creep_in_the_jeep Posted October 6, 2017 Share Posted October 6, 2017 So I need to get rid of this death wobble nut I already replaced my track bar and right rim... I'm broke and she is my dd. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyComanche Posted October 6, 2017 Share Posted October 6, 2017 You need a prybar and a jack to do some troubleshooting. Chances are it is one of the following components being loose/worn: ball joints, wheel bearings, control arms (bushings), tie rod/drag link ends, track bar (you already did), track bar bracket, steering box, shocks, or mounting brackets for any of the above or ovalled/elongated holes in any of the above. Or you have a tire that's out of round or out of balance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gene Posted October 6, 2017 Share Posted October 6, 2017 You might have someone sit in the truck and move the steering wheel side to side while you are underneath watching the front end components. Tire balance is crucial...and relatively cheap! Gene Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creep_in_the_jeep Posted October 9, 2017 Author Share Posted October 9, 2017 I know that I need new tires I also have a Manuel steering box with lots of playSent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle Posted October 9, 2017 Share Posted October 9, 2017 Some things "cause" death wobble. Some things "allow" death wobble. Balance your tires. Loose steering components do not "cause" death wobble. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyComanche Posted October 9, 2017 Share Posted October 9, 2017 14 minutes ago, Eagle said: Some things "cause" death wobble. Some things "allow" death wobble. Balance your tires. Loose steering components do not "cause" death wobble. Following this logic, cracks on the road will cause death wobble, while loose steering allows it. Balancing tires only goes so far, as there is nothing you can do about the other potential sources of vibration or upset to the stability of the vehicle. I'm not saying don't get the tires balanced, but if he has a blown shock and a bad ball joint on the same side, it will likely still death wobble. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carnuck Posted October 9, 2017 Share Posted October 9, 2017 Mis-Alignment also causes death wobble. My Comanche’s front end was all new with shocks, brakes, bearings and a 3” lift. We headed out to Ouray and everything was great till we got to CDA. A semi-truck in front of us hit one of those slabs on the road and tipped down the far end, which made out end come up about 3 inches. Banging that at 70 mph caused the first DW I’d even felt at the wheel. I slowed and it stopped shaking but then it was fine till Ouray. After I stopped at the Kragen store and ordered a slave cyl kit, their delivery driver (wife of the District Manager) backed into the left front wheel and my tires squealed and 2 wore to the cords before we left the campground (killed our wheeling trip) By the time we got back home all our tires wore through to cords and both spares were shredded. We couldn’t drive at 55 without wobble (accelerated through it was okay) and at 73 it shook again. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle Posted October 10, 2017 Share Posted October 10, 2017 10 hours ago, DirtyComanche said: Balancing tires only goes so far, as there is nothing you can do about the other potential sources of vibration or upset to the stability of the vehicle. I'm not saying don't get the tires balanced, but if he has a blown shock and a bad ball joint on the same side, it will likely still death wobble. I disagree. A properly balanced tire is a gyroscope, and it basically CAN'T wobble. A blown shock and/or a loose ball joint may allow death wobble to be worse than if those components were perfect, but they can't cause death wobble. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carnuck Posted October 10, 2017 Share Posted October 10, 2017 I disagree. A properly balanced tire is a gyroscope, and it basically CAN'T wobble. A blown shock and/or a loose ball joint may allow death wobble to be worse than if those components were perfect, but they can't cause death wobble. Dynamic balanced tires only go so far. There is a 55ish mph spot where harmonics of 4 tires comes into play as well. It was explained to me once but I can’t recall the exact reason but it’s like the 5850rpm spot for inline 6s. Power through it and you’re fine to a point. But if you hold it there the harmonic imbalance will rip the motor apart. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOrnbrod Posted October 10, 2017 Share Posted October 10, 2017 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle Posted October 12, 2017 Share Posted October 12, 2017 On 10/10/2017 at 9:12 AM, carnuck said: Dynamic balanced tires only go so far. There is a 55ish mph spot where harmonics of 4 tires comes into play as well. It was explained to me once but I can’t recall the exact reason but it’s like the 5850rpm spot for inline 6s. Power through it and you’re fine to a point. But if you hold it there the harmonic imbalance will rip the motor apart. