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what is death wobble?

NOT4SHW said:
Looking for some suggestions on where to start first:

1990 Suburban D60 & 14bolt, with 44 boggers, ORD x-over steering with Rock Ram, everything on the front has less than 500 miles. Burb drove great on the boggers, like awesome, would have driven it anywhere.... Swapped to 49 Iroks, got MAJOR DW in the 20-30 mph range, can drive out of it by speeding up or slow by braking and it's ok but the DW is Scary beyond belief at that speed, just wondering where you would start.... I know the tires are hugh and are a bit much for a D60 but you know for a Daily driver it'll have to do....

Do you think the Washer trick is the first place to start?
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Yes to the shim washers. The bigger and heavier the tires, the harder a time the king pin springs have keeping the bushings seated. You have nothing to lose but $3 and a little of your time...

Rene
 
4X4HIGH said:
I have DW myself right now and am about a day away from fixing it for a long time. The major culprit of DW is a misadjusted or worn steering gear box and other front end components that are worn can also cause it or contribute to it. In my case everything has checked out good except for the play i found in my steering gear box so i'm in the middle of rebuilding another gear box as we speak. I will let you guys all know if this fix's my DW and soon after i'm going to do a write up about how to rebuild a power steering gear box. :thumb:
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hey....i am too having the same problem and will be fixing it soon....please let me know how it turns out
 
lol why doesnt everyone just put shims in their king pins.. thats all it takes.. done, over with, no more DW... 20 minutes or less if you have air tools..
 
theres not much to it... if your 16 or not... Just take the king pin caps off. buy some washers that are 1/8th inch thick... i forgot the diameter of em just bring your king pin cap to the hard ware store and find the ones that fit with the least amount of side to side slop... start with one 1/8th inch washer.if that doesnt cure it, put in another... If i remeber correct i used one 1/4 inch washer, and havent heard from the DW devil again...
 
my steering box was made in 1984, i had death wobble when i put the 60 in. I didnt like running the stabilizer, so i took the stabilizer off. put the washers in. and voila.....

Im sure my steering box had some slop in it... and im not saying rebuilding the box is a bad idea or a waste of money, it definately wouldnt hurt...

Im just saying. try a washers first.. since it about a 3 dollar job..
 
The washer trick only works on d60's though, right? if you've got the original factory goodies under there you have to go back to stabilizer,steering box, and worn bushings?
 
oh well i have ball joints then because i have stock stuff....thanks for the help....this website is awesome
 
I had to deal w/ death wobble all the time when I worked for Schwan's. I drove a GMC 6500. Nothing like death wobble with a 16K pound truck. It always happened just before a set of steer tires were starting to wear out. New tires and it was fixed. The whole fleet of trucks we had like that did it. Either smash the brakes in the middle of the road or hang on till you got out of everyones way. Sure don't miss it.

Erik
 
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