Archived unrepairable death wobble on decelaration

[Hootguy]

I have been trying to get rid of a death wobble i get on rougher roads,,mainly on decelaration at about 40mph,,,sometime on accelration but rarely. .

I repalced the track bar for the 5'th time,tie rod ends,,sterring damper is good,,

Everything looks tight,,

The only thing that seems to get rid of it is new front tires... as soon as the front wear about 30%,,it starts to wobble. .

I getting to the point where i'll start shopping for a Ford or a GM. . and thats a sad thought. .

I like my truck. . but this is getting stupid,,i mean all these people with the same problem,,and Dodge somehow manages to escape responsiblity,,,they have had the same crappy front end for 11 years now,,,the same problem happens to all different years of trucks,,,ins't anyone thinking this is a life threatning issue,,that should be brought to the National Highway Safety Board...

before someone gets killed...

This is getting to sound a lot like GM's cover up of the fuel tank explosions they had in their trucks up until 88,,,,

Hope i get this resolved,,i'm paranoiid to drive the truck now,,and thats now fun,,

Any ides

than for your time

 

[guava]

Report it to the NTSB. Thats what they are their for. Then take your documentation of reporting it to the NTSB to a dealer and ask for the regional rep. Then mail copies of everything to the DC home office... .complain to enough people and you'll get action. DC or any manufacturer hates to see complaints go outside their house. (ie the NTSB)

 

[GMincher]

I'm so sorry to hear it. I have to agree, there's a problem. I don't have any good answers, I suffer from the same thing! Good luck.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

I don't see any mention of having the alignment checked.

 

[Hootguy]

I had the alignement checked a few times...

Anyone have any good specs i could have checked elsewhere??

Also,,,it seems to happen mostly when i am braking at about 40 mph.

Hope to solve this soon,,before giving up on the old dodge alltogether. .

Thanks

 

[Joe Mc]

Hoot - do a search for "alignment" or "specs". I had a similar problem tried same fixes all of which helped a great deal but, the clincher was a good alignment - using the specs I found on the search forum. I hate to say this but, I've been from home to Grand Canyon, back and 5k miles around town, then all the way to the tip of the Keys and back, then another 3k or so around town. Basically I haven't had the alignment done about 15k miles:--) . It's tracking fine and the tires are wearing very evenly. Just my dumb luck ????



MHO get those specs, get it aligned and for shame on you for even mentioning or thinking of the "C" or "F" word. Ain't nothin like the Cummins. You're forgiven I realize your in a weak place now



Good Luck



Joe

 

[Tom Schuster]

Don't assume your ball joints and front u-joints are good. They're more than likely shot. If they are, you can throw alignments and tires at the truck all day long and it won't do anything. I get 50-60k max on the front end parts of my 97 3500 work truck whether they are greaseable or not. When my employees tell me the truck is starting to get the shakes and the mileage is getting up there, I order the whole menu and replace it all and the truck is tight again. The only exception is I use Luke's Link on the track bar--verify the pre-load-- and re-use it. Sure, I'd like to get more mileage out of these expensive parts but that front end has a lot of weight on it and gets driven on some pretty crappy roads.

 

[dseabaugh]

If it most on braking I would suspect Warped rotors. On my truck I noticed it is very picky about the brand of tires. I put 10 ply summits on it when I replaced the factory Goodyear wranglers and it drove like crap and got worse as the tires wore. I have had Firestone 10 ply Steeltex for 3 years now... . no problems other than the usual crappy steering box and track bar. Actually had similar results with My LN9000 furd. went through 4 sets of OHTSU's on front, bounced, road like crap, shook, Had the front end aligned several times, tires balanced, Put on Goodyears..... Been a dream to drive for 6 years now. Same set and they still have good tread too. Go figure. Spoiled brat vehicles. You might try putting a set of exploder brand tires on it, but watch out, when I shopped for tires at Sam's etc. they had load range D's ( same tires that ford is replacing now for coming apart on the navigaters) . 8 ply tires are not heavy enough for our trucks and separate, come apart, and put you in places you do not want to be. :-{}

 

[MidwestMotorman]

The thread to search for is #21792 by WyoJim on "Alignment Specs. " I printed it out almost three years ago and keep it in a special TDR Ram info folder right by the computer. WyoJim also gave very nice descriptions of what and how to correctly do an alignment on our rams.