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk I'm well-acquainted with the 55 MPH shimmy. If you can drive through it until it disappears at 60 or 62 MPH, it's not death wobble, it's just shimmy. I've experienced real death wobble twice in my life. You DON'T try to accelerate through it, you hang on for dear life and pray you can slow it down before you die. Then you go home and throw your knickers in the laundry. It's called "death wobble" for a reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carnuck Posted October 12, 2017 Share Posted October 12, 2017 Trust me that when you are coming down Snoqualmie Pass with a loaded, lifted Comanche with 2 teenage boys in Sunday traffrick that is traveling at a maximum of 55 mph in the slow lane (which is the speed where the shake started) so I was in the “fast” lane doing 60-70 mph to keep the shake away (lane was smoother than slow lane too). Two things happened at once. A slowpoke cut in front of us and slammed on his brakes so I dropped from 70 to 55 and mega wobble occurred (2 of my canopy clamps even snapped loose) and some Russian dude hauling a 35’ yacht with a 1/2 Ton Caddy Escalade passed me on the right doing 80 mph+ with his brakes throwing sparks and glowing white hot. I couldn’t speed up to kill the shake. Couldn’t slow down due to suicidal traffic behind/beside me and my canopy is flapping and scaring the hell out of my youngest son in the back while traffic around us kept trying to slow us down more! Both side mirrors vibrated loose as well as the main rear view mirror fell off the windshield from the shaking. Talk about a white knuckle ride and it was on a % downhill grade! Still think I don’t know what death wobble is? Lol. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParadiseMJ Posted October 15, 2017 Share Posted October 15, 2017 On 10/12/2017 at 12:02 PM, carnuck said: ...scaring the hell out of my youngest son in the back... Is that legal in Washington? I might let my kids/grandkids ride in the back around a campground or down to the corner store (illegally). Other than that, all people ride up front, or go in another vehicle. On 10/5/2017 at 9:32 PM, DirtyComanche said: You need a prybar and a jack to do some troubleshooting Chances are it is one of the following components being loose/worn: ball joints, wheel bearings, control arms (bushings), tie rod/drag link ends, track bar (you already did), track bar bracket, steering box, shocks, or mounting brackets for any of the above or ovalled/elongated holes in any of the above. Or you have a tire that's out of round or out of balance. Other than that, the OP needs to follow this advice ^^^. It's good advice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOrnbrod Posted October 15, 2017 Share Posted October 15, 2017 18 minutes ago, ParadiseMJ said: Is that legal in Washington? I might let my kids/grandkids ride in the back around a campground or down to the corner store (illegally). Other than that, all people ride up front, or go in another vehicle. It's legal in the Philippines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carnuck Posted October 15, 2017 Share Posted October 15, 2017 My son wanted to catch a nap and climbed through the back window. I had a mounted platform and bed with an inner tube seal between the cab and canopy which was mounted solidly before the trip. We made it removable for wheeling but had only made the truck 4x4 just before the trip because my J10’s Steering parts were lost by UPS. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gogmorgo Posted October 16, 2017 Share Posted October 16, 2017 I took a few field trips in the back of a highschool teacher's truck. In Manitoba they only recently changed the laws on it, within the last few years. It used to be legal to have unbelted riders no matter where they were so long as all the seat belts were in use. I suspect that was more of an accident brought about by attempting to grandfather in cars that are older than mandatory belts than a deliberate attempt to make it legal, but there you go. Either way though, I wouldn't want anyone I cared about riding back there on an interstate. Too much crazy unpredictable $#!& can happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coolwind57 Posted October 16, 2017 Share Posted October 16, 2017 9 hours ago, HOrnbrod said: It's legal in the Philippines HOrnbrod, did you marry a Pinay? My newlywed wife is from Mindanao. I will share a recent experience I had on the death wobble or shimmy conversation. I've had nearly all of my steering components replaced these past few weeks, culminating in a machine front end alignment. I still had some occasional shimmy and a bit of pull to the right, even after the alignment. Didn't seem to be all the time, which was aggravating. Somewhere during the component upgrades, I had put new front pads on my brakes. For the next week or so, I kept smelling brakes so I eventually pulled my