your balljoints + u-joints are toast after 135k miles (if 4x4)

 

I'd also add hub bearings to this list, too. What you have described sounds like 'death wobble' to me.

 

Thanks... I just had two places including the dealer look at the front end. They said all was good. Hubs are new timkens (2 weeks old), shocks are new, I know worn and broken front ujoints - not the sound, feel or anything remotely similar. The ujoints change with speed and you can feel it in the gear shift... there is no change here it just stops.

I looked myself, it seems ok,, nothing loose, that's why I paid two places look as well.

Tires were checked yesterday all in high speed balance. They have 800 miles on them

This feels like front end.. I'll start with the likely candidates (low cost), the track bar and tie rod ends. Plus, they're easy to change.

thanks

 

Does the death wobble occur on 1500 ?

 

Yup. Sure does.

Track bar is the usual culprit.

 

When I rebuilt my front suspension to fully eliminate death wobble, I went with this style of aftermarket track bar and track bar bracket, which uses poly bushings in both ends:

http://www.solidsteel.biz/

 

@Dog: It seems like a crap load of work for a steering box. Did you consider the borgeson steering box ? Or doesn't that work ? Sorry for the dumb questions. I'm just finding out about this stuff.

 

I rebuilt the front suspension on my truck not long ago, with an eye towards eliminating death wobble for the long haul. I used McQuay/Norris ball joints and tie rod ends. I also replaced the steering box and intermediate shaft with Borgeson units. Shocks were replaced with Rancho 5000 units. Replaced the stock style track bar with an adjustable unit and bracket from Solid Steel (http://www.solidsteel.biz/tbk.htm). Replaced the upper and lower control arms with Spohn units that have poly bushings. Also added a steering stabilizer from these folks - http://www.custom-diesel.com/dodge-p...-borgeson.html - sway bar links and sway bar mounts bushings were replaced with poly - replaced front hub bearings, too. Once all the front end work was completed, picked up a set of Michelin 285/75/16 load range E tires and had the truck aligned. Truck almost handles like a car now... Certainly cured the periodic death wobble I experienced on a few occasions.