So, I've been chasing down a horrendous death wobble in my 1992 2wd extended cab F250, and everything I've done so far is make it worse. Maybe that's a good thing.

Inflated from the 25-30 to 50psi (D range 33's on it, stupid, but low priority) - made wobble worse.
Left side ball joints ( top left was the only one of the four with any play) - no effect.
Completely shot axle pivot bushings - replaced - no effect.
Front end bounced like a ball- new front shocks, along with the first of two radial arm bushing sets (ran out of time) - made it way worse.

No visible play anywhere in steering- wheels move immediately when steering wheel is moved, no slop. No evidence of bad motor or body mounts. Steering box seems bolted on tight.

So, what next? I literally cannot hit a regular concrete expansion joint at over 32 mph without a terrible wobble, which I have to come to a full stop to end.

I was thinking - other radial arm bushing - rotate tires - rear shocks - coil springs? (no known history on the truck, how would I tell if it needed new springs?) - Tie rods/draglink/Pittman?

The tie rods do rotate a bit within their regular range of motion but they're really easy to rotate by hand. No back and forth or looseness in the joints themselves.

I'd like to stop making it worse, so any direction you guys can give would be great.

Jon

 

First thing I would try is rotate the tires. Check to see if either of the front ones have any bulges or uneven wear.

 

Yes start cheap, tires being rotated, grease the ball joints and tierods, balance tires, and then steering stabilizer....some will say stabilizer just masks the problem but it's always done the trick for me

 

I would jack up the front end and put my foot on the bottom of the tire and hand on top and check for play side to side. sounds like wheel bearings to me. if it is you can lose the entire wheel going down the road, good thing is it's a fairly cheap fix

 

Thanks, guys. Forgot to mention that I did replace the dented-up steering stabilizer that was already there.

The front right tire got some surface abrasions on the inside wall, I think during the tow here, from a loose wheel well liner. I'll rotate today, at least -irritating thing is that I don't want to replace it just yet, because I don't WANT 33x12.5x16.5's on this truck, I'd rather have something closer to stock on 16's.

I'll update after the 2nd radial arm bearing and tire rotation that are the plan today.

Jon

 

i noticed that every time i got death wobble on my 88 the sector shaft on the steering box was about to snap off. i am on my 4th steering box in 493,000 miles.

 

That's what I'm starting to suspect, something in the steering box. How could you tell it was the sector shaft?

Jon

 

the sector shaft seal would start leaking and dump all the fluid just before it would break.
luckily i only had one break on me, and the steering still worked. i had the new box on hand and was starting to remove the old one. i went to pull the pitman arm off the box, and the sector shaft stub came down with the pitman arm.
the other 2 boxes the sector shaft was cracked almost in half, but still strong enough to stay in the box.
with me, the death wobble usually starts around 3-4 weeks before the sector shaft seal lets go.

 

I'm subscribing to this thread. I'm chasing the same thing with my 92' 2wd CC Dually. i have a slight wobble at slower speeds, and while braking it sometimes gets a bad death wobble. it just started yesterday. i checked the bearings/ball joints and they all seem fine. steering has no play. the truck does pull to the right while driving(has since i got it 2 months ago), and the passenger side steer tire is very worn compared to the driver side. I'm assuming the alignment is off, but death wobble has me stumped.

 

your alignment is off if the tire is worn like that. for a 2 wheeler, check the radius arm bushings, and check to see if the arm is bent.

 

If your right rear is better than your right front, switch them out, as tecgod and dirty diesel pointed out.

Not so much out there on the problem on 2wd's. I did some more messing with the steering, which seemed to lead me to the steering box- while I see tire movement immediately when I turn the wheel, it seems to be 'soft' - like you could chock the sides of the wheels somehow and you'd still be able to turn the wheel more than you should.

So, I got lucky, Advance had a reman for $140 in stock. I'll pull the steering box in the next day or two, and give it a once-over before putting in the new(er) one. Nothing else seems to have made much of a difference.

 

ive seen an explorer with rack and pinion have simular situation when you turn the wheels with out have the engine running IE if you check front end for play or move tires side to side, fix for that was drive in a tight figure 8's

 

are you getting the wobble after you hit a bump or after you get to a certain speed

is the wobble side to side or up and down

side to side will shake the crap out of the steering wheel almost pull it out of your hands

up and down will make your dash bounce more and sound horrible like your dash is about to fall out

up and down is usually bad shocks and or tires

try to find a stretch of road that is four lanes and you know it will wobble on have a couple of buddies drive another car (beer usually works in the buddy department) have a passenger in your friends car watch your front tires when you get the wobble honk your horn if its a shock that is the wobble he will see that front tire bounce like a basket ball ( i have seen 2 inches of day light under a tire at 55 mph ) but remember you wont feel it in the steering wheel as much as in the dash and your butt

if its after a bump and is NOT dependent on speed (sometimes wobbles at 25 sometimes at 55 how fast and hard the wobble is RELATED to speed) then you have a loose part or parts

i cant remember on the 92 (been 15 years since i worked at the dealership) if they still used the rubber embossed tie rod ends if so get rid of them if you still have them