pistons out of the calipers and cleaned them up, assuming the rust on the metal pistons were causing it from retracting fully away from the rotors when I took my foot off the brake pedal. I continued to smell the odor and at the same time fight shimmy and slight pulling. Long story short, I went ahead and replaced my rotors, along with new calipers. BAM! Fixed my brake problem AND now all shimmying and steering pull is magically gone. They were not retracting fully, causing my steering issues. I recommend one checks his brakes when you've gone through all the other steps in trying to correct less than ideal steering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOrnbrod Posted October 16, 2017 Share Posted October 16, 2017 3 minutes ago, coolwind57 said: HOrnbrod, did you marry a Pinay? My newlywed wife is from Mindanao. Sure did, going on 32 years now. She's from Iloilo. I worked in the PI for many years - been all over Mindanao. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carnuck Posted October 16, 2017 Share Posted October 16, 2017 Sure did, going on 32 years now. She's from Iloilo. I worked in the PI for many years - been all over Mindanao. My recent daughter in law in from somewhere over there as well. I’m hoping to meet her in person by Christmas. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carnuck Posted October 19, 2017 Share Posted October 19, 2017 Back to the OP’s question. If everything is tight and balanced in the front then you need to find out what’s out of alignment. Your tires will wear fast but slightly toeing in stopped it on mine till I could afford an alignment. Extreme Death wobble on manual steering is less common and really says alignment issues. Was it lifted at all? Are the rims stock or offset different than stock? Any tires with lumps? (Lift and spin the tire to see) Worn axle ujoints can play crack the whip if wheel bearings have the slightest slop. Brakes that drag can overheat the rotors. (I found out one of mine is after driving 30 miles but not bad yet) Have airsoft pellets thrown in when you change tires to help keep it balanced and check the rims for straightness before installing. Make sure the bolts holding the lower control arms aren’t loose or the shims holding nuts aren’t loose either. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goatman Posted October 25, 2017 Share Posted October 25, 2017 We fix quite a few DW problems with a new stock stabilizer shock. Simple and inexpensive, and a good place to start unless you know for certain that the current one is good. The shock is there for only one purpose, to fight DW as parts get slight wear, or tires get slightly out of balance, etc. A few weeks ago we raced our new MJ race truck. Fri at practice we got some DW, a weird feeling at speed on a track. We put a new shock on it and raced all day Sat and Sun with no DW. No guarantee, but a good place to start. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carnuck Posted October 25, 2017 Share Posted October 25, 2017 It covers the symptoms but it’s job is to cushion the driver from sudden curb hits and potholes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goatman Posted October 25, 2017 Share Posted October 25, 2017 Actually, no, it's there to fight DW in straight axle vehicles. You're rack and pinion steering Honda (and everything else) doesn't have one. All of your straight axle trucks do. Straight front axle vehicles are susceptible to DW as parts wear and so they come from the factory with a stabilizer shock. I own an auto repair shop and off road shop, and we fix many DW problems with a new shock, and we always use a stock replacement. Sure, also many times it's something loose in the front end, but many times the new shock fixes it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carnuck Posted October 25, 2017 Share Posted October 25, 2017 I guess they didn’t think it was important to have one before 1973 then. It’s an add on kit for most Jeeps and many other live axle vehicles prior to that. Shopping carts do that same shake but then they don’t have tierods to help fight it. Speaking of which, split Y systems like our MJs encourage the problem when lifted without correcting the Ackerman angle close to original and flattening out the plane of the tierods so the tires aren’t constantly doing the toe-in/toe-out dance. Vehicles other than solid axle have the steering stabilizers too. The AMC Eagle is IFS with CV axles to a frame mounted diff. Nissan, ‘88+GM, and Toyota 4x4s have them as well. Anti-swaybars helped a lot too. I remember putting a solid bar between the front shackles of a CJ5 in ‘76 or so to tame down it’s road manners. I guess they didn’t teach us the right reason for the stabilizer back in the motorpool. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOrnbrod Posted October 25, 2017 Share Posted October 25, 2017 4 minutes ago, carnuck said: Shopping carts do that same shake but then they don’t have tierods to help fight it. Some do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now