The whole front end shakes violently after hitting pothole in the road
what the hell is going on??
Hate to happen on the freeeway
Bronco has 4 inch lift
welded lift brackets
This summer I was going to tear out the front end and replace all bushings any ways
Is it a stearing problem,ball joints or bushings-pivot,radius arms???
Give me some opinions please

 

take it to an alignment shop they can give you a parts break down of what needs replaced. then go home and get dirty

 

Probubly the stablizer is shot or not big enough for your tires.

 

Well if it happened after hitting a pothole check your front tires for damage. you may have blowen a belt in the tire when you hi the pothole look for any bulges in the tires. Also check the rim for damage and check to make sure all your wheel weights are still on the rims may have throwen one when you hit the pothole. you can also swap your tires from front to back and see if the vibration moves with it then this will tell ya if its tire/rim problem or stearing

 

you have what the 4x4 comunity calls the death wobble how long have you had your lift and what year bronco do you have it could be bushings it could also be to much tilt on your axle but probably not with a 4" lift

 

Lift has been on 7 years
The shake in the front end has been getting worse over the last year
Yesterday it was actually scary

 

If it's smooth until you hit a bump. Then it goes to the shake and doesnt stop till you slow way down, its the death wobble. The answer is a good steering stabilizer. (or two if you are running 35" or bigger tires.)

 

you still didn't say the year of bronco you have, stabilizer could be wore out but mostlikly its the bushings. stabilizers can also hide a problem

 

1994
after market steering stabilzer

 

 

nice bronco what condition are the bushings in, since you said you were going to change them this summer anyways are they poly(good) or rubber(probably shot after 7 years) are the shocks and stabilizer as old as the lift. The ttb doesn't suffer from this as much as solid axle rigs do it comes from looseness somewhere or specs out of spec do you have the radius arm spacers or the extended superlift arms looks like the spacers from your pitchure can't see the long thing under the front fender. I had a 85 short bed with the 6" lift with ext. arms and the steering system, cut outs and 35" tire the ttb can give some awsome articulation. I helped a friend of mine put 9" of lift on a jeep cherokee and when we lengthend the arms we mis measured the bottoms by 1/2" which set the caster angle out past the max 7.5 degrees and it developed the death wobble, put that 1/2" in the lower arms and it went away though it still feels loose over bumpy roads but no shake.

 

It would be good idea to put your bronco up on stands and go through and check the torque on all your nut and bolts and pay attention to the axle drop brackets to see if any loosness has wore or bent them.

 

Steering stabilizer = poor man's solution to an otherwise fixable problem. (Argue if you feel it necessary but you won't change my mind. Never run one and never will.)

Lets go back through this one step at a time.

1. The truck has had minor shuddering in the front end for a while.
2. The truck is lifted.
3. The truck has larger-than-stock tires and therefore has additional unsprung weight to deal with.
4. You hit a pothole and things got significantly WORSE.
5. Your symptoms are indicative of a failed bushing or mounting.

Put the truck up on something strong enough to support it at the frame and let the front end hang there. (Take the front wheels off if you can't get it high enough for the wheels to clear the pavement.) Without the weight of the truck, you can crawl around and have a close look (and a tug) at every bushing and bolt. Pay particular attention to any bushing or bolt that actually attaches the axle to the truck. I.E. axle pivots and radius arms first since these two sets of mounts are the only semi-rigid connection between the axle halves and the frame of the truck. And take time to check bolts and such that are not typically service points because hitting a pothole hard enough can damage these as well.

I personally chased the exact issue you are dealing with for three months and several ASE mechanics couldn't find it. I finally found a broken axle pivot mounting bracket... not the bushing or bolt but the OEM bracket had sheared off just above the bushing.

 

While I agree a stablizer can mask some problems, that doesnt mean you dont need one. If you dont run one, your bushings and such will ware much faster. We all know about the stories of broken thumbs hooked in the steering wheel when you hit a rock. On my old Bronco, I had the exact same symptoms. Took the factory stab off. Replaced it with a double stab. End of problem. It may be that it had a bad bushing, but it never showed up for alot of years after that. Some people cant run to the alianment shop every other week just because they went off roading.

 

yeah you need one stabilizer to control bumps that jarr the steering and help it control to take stress out of components but too many are just hiding a problem when you get a double stabilizer check the part #s there not giving you 2 singles to mount there giving you 2 that are valved different because two singles is too much. I had the death wobble a coulple times and until I learned what to do most shops look at it and say uhh thats because of those big tires because they don't want to deal with it or are just as lost as you are. I had a dealership write on my repair slip unit is unsafe to drive at any speed one time.