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Too many questions

7

79HeavyChevy

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What are the common causes to get death wobble in a front end? I've got a 10 bolt front under my truck now and went through and did ball joints, bearings and joints about 2 years ago before I lifted it. Its always rode good on 32x11.50 then and on 35x13.50 after I lifted it. Tie rod ends have been on my to do list for awhile, but since I have swapped to a set of 38x15 it will get a death wobble ever now and then, and very violently. Looking under the truck yesterday it appears I have bent the front tie rod end upward on something but I don't know how long ago.

Also on a welded/spool'd front end I have read you need to "phase" the u joints but haven't seen any diagrams. Do they need to be on the same axis or 90 degrees off?

Maybe I just need a build thread to compile questions in....
 
i would say take care of the tie rods first and make sure to check the caster in the front end also check your drag link
 
The toe being off was my first thought aswell, just wondered why it did it and all we swapped was tires.
 
Big tires are usually harder to balance and many aren't round or have lateral runout..if swapping the tires brought the death wobble on,I'd say its probably the tire(s)...but being larger, they exert more forces on any worn parts too,so anything loose will be amplified a lot..alignment can aggravate the problem also..

I remember rotating the tires on my '72 K5 when I first got it,and I didn't get a mile down the street before it started wobbling and shaking so badly above 30 mph ,that I thought I forgot to tighten the lug nuts on at least one wheel!..I had to turn around ,go back,and put the tires back where they were originally--they had been worn "cupped" from not being rotated soon enough,and swapping them around didn't pan out too well...used tires off another truck often will do this until they "wear in"..
 
All you changed was tires though? You say you ran 32 and 33's after a lift, so you are saying nothing changed by tire diameter?

If that is all true, have you checked your steering dampener? I have never experienced death wobble, but I *have* had a steering dampener go bad, and the final straw was getting off the freeway coming to a stop, when the truck became nearly uncontrollable, and felt like all 6 lug nuts were loose on a front wheel. I had to come to a stop and inspect the wheels to try and find what had failed.

I cannot emphasize how bad that was to just suddenly have it feel like something was about to completely come loose from the steering, while still moving ~40MPH, with a trailer.

Only clue it was the dampener was that there was a drop of fluid on it. Sure enough, that solved the problem. I believe it was exacerbated by slightly warped rotors, but everything was fine until the dampener let go.
 
I did ball joints, bearings, and joints in the front end before I lifted it and it was on 32s. Left it like that for probably 6 months with no issues, then lifted it and added 35s with no problems. Been like that for about a year, swapped to 38s and death wobble appears. Want to throw the 35s back on to see if it goes back away.
 
bias ply or radial tires in 38"

if bias ply there will more than likely be a speed zone 30-35mphish it will want to possibly wobble.

my old 38 swampers did this and I tried few different balance options .
 
Any kind of alignment and wear issues in your front end are going to be exacerbated by large tires, and as others have noted, bigger tires can be harder to balance, and these problems didn't crop up until you went big. Steering dampeners are nice, but often times they become a band-aid for more serious problems. If changing/upgrading a steering dampener reduces or cures a death wobble, you really haven't solved the issue that caused the wobble in the first place.

You might as well start getting a budget going for an axle, gear and steering upgrade. 38's are a bit much to be running on a 10 bolt, and you'll end up running through ball joints, tie rod ends and steering parts; not to mention bearings and axle shafts if you plan on doing any wheeling.
 
I've said it 1000 times and I'll say it again, steering dampeners only mask a.problem that is there from something else. DW can come from anything in the front end so if you know you have bad parts left change them and then set the caster and toe properly.
 
Tie rod and TRE's is my guess. My buddies 85 K10 had 10 bolt with 36's. We bent the tie rod one day and it shook violently around 30mph. We replaced the tie rod and aligned it, the issue was gone. Also his truck didn't have a steering stabilizer.
 
Well I've got a dana 44 with 4.56's I'm supposed to go pick up next week so I probably won't worry about it till I swap it, but I'll get everything set then.

Any ideas on the u joint phasing?
 
Toe and castor are big factors. I added longer shackles to my suburban years ago and the added castor caused an occasional death wobble. A bent tie rod is a big giveaway, straighten or replace it and get new rod ends.
 
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