IMO, the Death Wobble is/can be caused by many things or a combination of things. The problem is so hard to pinpoint because, no one part is worn so bad that you can say, "yup-there's your problem right there." My truck was almost having it, over a certain short section of road that was really wavey & would get the axle going up & down pretty good, enough to just start to feel the steering wheel oscillate/shake, but then it would stop as soon as I hit the smooth road again. Tires-air pressure in them-shocks-control arm bushings-track bar bushings-upper & lower ball joints-tie rod ends-front end allignment-steering shaft-steering stabilizer-front axle u-joints- can all be part of the problem. I replaced the control arms with Carli CroMo greaseable/re-buildable bushings, Carli adjustable CroMo track bar, PSC steering box brace, Borgeson steering shaft, Carli X-treme Duty upper & lower ball joints, triple seal u-joints in front axle & a real good front end allignment. The wobble I was experiencing is gone, truck feels like it is on rails compared to before, but it still wanders. I will be getting my steering gearbox re-done by http://www.redheadsteeringgears.com/Process.html when I get around to it. Steering gear boxes are on National Backorder until April of 2011. My trucks front end was worn out at 18,500 miles !!! If I did'nt love my truck so much & it was'nt so rare, I would be driving something else soon. But I plan to keep it & re-build everything with the best stuff for my particular application. Then I will hopefully have a good reliable truck. Still have to do a DynaTrac dyna-Loc freespin kit to replace the ****ty unit bearings & get steering gearbox rebuilt & get Power steering pump rebuilt by http://www.pscmotorsports.com/Dodge-...ng-Components/ . It's a damn shame they don't make better, higher quality parts in the first place on a $50,000 truck.

 

Is it camber or caster settings? I have read a bunch of stuff about this and it looks like the next "cheapest" things to try begin with the alignment.

There are no camber adjustments, to the best of my knowledge, without adding a camber kit or adjustable ball joints. Caster I believe can be adjusted by the eccentric plates/bolts. Is this what you are referring to?

 

Thanks Hammer. I read your write up about this and checked out the article you referrenced as well rgarding the Death Wobble issue. Those were two main reasons I started with the SBS.

Looks like I am going to move on to the Track Bar and caster settings before blowing any more $$$ on the big ticket items.

 

I had the death wobble 2 times, both when I first bought my truck. It had stock tires on it.

Then I upgraded to 35's and leveled it, and have not had a death wobble for 1.5 yrs. I don;t really know what helped, but just know that I am death wobble free.

 

Problem with DW is that slack in the steering assembly itself causes vibration and then transfers it to the frame, thus creating an amplified vibration known as DW. If you have a worn steering gear assembly, even the best stabilizer and frame support can't absorb vibrational waves enough to eliminate the problem since there are worn components that have slack and will allow play regardless of a supporting device. You MUST replace the worn components before any addition will help resolve the DW issue.

 

Hello Everyone

BBeamer I saw your post on the death wobble issue and I have had a very simular problem with my truck. I have a 2004 Dodge Ram 2500 QC 4x4 Hemi 5 speed and it is completly stock except I put on the wheels and tires that come off of a CTD truck so I run the 265 tire instead of the 245 all are 17" wheels. Just recently bought new tires and they are E rated. They are balanced fine and the truck rides smooth but I still get the oscillating bounce if I hit a bad bumpy road at speeds above 65mph. I never really noticed it until I had around 50k miles on the truck and one day I was driving on a back road at around 70-75mph and hit a patch of bumps and I thought I lost a tire it was bouncing so bad, but it stayed straight not really out of control. Scared the crap out of me for sure!! When I went to slow down it seemed to increase slightly like it was bouncing then as I finally got it whoad up it got better. Seemed like it was more of a bounce issue than a wobble but I am no expert. I have not done anything yet to try to solve this issue just don't speed down backroads. It seems that I am noticing it more as I get more miles on the truck I guess things are wearing out. I am going to try things like replacing shocks and maybe springs but depends on how much money I want to spend. Another thing the steering is very good on my truck feels very firm but it is sensitive and does not take much to move it and if you let off the wheel it tracks good, of course if you are on a bad road it well follow the contour. One more thing I did install leveling spacers when I bought the truck new so that did not seem to be an issue.

Just some insight as to what is going on with my dodge maybe it well help you. I did not see if yours was a 4x4 or not sorry.
I do not go offroad with my truck mainly use it to tow. I am more interested in finding out if it is happing to new trucks with low miles....hmmmm.

Thanks
Nick

 

I understand what you are saying, it just seems to me like there is more to it than just a worn steering gear.

It doesn't make sense, the whole DW issue itself, as there are thousands and thousands of trucks on the road with any number of worn parts within them.

It just seems like a lot of good people are throwing a lot of good money at this issue and hoping it will work out. And when it does they can't seem to point to anything specific.

I would think that if a steering gear were worn significantly enough to cause the type of bouncing that the Death Wobble creates then the steering wheel would be ripped out of the drivers hand or at least shake his finger nails off while he was death gripping it. I have no problem controlling the steering wheel while the rest of my truck shakes the paint off itself.

I've read most, if not all, of the threads on here and other places regarding this Death Wobble and its just plain weird.

 

Had it on my lifted wrangler pretty bad from 35 to 50mph, did the same thing and replaced everything except the tires and it did nothing. Finally got new tires and it's fine. I had the existing tires balanced over and over again, as well as alignments done, tires rotated, but not until I replaced those tires (and wheels) was it gone. Take that for what it's worth. Different vehicle, but same problem.

 

On my last dealer go arround, dealer wanted 1200.00 to replace the two shafts from the stearing box to up to the setaring wheel, not a waranty claim, so I said to hell with it, I have been running my oem BFG R/T T/A with stock rims, now I'm back to the rims and tires I bought last year, wow, I have a new truck again.

I have been lucky with the stearing on my truck, never had a issue with vibration in the stearing ( drive line is a whole new story ) THier was a recall on the drag link on the 2500, I wounder if this death wobble can be traced to the recall.

I had the old style drag link, now not sure what the new style drag link looks like, but I suspect its a good place to start, as it effects stearing control.

 

The drag link recall had to do with two different styles that were installed. The one that they recalled had a bracket connecting it to the other steering parts, the "good" one has a hole through it which the other parts mount solidly to. Mine was the "good" one.

I have seen some other posts that say tires fixed it but it seems like an expensive test. It's hard for me to imagine the steering shaft being the culprit of this problem that begins with the wheels striking a bump in the road and then the whole truck shaking violently. Especially since I do not lose steering control. It seems like it has to start in or near the wheel area in order to start the whole frame and truck shaking. Like I said in the previous post, if the steering linkage was loose it usually would shake in your hand under this condition if it was capable of causing such a violent reaction in the rest of the truck.

The steering box stabilizer at least provides support between the front of the frame rails. But this has not helped my trucks situation. I do have some loose tie rod ends so I am going to change all of them and them have an alignment done and I am going to add caster to the alignment specs and see if that helps.