Does anyone know of a final fix for the death front end wobble, my wife is not happy AT ALL with how the truck handles (not) when going over bumps on highway. The truck has less than 4000 miles on it and it seems to be getting worse. I took a drive into staten island today and that was not fun at all. I need ammunition to go at the dealer with so i don't get the "rebalance tire, something was loose" BS

Thanks for any reply
I have done alot of internet research and have spoken to a couple of suspension people, so don't think I am asking this completely uninformed.

 

what year?, 2 wd or 4wd

 

sorry about that: 05 f350 sd 5.4l, 4wd, fx4, tow package, plow kit, ext cab, stock conti's on for now.

 

i have had 2 in the last couple of weeks. ford has a tsb out for this problem. 06-15-01 is the tsb. is your truck a regular truck or is it a chassis cab

 

reg truck, not sure what a chassis cab is.

 

chassis cab is where you only have a cab on the truck, no bed just straight frame. has it been doing it since day one or did it start when you added the plow or something else?

 

since day one, progressively worse

 

your dealer should know about the tsb. my first one was a track bar, this one now is getting trac bar and alignment

 

The Death Wobble. I was trying to think of a name for it, but you already have. My 06 350 crew cab dually has done it several times, mostly at highway overpass pavement joints. The last time, I was doing 70 or so, and had to say a prayer, because I thought I'd be in the ditch soon. Oscillations got larger and larger until I got it down to about 15-20 mph, at which point it calmed down.

My dealer has the truck presently, and they are performing the tasks described in TSB 5-22-1. I'm a little sceptical, because that TSB says that the vibration typically damps out after 5 oscillations. Mine get larger until you nearly stop. Seems like something is drastically underdamped. I'll try to post another reply in a couple of weeks to let everybody know if the service helps.

 

This is a shot in the dark, but if your dealer cannot fix this problem, have the tires balanced to the wheels at a shop that does high performance work. I had this same problem with an older Ford and it drove me nuts with the exact same symptoms you describe. It was cured by having the balancing done while the wheel was on the truck, not in a tire spin balancer. After this balancing, I never had another wobble experience. Granted this was a long time ago, bu ure sounds familiar.

 

Read on

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...d.php?t=439278

 

I had the same wobble the cure was a aftermarket steering stabilizer/ duel unit from Fab tech, purchased from 4-wheel parts wholesalers for $105.00 ditched the factory unit when installed......Hope this will help

 

There's a TSB that may be related:



Steering Wheel Shimmy After Riding Over Bumps/Ruts:
Some 05 and 06 F-Series trucks may exhibit an oscillation/shimmy in the steering wheel after hitting bumps or ruts in the road. Typical steering wheel movement is 5 degrees and usually smooths out after about 5 oscillations. This condition is more prevalent on 4X4 trucks with steering wheels that have radio and climate controls. The truck will need to be inspected: tire pressure checked; steering damper inspected; all suspension and steering fasteners torqued; steering checked for binding; steering gear adjustment checked/adjusted. The caster may need to be reduced by 0.5-0.75 degrees. After this, trucks build prior to 10-8-04 should have the steering wheel replaced.
King Ranch tan/pebble: 5C7Z-3600-ABE
Charcoal black: 5C7Z-3600-CBA
TSB 05 22-1

 

Yeah, Death Wobble, or...DW for short, is very very common on basically all SFA 4x4s. Roll over to PBB and do a search for "death wobble" and you'll see what I mean. I fought it for 3 months on a grand cherokee, and my offroad buggy with chevrolet axles has it like crazy too....not so much an issue as she hardly ever even gets to 20mph.

Anyway, all of my experience was on vehicles with 150k+ miles. In those situations, its a process of testing and locating loose and worn out suspension components. On a truck with only 4k miles, I dont know what it could be. But, read on anyway.

Do these in order:
-Balance tires (checked for out of round, etc) and check pressures
-Look for loose bolts on anything...shocks, tierodends, steering stab, etc...NO LOOSE BOLTS. Torque every damn bolt you see to 300ftlbs.
-Replace the steering stab. (this is usually a bandaid fix, hiding an underlying issue...but can fix it)
-Check your TREs for play or wear
-Check your steering box output shaft bearing. play here amplifies greatly by the time it gets to your tires
-Trackbar mounting bolts and bushings
-Control arm (or leaf spring) bushings and bolts
-Check your balljoints. MAJOR contributor.
-Last, check your unit bearings.

typically you'll have to find play in TREs and balljoints and the like with a crowbar. you're not going to find any play by hand.

another method is to have a buddy turn the wheel back and forth repeatedly with the engine off, and lay under the steering and methodically check each component for any play at all. another method is to place 1 tire against a curb, and with the engine running, do the same thing. be careful laying under your junk and having a buddy turn the wheel with the engine running, though.

THE best fix is to reduce the caster. This gets the turning axis of the tires away from their contact patch with the road, and makes it harder for the undamped oscillation to even get going...in effect, the asphalt helps damp it out.

All DW is an underdamped system. Find the component that is introducing ANY play to the set of components, and fix it. The biggest problem is that it can turn into a wild goose chase. You might find 1 or 2 components that need replacing, but by the time you replace them, the DW you've gotten a few times wears out some more. You keep going in a circle. DW is EXTREMELY destructive to balljoints, TREs, bushings, and especially steering stabilizers, so if you start putting new parts on but the DW persists, your new parts might be garbage after 2 episodes, putting you right back to square 1.

hope this helps
good luck, DW is a bitc#!!!

Paul

 

I`ve posted 3 times about my 05 with the death wobble & thought ford couldn`t fix it. Yesterday the dealer put 2 new front tires ( same brand- size as was on it) , let the air back down to 50 psi, & it`s a new truck. I`m not so brand loyal that I`ll just live with it- it really seemed to fix it. Mine wobbled so bad it was scary to drive. The dealer had already done the recall on it. Mine didn`t start until 10000 miles so this may just be a short term fix. I hope it isn`t, because I like the truck ( except the bad fuel millage) & plan to keep it a long time.I started to not let the dealer put on the tires because it was so bad I would have bet anyone it was something loose. Now I`m glad I did. One more thing, with all the bad rep. that some dealers get, I think 99% of them want to fix your truck just keep after them until they (ford) do.