My truck has been used primarily a a plow truck on the farm for a few years, butI put it back on the road to do a few jobs, seemed fine, but now, if I hit a bump just right, the entire front end wobbles like crazy, like on a cartoon, need to come to a complete stop for it to go away. And I mean it shakes violently. The front end has a few loose ends, but they don't seem looses enough to be this bad, it has a stabilizer, lord knows if it's any good. Any ideas?

 

You answered your own question.

 

I've been dealing with the exact same issue, except I completely rebuilt the axle before swapping it in. I'd start with replacing the trac bar bushings and then the front spring and shackle bushings (I'll be doing mine tonight!). If that doesn't fix it, you may need to rebuild you kingpins.

 

Ya, but I've had ends this loose on cars and trucks before and never got a wobble like this.

By track bar you mean the large stationary one, I call it center link, man what does that thing cost, actually that has the most play, but I can't beleive it would transfer that much wobble to the wheel.

 

It will. On my old 79 Bronc, there was just a slight bit of play in the bushings on the track bar, but it was enough. Put in new bushings and got all the slop out, and the wobble was gone.

 

Maybe we are talking abt. something differnt, the bar I mean is abt. 3 ' long with tie rod ends on it, is this what you guys are calling track bar, because I can't change the ends, have to change the whole bar.

 

Change your tie rods, I JUST went through this last month, same as yours, I had to come to a complete stop before it wouldn't shake. There are quite a few possible issues that cause a death wobble, but tie rods are the MOST common.

 

No, your looking at the center/drag link. The trac bar is behind the axle and goes from the frame cross member down to the axle just under the passenger side spring pearch.

 

OK that makes sense, I can't tell if it's loose though, it may be, the truck is old as the hills and that makes sense why the other rods are loose but not loose enough, in my opinion to transfer that kind of wobble.

 

A set of Moog trac bar bushings only cost $21 at O'Reillys.

If you want to try other things, here's a list of approximate prices:

Front spring and shackle bushings - $55 (Autozone)
All steering linkage - $500 for Moog, $200 for MasterPro (O'Reillys)
Kingpin rebuilding kit - $50 each (east coast gear, bronco graveyard, etc.)

There's a post somewhere on this site that talks about putting flat washers under the kingpin cap to increase the spring preload and supposedly eliminate the death wobble. I haven't tried this yet so I can't vouch for it. I'll see if I can find a link for you.

 

Here you go:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...bble-cure.html

 

Sounds good, I appreciate it.