death wobble? on a 10 bolt?

[1-bad-burb]

so I'm driving my suburban today, nice day, great weather, trucks driving good, all of a sudden I hit these RR tracks that I go over every day and have gone over 1000 times with this truck and it felt like something broke and all of a sudden my truck started shaking/wobbling all over the road, I started to pull over and thought I was going to see both my front tires toed in or out and my tie rod broken in half, but before I got to the side of the road the truck was driving normal again, no wobble no shaking, just normal driving, but it scared the piss outa me I did a visual inspection and nothing looked wrong, I just replaced my balljoints, power steering box and put on a 2" drop steering link maybe 4000 miles ago, and maybe some of you read my other post a couple days ago about the noise I've been having that I concluded was a bad shock (actually all 4) but after this today I'm thinking maybe something more serious is wrong.

any ideas?



truck is an 85 suburban, 6.2, 4l80e, np208, 10 bolt front, 14bsf rear, 6" lift, 35" wrangler MT's, 2" drop steering link, new balljoints, new power steering box

 

[1-bad-burb]

any ideas? anybody?

 

[gmcman355]

steering stabilizer????

 

[Chaddy]

Did you put in Moog ball joints correctly? How are your drag link ends?....I bet its ball joints though.

 

[1-bad-burb]

ball joints were done right, and that was about 4000-5000 miles ago, I'll check the drag link is new too, its an after market 2" drop, and I dont think my steering stabilizer even works anymore, it felt as if one wheel had come loose and was trying to steer oppisite of the other

 

[resurrected_jimmy]

Sounds like you've already done this but make sure nothing has loosened up to start with. Then I would jack up the front end so both tires are off the ground and start shaking things until something makes itself evident. The symptoms don't sound right but check your rag joint on the steering box and check to make sure your steering box isn't walking away from the frame... i.e. cracked frame behind box or broken bolts on the steering box

 

[1-bad-burb]

I'll check those, when I put the new power steering box on I also added the weld in repair kit, it wasnt broken, just decided to do some preventitive maintenance.

 

[1-bad-burb]

I forgot to add sometimes when I hit things a certain way it feels like my front axle moves side to side? could I have hit the tracks just the right way to make it replicate that feeling but going much faster?

 

[Muddytazz]

If it feels like its moving side to side, check you u-bolts and your spring eye bolts.

 

[Propayne]

i am actually working on this in the yard right now....i have an 88 blazer with 4" lift and 33s. Our problem turned out to be the driver side leaf spring is cock eyed compared to the passenger one. this causes the shackles to not be able to line up with the frame and they wobble when they hit a bump(usually railroad tracks). we are going to take of the u bolts so we can line up the shackles to the leaf springs and see whhat happends.

dont know if this helps or not, just somethin to look at.

 

[redneckdude]

I still have 10b DW. I know i have a lot of factors going against me, wide swampers on wide rims with little BS...but mine has a ton to do with castor. I have about 5" of lift on mine and it threw the castor out bad enough to where it was causing horrible DW. I threw a 6* shim in there and guess what, 98% of it went away. I added a longer shackle after 52s and it threw it off some more, even with 6* shim, but currently its not horrible...i can deal with it and its barely noticeable to others. My guess is castor related.

 

[1-bad-burb]

found it, all my power steering box bolts were loose along with a passenger side shackle/spring eye bolt, and a u-bolt, damn diesel shakes everything loose LOL, and to think all those bolts were tightened only about 4500 miles ago



ive always heard of death wobble but have never experienced it, and I'm not to sure of what it is, and if I understand correctly its only on D 60's because of something to do with the king pins and a couple springs?


I know I'm an idiot, thank you for your time

 

[nemesis_pyros]

Nope death wobble is possible on 10 bolts (and D44's) too. I've expirienced it Oh ya its fun and you know its death wobble when it happens.

 

[marv_springer]

ive always heard of death wobble but have never experienced it, and I'm not to sure of what it is, and if I understand correctly its only on D 60's because of something to do with the king pins and a couple springs?

Death Wobble can infect anything w/ a straight front axle..! as far as I can tell.... I've seen TJ's w/ it... D44's and 10b's.... but it does seem to be aggrivated w/ more unsprung weight [bigger tires, D60's.... and such].

Marv

 

[rlhenry]

Propayne, let me know how the shackle alignment thing works out. I've dealt with DW for years and worked on numerous things to fix it, but I've never checked the alignment of the springs in relation to the frame. I've heard of people toying with the idea of puting some type of track-bar from the frame to the axle to keep lateral movement in check, but I don't know if anyone has tried it.

To all, this issue has been debated for years on this site. Everyone from rookies to GM engineers have weighed in on the topic and no one has 'the answer'. It appears that every truck is different and it's up to each owner to figure out which fix takes care of the DW. For some, it's as simple as a stabilizer, for others it's crossover steering and full hydro. Go figure.

 

[NEK5]

yes it is possible to get a DW on a 10b....i had it and my problem was a combo of the steering box serioulsy misadjusted and loose steering shaft so i put in an XJ shaft and reman box and presto! no dw!......you know its DW when you get it....scared the piss out of me

 

[virgilh]

check your u bolts and if they are loose check the center pins in the springs if the u bolts are loose hitting the rr tracks could sheer a spring pin if its broken go to the local napa store and ask for a cb12 part # if its a 3/8 pin and a cb3 if its 5/16

 

[Propayne]

rlhenry, sorry it took so long, ive been very busy.

anyway, the leaf springs were not centered to where the shackles would line up to the frame. the shackles were leaning which caused the leaf spring to wobble because it was not sturdy and center. the leaf spring would start to wobble when a bump was hit and would cause the left front tire to start wobbling as well....thus resulting in a "death wobble" type feeling.

if you need an explanation of what we did to fix it, just let me know.