Here we go on the fun death wobble search. Heres a line of events: I replace transmission with nv4500 and also put the 36s on there while it was down. Now when I get in the speed range of around 35 to 50, my steering wheel starts to shimmy. The fun part comes in when that shimmy turns into an earthquake, enough that it turns my courtesy lights on and has my shifter slapping at my knee.


I looked under the front end and found little to no play except on the pitman arm but its been like that for a LONG time. THe tires cause alil shimmy too so could that amplify the steering play into death wobble? could the fact my front driveshaft is out cause it any? How about an improperly indexed rear driveshaft? other than that IDK. Thanks in advance!

 

Sounds like death wobble to me. How are your front wheel bearings and are your tires new or used? Have the tires been balanced properly? Lastly, has any front end parts been replaced on the truck? I had a bad case of death wobble with my truck and I fixed it by replacing old worn out front suspension parts.

 

1. haven't checked bearings or ball joints
2. tires are used but were supposed to be balanced. Maybe done wrong?
3. all front end is original except the steering box which was bought used and has the little bit of play that it came with. 1/2" left or right on the steering wheel if even that.


What gets me is how it started when I changed the trans and tires. I think maybe something is amplifying something. Sounds logical lol.

 

Rotate the tires, see if anything changes.

 

X2 , in fact , check the rims for mud and rebalance if none found . This is just the trigger , you do have some issues IMO . First , I would fix the TRE at the pitman arm , it's not helping at all . Are you loading the parts while inspecting ? (wheels on ground, someone moves steer back at forth , you watch for play at each joint , incl T-bar) I assume your ball joints are ok ?

Outta balance tires should be able to be controlled for the most part . Your control arms hold it steady f<>b . Your shocks are suppose to keep the tires on the ground controlling the up and down with assistance from the sway bar . IMO , the steering damper is more for feedback control to the wheel but , it does help control sudden side to side motions from the bumps . DW is an uncontrolled , out of harmony rotation of the wheel . Combining up and down , and side to side motions into one glorious reaction . Given the originality of your parts , could be any or all listed allowing the DW . Given the tires are the only recent change , they are your trigger .

Shocks cured mine on 2 different vehicles . I think the best example I can give to explain this would be a front wheel drive car . I've seen many times when the rear struts are bad , you can literally watch the wheel bounce driving along side . If it had turning ability , it would be DW .

Good luck , DW is a SOB!!

 

The last time I had the death wobble, mine was Violent also, hubs, ball joints, track bar, and tie rods, all seemed good until I replaced them all. no more DW. Each piece had just the slightest little play so slight you would barely notice it. But add them all up and you got just a huge Wobbly truck going down the road.

 

I figured the tires might be the trigger. How about this course of action? Take the tires to be rotated and balanced, replace the steering damper (its old and leaky anyways) with a dual-shock damper, and see how that goes. If I still got wobble, ima take it from there. Sound good so far?

 

Steering damper won't help. Mine has been non-functional since I bought my truck, and I do not miss it.

 

I experienced the death wobble repair experiences as 2Damnyankee. As a stopgap, take a good look at the tires and have them properly balanced (I'd ensure that the balance shop sets the machine so that weights are put on both sides of the rim, as needed to attain optimal balance). If you plan to keep the truck, plan on rebuilding the front end - ball joints, wheel bearings, shocks, 3rd gen track bar, etc.

 

Oy this sounds like its gonna fun...