Exactly what do you mean when you say "death wobble". What year and model is your truck?

 

Hi, the death wobble is jsut that a wobble in thwe front wheels that will shake you to death it is a very violent shimmy in the front end and the only way I have found to end it (except for fixing the problem) is to either stand on the brakes to get the speed down or if you have the guts stand on the gas it will stop when the wheels turn faster. John

 

Loose,worn,or not properly adjst. wheel bearings.
Worn out shocks or shock bushings.
These can cause shimmy or wobble in 2wd or 4wd.



Garett

 

I don't know if this will help or not. I have a 1992 F-250 4x4 with the twin traction front axle. My truck would shake like crazy over 50 mph after hitting a bump or turning the wheel. The only way to stop it was to hit the brake and slow down.
I got under the truck and just about where the oil pan sump portion is, the front axle has a small steel piece with 2 bolts with (13/16) nuts facing the rear of the truck, mounted on a small steel plate about 3" long x about 1 1/2 " The bolts are tacked into the metal piece from the factory and mount on the front side of the twin traction axle so the bolts come through to the rear and are just below the oil pan. These nuts continually kept coming loose and I would tighten them, truck was good for a while, they came loose. The reason they kept coming loose is that the twin traction axle is bolted to the frame from the bottom, bolts facing up towards the pan into the crossmember. One of these bolts had fallen out and it was nearly impossible to see that. One bolt was left in place and that seemed to be the way it was meant to be. Wrong. This would cause these other two bolts I have mentioned, to wiggle loose, therefor the front end shake. I was at my wits end when I discovered this. Ford had no clue as to what or why. Look under the axle, as I said, about where the oil pan sump is, look up and see if two bolts are holding this axle to the frame. Also check this metal piece which is parallel to the front axel and be sure these two bolts are tight, I mean TIGHT!. If you don't have this type of a front end I guess I can not offer any suggestions. Good luck.

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 12-Jan-02 AT 08:16 AM (EST)]I have a 1988 F-450 Super Duty 7.3 with an 11 foot utility bed. When I first got the truck it would go into an almost uncontrollable wobble at about 40 miles an hour if you hit even the smallest bump in the road. Very violent shake, you could not hold onto the steering wheel. My front end guy called it stacked tolerance. What that means is that a bunch of stuff is out of tolerance a little bit or a lot and the combined slop in the front end ends up oscillating if you do something that induces the oscillation at the correct frequency. In my case just replacing the track bar fixed the problem. There was also a pretty out of balance front tire which is what I think started the wobble but it was the slop in the track bar that alowed it to keep going.

 

have an alignment shop check it out....sounds like to much caster to me...just a thought

 

if your working on a bronco or 73-79 150 it's most likely the track bar Ford dealer can replace bushings for a few dollars