next thing is the shaft in the gear box and all the joints from the gear box to the spindles

with the truck running and a buddy at the wheel outside of the truck full weight of truck on the ground after pulling forward to a stop never backing up to a stop ( can load up the suspension in funny ways if you back up then brake) lay under front by the steering box and look at the shaft coming out of it at the pit man arm have your friend turn the steering wheel back and forth quickly about a third of a turn on the steering wheel rather quickly if the shaft or the bearings in the box are starting to go bad you should be able to see a small deflection in the shaft as it goes from side to side changing directions same thing with the tie rod ends and other joints
you really dont want any movement in the box if you can see it it is bad and very minimum if no movement in the joints

check the frame where the gear box bolts to it see if you have a loose or broken bolt or cracked frame again truck running full weight on tires with a friend at the wheel you want ZERO movement between the gear box and frame

also check the joints in your steering column between the gearbox and fire wall again with the help of a friend at the wheel full weight on the ground again if the shaft deflects more then 1/8 of an inch it is usually to much

it can be a LOT of little movement in a few places but basically if you can see it its too much

a 1/4 inch of play or more between the gear box and spindle can translate to over 3/4 of an inch to 1 1/4 inch of travel at the tire

it only takes the tire moving 1/4 of in play to give you a vibration so 3/4 to 1 1/4 will scare the crap out of you

replacing a steering stabilizer works a lot of the time because it slows that rapid side to side movement down as the stabilizer wears the wobble returns

if the problem is directly speed related all the time ( can not go over 35 EVER if i do the wobble gets faster the faster i go but always starts at around the same speeds) you got junk tires or a SEVERE balance problem and also some loose parts tires would help the most if this is the case

try rotating front to back and side to side try to notice a difference

had a guy one time been to 3 shops with a speed wobble no one could find any

thing took me 4 tries and a LOT of luck to find it

the speed and severity of the wobble would change from week to week

ended up being the guy lived on a nasty gravel ( um mud road ) and he bought a car wash deal from a mister car wash with unlimited washes to keep his truck clean ever time he came to town he would get his truck washed as soon as he came before going to shops to have them look at it (old guy didn't like looking dirty and damn it i want my moneys worth for the car wash LOL)

his wheels were packing with mud

most of the mud would get washed out at the car wash before he would go to the shops and since he was in town he didnt feel the wobble as much

now the funny part is the only way i found this out was i was at the same car wash on my lunch break trying to relax because i knew this piece of **** FORD with a stupid wobble and irritating old man that had been to 3 other dealerships was coming in this afternoon AGAIN

2 cars in front of me i saw his truck pull ahead after having the rims blown out by a kid and there was 4 HUGE piles of mud where he was sitting

made myself look like a rock star that day LOL didn't tell anyone i say that just spent 45 min talkin to the guy asking him questions and slowly led him to the answer LMAO the guy tried if out for a month and he noticed it was weather related ( it would rain his truck would shake ) then he stopped back and tipped me 200 bucks LOL

front ends ARE NOT SCAREY you only have so many points of side to side movement it can take time but you will find it

 

had it at the shop today. death wobble was so bad on the way there i was limited to about 30mph just to stay on the road. violent enough to strip the top bolts out of the front bumper. my passenger side front tire was bad(broken belts bulging out, almost completely worn etc). The tires were 10 years old so I replaced both steer tires with new ones, and the problem seemed fixed...for about 5 miles, then while going around a curve it came back again. wobble is side to side and up and down lol. extremely violent and uncontrollable. everything in the front end is tight. Further inspection revealed that the truck still has the ORIGINAL front shocks and steering stabilizer on it(215,000 miles). Putting shocks and stabilizer on it and then aligning it on Thursday. hopefully it will take care of the problem. On the other hand, i've ran a chevy s10 without front shocks before(they fell off) and never had any problems. so i just dont know that shocks/stabilizer can cause such a violent wobble.

As of now it is unsafe to drive and is my daily driver so i'm just looking for an answer

 

Thanks, F350dualie, that's a lot of information!

I finally got around to getting my wife to sit in the cab and wiggle steering around. I could probably convince myself there was a VERY subtle amount of play somewhere around the sector shaft/Pittman arm, but all the other suspension/steering joints were tight. So I had her move the wheel back and forth more, and just starting looking around.

Duh.

The axle pivot bracket (right side, drivers' tire axle) was moving. First look, nice bobo no-grade Home Depot bolts with nylon-centered lock nuts and lock washers. Crawl farther under. Top mounting corner is totally broken off, hanging by a very loose bolt!

I can't believe I put axle bushings in this thing a week ago and never noticed.

The bracket's the only thing in that area not covered with a nice 20 year layer of sludge, clearly it's been replaced.

I have chosen to make myself feel better by assuming the combination of crappy bolts and worn suspension components (most replaced this week) was the culprit, and when I get a new bracket in there I'll have rectified the cause by replacing everything else first. I bet it finally broke because of the slop everywhere else.

Now I have to find this stupid part.