Ram Death Wobble- Pitman arm taper!!
Thread Starter
|
Registered User
Joined: Jan 2014
Posts: 1
Likes: 1
Ram Death Wobble- Pitman arm taper!!
Hi,
I have a 2004 Ram 2500 4x4 with about 79K miles and it suddenly developed symptoms of the "Ram Death Wobble" a few weeks ago: sudden lurching to left or right at almost any speed, unusual front end noise--most noticeable below 40 mph, generally scary--.
I lifted the front end and while a friend worked the steering wheel back and forth, I found two loose ball joints: one at the end of the Pittman arm, and the other that connects the two long sections of the tie rod system.
I'm writing this post because when I was putting in the new parts (two long tie rod sections and two ball joints) I found I could not tighten the ball joint taper in the Pittman arm--it stayed loose even when the nut was cranked down. I took the assembled parts out of the truck again and measured the Pittman arm ball joint taper at the narrow end and it was .600". The bottom of the Pittman arm taper I had removed was .650"
--My point is this: the tapers of the tie rods where they enter the steering knuckle are smaller tapers than the Pittman arm ball joint taper. BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN YOU INSTALL THE NEW TIE ROD ENDS AND THE PITTMAN ARM BALL JOINT TAPER-- THEY ARE DIFFERENT. If you do what I did and you don't catch your mistake-- you will still have the "Ram Death Wobble" because you will have the wrong (too narrow/small) taper in the Pittman arm-- and this will give you the wobble.
--For most of you who already probably know this-- my apologies-- but I got replacement parts form Advance Auto: 4 parts from 3 different companies, and no indication of whether the "tie rod end" parts had different tapers.
I have a 2004 Ram 2500 4x4 with about 79K miles and it suddenly developed symptoms of the "Ram Death Wobble" a few weeks ago: sudden lurching to left or right at almost any speed, unusual front end noise--most noticeable below 40 mph, generally scary--.
I lifted the front end and while a friend worked the steering wheel back and forth, I found two loose ball joints: one at the end of the Pittman arm, and the other that connects the two long sections of the tie rod system.
I'm writing this post because when I was putting in the new parts (two long tie rod sections and two ball joints) I found I could not tighten the ball joint taper in the Pittman arm--it stayed loose even when the nut was cranked down. I took the assembled parts out of the truck again and measured the Pittman arm ball joint taper at the narrow end and it was .600". The bottom of the Pittman arm taper I had removed was .650"
--My point is this: the tapers of the tie rods where they enter the steering knuckle are smaller tapers than the Pittman arm ball joint taper. BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN YOU INSTALL THE NEW TIE ROD ENDS AND THE PITTMAN ARM BALL JOINT TAPER-- THEY ARE DIFFERENT. If you do what I did and you don't catch your mistake-- you will still have the "Ram Death Wobble" because you will have the wrong (too narrow/small) taper in the Pittman arm-- and this will give you the wobble.
--For most of you who already probably know this-- my apologies-- but I got replacement parts form Advance Auto: 4 parts from 3 different companies, and no indication of whether the "tie rod end" parts had different tapers.
