Does anyone know what could make the front end of my 94 shake so bad at about 40. THe wheels wobble really bad and make me have to come to almost a complete stop make the shaking go away. It is lifted on 38's.

 

Check everything under the front end for looseness. If you can have it put on a lift, all the better. I'd do it real quick before something falls off. Seriously.

I saw a Bronco one time where the bolts for the axle pivot drop brackets backed off. You could drive this thing down the road and crank the wheel over 180 degrees and the truck would still drive straight.

 

Have your tires re-balanced. Oversized tires tend to come un-balanced rather easily, and when they start shaking you have to slow down a lot to get it to go away. If you want a quick check swap the front and back wheels. The front tires tend to come unbalanced before the rear ones. So, if you swap them the vibration may go away, or move to the back of the truck.


Having wheels balanced isn't very expensive, so I'd start there.

Hope that helps.

 

I had s truck that did what you said, it turned out to be the ball joints and steering stablizer shock. I had to upgrade to a dual shock settup because of the larger tires in had. hope this helps

 

Thanks guys, I just got the tires, so I'll start there, thanks for the input.

 

do a search on death wobble, i just seen a post the other day about this, there is something about shiming the spring over the ball joints or something like that, i cant remember which thread it was in but its not very old.

 

This is my take on "death-wobble". Don't laugh, I bet some of this has some merit!!!

1. Out of balance tires:
Yes. Can definitely cause DW because when weight is thrown around a concentric path, it wants to maintain its trajectory (straight out). The more weight, the stronger the force that wants to make your tires wobble. In theory, a wider tire will be more prone to causing death wobble as there is more distance to each sidewall from the centerline of the tire tread surface. I saw this first hand (driving) with my 76 SB. I had a set of 35x15.5 TSL/SX's and had them balanced really well. I sold the wheels I had them mounted on, and put them on some new wheels. Since I didn't want to spend the time to balance them again myself, I sent them to *cough*Les Schwab*cough* and paid them to balance the tires. Now, I had balanced these tires myself before....and they took TONS OF WEIGHT to balance. When I got them back from Schwab, they had 4 ounces on each side. I thought, "Maybe they have a better way to balance tires." HA HA HA I couldn't even get the truck past 30 MPH and DW was throwing me all over the highway. Needless to say, I got my $$ back and haven't gone there again.

2. Worn STEERING components:
I don't know about this one. The only way I can see this as being true is if there's so much slop that the tires can wobble back and forth so much that steering inputs by the driver are totally null.

3. Worn SUSPENSION/CHASSIS components:
Yes, definitely. Worn track bar bushings and ball-joint/kingpin slop are probably on the top of the list for DW concerns. Anytime the axle/tire or wheel assembly can move back and forth with little to no resistance, especially with one or more of these other concerns in conjunction, DW is likely to occur. Look at 94-up Dodge pickups with lift-large tires and the problems they encounter when they have worn upper track bar joints!!! I've seen DW at 80 MPH with a 95 Cummins. You could see the scuff marks on the front tires 3/4 of the way up the sidewalls where it was bouncing side to side. Those were only 35x12.50's. A new track bar solved that problem.

4. Frame/Chassis harmonics:
These are real. I have experienced this first hand. My 95 F-350 NEVER had death wobble or even tried it until I put on axle anti-wrap bars for the first time. I needed them because of 8" worth of lift blocks in the rear (I know that's wrong) that would pull my driveshaft slip-joint apart in reverse. I don't run that setup anymore!!! Anyway, I put the bars on and thought "Hmm. Maybe I should preload these a little." BAD IDEA. With the bars pre-loaded, the truck would expereince DW almost immediately. I backed them off and just let them run loose and the DW disappeared. When I went to get my new 49's, I experienced DW again....this was because with the weight in the box, the bars had tightened up again (sagged suspension, less bar angle). I loosened the bars and the DW was gone again.

There's my $.06 (too long to only be $.02)

Cody

 

I Have An 2002 F-150 4x4 And The Front End Has Eaten 3 Idler Arms This Year.i Work With 2 Men Who Have New 2005 F-150 4x4 With Stock Tires And There Front End Wobbles Some At Between 45-55.my Front-end Mand Said They Make A Part,all He Knows Is Its Called The Problem Solver.it's An Idler Arm Thats Twice The Size Of A Stock One.he Replaced His With It And He Hasent Bought One For Almost 2 Yrs.and Before He Was Changing Them Out Every 2-3 Months,and He Had About The Same Size Tires That You Have.

 

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Enjoy FTE

 

I work at a Chevrolet dealership and belive me, I know about idler arm problems!! Good thing Ford hadn't messed around with a-arm IFS until '97 or us Ford guys would've had the same problem much earlier. Stupid IFS.

I've never heard of DW on an A-arm IFS before though.......Kinda weird. TTB and solid axle yes, but IFS, no. Wait, I know why!! Nobody I know has stooped to the level to drive a GM truck....with IFS anyways.

Cody

 

I have a 2005 that I did not know had light truck tires on it. Put e load rated tires on at correct tire pressure problem solved

 

Boy, this is a old thread.

 

You might check my new thread for today. As I started getting the dreaded death wobble on giant pot holes. My cause was evident on inspection. Hopefully, yours is not as bad, as I have high miles 200K.