2nd Gen Non-Engine/Transmission Death Wobble takes a life

[DKarvwnaris]

He suggested adding dual shocks up front and a track bar with heim joints. He said he does that on every Dodge 4x4 that comes in. I would say he knows his stuff, he has been building and racing monster trucks for 20 years along with lifting 4x4 trucks.

I would surely agree for racing applications that heim joints are the way to go, but if the truck is to be expected to handle well everyday of its road driven life, that is a bad idea. Years back I used to work for 4wheel parts wholesalers and dick cepek as a 4wd conversion fabricator and an alignment tech, I saw these agressive fix ideas on more than one occasion. From a street life point of view, heim joints are terrrible because they are far more expensive than replacing stock parts and will develope wear as soon as they are put into service, with no way to retain a grease coating around them, you are guaranteed to have play in them when they are pounded on with hard paved roads etc. Heims are made to take a beating without breaking, but they will wear, too much for the tolerances of a truck that has to maintain track in a 8 ft wide lane day to day. Especially with only two fixed points between the axle and frame, the track bar and the steering link. (unless you plan to be checking your steering parts frequently with a dial caliper for wear, unlikely for the typical driver).

Greasable fittings are a very good thing in steering components, they help to slow the normal wear of ball joint ends and links as well and provide a dampening effect to sloppy parts. The luke's link is a good solution, but only if the rest of the front end is maintained as well and not forgotten from then on.

I have yet to see a well maintained dodge suffer from the death wobble syndrome. (Get it aligned by a shop who actually knows what to do, really knows how to align straight axle trucks). I have seen however numberous daily driven trucks shake like mad which are only brought in when something breaks or the oil is due for a change.

 

[biggy238]

The death wobble I've experienced has only come from Caster problems. (Not to say thats the only thing. Worn out anything will cause it) If the caster adjustment places the ball joints nearly verticle above one another, you have a seriousely high potential for death wobble. The axles are designed to have the knuckles clocked back slightly. This allows the axle to reach a settled postion when going in a straight line. When you turn the wheel, one end of the axle should lift just slightly. Chevy vans used to do that like crazy. We've had two that you could turn at a stand still and they would center themselves. When the caster is out of specs, the axle doesn't have that down force trying to push it back so the tires can rock wildly. My truck did it, I have an F150 that does it currently because of the lift we installed, I've seen 50's era cars do it and one 77 F150. The 93' F150 won't quit until it slows to 10mph. If you've ever seen a hay wagon tracking everywhere going down the road, the trucks all do a less exagerated but more violent version of that. The inertia in the truck body translates into an up and down motion. The axle goes one way and the body goes the other, momentarily.



Ofcourse this isn't to argue with anyone, It's just my personal experiences and a summation of literature on the subject.



I just put my DT trac bar on yesterday. No death wobble but the 2" lift killed the trac bar.



Complain to the nhtsa but I don't think it will solve anything, Ultimately They'd have to recall something, and I don't want them taking my truck apart over something they obviously don't understand.

 

[Black Cloud]

I put the 2 inch leveling spacers on mine and then the "death wobbled" occurred. It never did this before I put them on, not that it does this everyday but when it happens its scary. I will be taking the spacers and Rancho 1-3" lift shocks off and going back to the stock set-up and shocks. I'll probably post both items together for sale in the classifieds when I take them off.

 

[NVR FNSH]

I put the 2 inch leveling spacers on mine and then the "death wobbled" occurred. It never did this before I put them on, not that it does this everyday but when it happens its scary. I will be taking the spacers and Rancho 1-3" lift shocks off and going back to the stock set-up and shocks. I'll probably post both items together for sale in the classifieds when I take them off.

Have you reset the caster? Try it before you get rid of the spacers.



Brian

 

[jrobinson2]

Caster is easy to change yourself, the adjustment is made at the front of the lower control arms. Mark the eccentrics on the bolt side before you loosen the nuts so you can return them to the same spot if needed, loosen the nuts and turn the eccentrics forward 1/2 a mark at a time and test drive. The only negative to more caster is a slighly increased steering effort.



Jared

 

[Speedo]

I made mention of duing this a couple years ago, and now it's back to the top. The NHTSA is suppose to investagate on compailnts when they recieve at least ten [10] and there have been hundreds of complaints posted on here, and I don't think but very few have made a complaint, to the NHTSA.

I even complained about my trailer reciever, and then D. C. done a recall on the later trucks. BUT the earlyer ones were not included, but they had the same problem. I complained.



just my penny's worth.



Marv.