He said that most of the wobbles were caused by incorrect caster settings. He gave an exact alignment setting for our rams because he stated the wobble happened while the alignment was within dealer specs. He said that the caster range was too broad and it needed some finer tuning to prevent this from happening.



Are you getting this wobble while loaded, unloaded, or both? Towing changes some alignment specs.



Good luck!

 

[Hpark]

hooter69,

I have had a similar problem with my 97 3500 Laramie QC DRW 5spd on some bumpy roads. The wobble is not a constant problem but seems to be intermittent in nature, noticed it around 145k miles. Now 155k miles. I looked at the motor mount and the driver side bushing seems to be "worn" or missing, could be the problem. I am in a process of ordering a new truck so that I can fix the 97. I also lost the 5th gear a couple of weeks ago. Let me know what you find.

 

[Extreme1]

Here is a link to that post.



Thanks Midwest! I need an alignment and I couldn't fiind my copy. I too (now) have a "Ram Info" file and this is going into it.



FWIW - my '94 has 263,000 miles on it and has never had a wobble problem. The first alignment I had done was by a gentleman that was very familiar with these trucks and he said that he used a more specific set of specs. The last place that did it didn't impress me but it needs another.

 

[BWilson]

I used to get the DW all the time until I switched to Edelbrock shocks. They are really expensive, but I have had mine on now for over 200K miles and they still work great!!!



Prior to the new shocks, nothing else helped, alignment, tie rod ends, trackc bar, link pins, etc... .....

 

[DCTECH]

I HAVE HAD TO ADD A EXTRA STEERING STABILIZER TO SOME TRUCKS TO FIX THIS PROBLEM PER TSB 19-05-96.

 

[Hootguy]

Thanks for all the info.

I just checked the position of the eccentrics on the lower control arm.

And and allthough they point in the same direction the drivers side is pointing straight ahead,,,while the passenger side is pointing straight down,,,max caster i believe.

Should i try to move the drivers side to max caster as well???

And how do i do it,,??

My alignement guy says its normal,,it's because the housing has been welded wrong from the factory...

Those this sound believable??

Thanks

 

[MidwestMotorman]

Housing welded wrong??? First time I've heard of that. Sounds like a cheap excuse due to ignorance over correct alignment analysis and procedure... BUT, I could be wrong...

 

[MCummings]

I had death wobble, and although the steering dampner was "good", I put a new pitman arm, and a dual steering Stablizer from SkyJacker, and all my DW went away. .



I also had an alignment and balance done at the same time.



Merrick

 

[Hootguy]

Hi

I did just notice a fair amount of play in the pitman arm shaft in my steering box,,which was rebuilt about 3 months ago,,

I have ordered the DSS bracket to see if that helps.

Any ideas as to which damper is best or just a stock one. .

Thanks

 

[HLEschenko]

Have you looked at/checked the run out on your rims?



I had a very bad wobble when crossing railroad tracks at an angle. And it got worse as the wearing of the tires progressed. My old rims had a very visible runout when rotated on the balance machine.



My solution was to replace the stock rims with an after market aluminum rims. I still get some wobble but nothing like I use to get.



Best of luck.

 

[Hootguy]

well,,i instaled a DSS bar on and that helped a lot. .

Steering is much tighter.

But. . the wobble is still trying to start. .

That DSS is great,,i can't wait to have the alignement checked by another shop. .

It drives much better with that stabilizer on,,everyone should get one. .

 

[JasonH]

I came across an article that might help.



"The factory rims on the Dodge Ram are a known problem. Most are not manufactured straight, and induce vibration in the truck. Replacing the rims has made the ride much smoother. Well, the TrailMaster SSV shocks helped a lot as well. "



Refer to link http://www.off-road.com/dodge/Features/ramhack.html

Originally posted by Hooter69

I have been trying to get rid of a death wobble i get on rougher roads,,mainly on decelaration at about 40mph,,,sometime on accelration but rarely. .