This is not a design problem IMO, filing a complaint over the DW would be like filing a complaint for poor handling for a flat tire. I've experienced the DW on 2 and 4 wheel drive vehicles, coil spring, leaf spring and air bags. It has always been a caster adjustment problem and it can be more noticeable with worn components or loose wheel bearings. Front suspension design doesn't seem to have any affect on the problem and I've heard of it happening on cars. If you think that its bad on your Ram, imagine what it would feel like in a dump truck grossing 60k pounds. We have a fleet of buses that have limited caster adjustment and they are on the edge all the time, a height change on the front or rear air bags can push it over the edge.

That's my 2 cents worth.



Gus

 

[Mundgyver]

The wobble is when one front wheel starts hopping up and down so violently you cannot steer or brake the truck.

This sounds like a shock that has become non-functional. I too had a death-wobble experience at around 45,000 turns. This was while passing a large truck on a two lane road. All I could do was hang on and try and keep it straight. When I did the pass, there was a sunken spot (about 4 inches) on the left side that I hit at about 65 mph. This was the launching point for me and what a ride it was. I never want to repeat it. The next day I went down to Less-Schwab and bought 4 new heavy duty gas charged shocks. Have not had the problem since with 137,000 turns now.



I beleive the death wobble is tire bounce and that it is shock related as they are suppose to keep the wheel from jumping. The shocks are responsible for controling rate of travel.



It would be interesting to conduct a poll with the following questions.



1. Have you ever experinced the death wobble?

Yes / No



2. If yes was this with original shocks or after market shocks?

Original / Aftermarket



3. What was your speed at the time of the indicent?

20 to 40 mph, 40 to 60 mph, 60 to 80 mph



I am not familiar with how to conduct the buildup of the polls that we see on the forum, maybe someone that has done this before could set one up. The results might be interesting.



I guess one last question would be if anyone with dual shocks has ever experienced this?

 

[Silver Bullet Ram]

Yes I have been experiencing the death wobble.

I have brand new aftermarket shocks.



40-80 mph.

I am getting ready to install a fourth different track bar and dual shocks.

 

[Dieselram]

The key is keep a close eye on your trac bar and TRE's for play. My old dodge had 12 inchs of lift and 39 inch swampers and I never had death wobble. but i did experience it when i had 2 inch spacers and 33's and i fixed the problem soon after. a DT trac Bar (yes replacing the heim once every 2-3 years is kinda expensive $50) but well worth it and i also went to an all heim cross over steering with a high quality stabilizer. The truck handled great and tracked will for having 39-15 swampers. The design of the 2nd gen trac bar is JUNK JUNK JUNK. replacing it with a oem bar is like replacing a flat tire with another flat tire. the DT elimnates the TRE which can increase steering slop as it wears and lead to Death Wobble. It also improves the operating angle of the Bar and allows it to work properly over the entire suspension's movement.

 

[Trizae]

i got it a couple time in the 4x4 wrecker with a load on the wheel lift,,,, it felt to my like the shocks were valving,,,, 4 shocks and a steering stablizer cured it,,, it a 96 3500 reg cab 4x4 CTD 139in Cab and Chassis

 

[KYOUNG]

My 94 went through the Death Wobble about 97 or so, turned out to be BAD RANCHO 9000 Shocks..... They were replaced about 5 times than I went to Bilstiens, NO PROBLEMS!!!!!

 

[AKDrifter]

I have Bilstiens, only had the DW once, but recently! Who to go to in the Seattle area is the ?? I have lukes link and an ajustable ball joint in my camper ready for install. I do believe caster has been bumped up just a bit ove DC specs. My ball joints seem to be shot also, I know they were close 20k ago.



Who's the suspension man in the Seattle area?? Paul

 

[WBlackberg]

This is definitley a caster problem. The factory setting is marginal at best. As soon as you begin to lift the front, it starts to rotate the lower ball joint back getting it close to vertical with the upper ball joint. This creates a zero or pos caster which is not good. IMO, these trucks need no less than 3. 5 deg of neg caster. This is the reason for the longer lower arms on some kits. Keeps the axle in stock location. Alot of drag cars have 6 deg caster in them so taht all they want to do is go straight. Ever see a funny car back up to fast and get the death wobble backwards ? Same thing going on just reversed.

 

[JAmos]

Definitely not a coil sprung only problem. A friends leaf sprung 94 ferd does it too. Don't know what all his problems are, but his drag link has been bent several times(still is bent), and his shocks are bad. He complains that he doesn't know whats wrong. Let me see, how bout fixing what ovbiously needs it then have a good alignment done on it. Its a good place to start. Jordan