Well, I've been experiencing some mild death wobble up front on my newly purchased 94' Bronco. Its a pretty good shimy at around 55mph. Kind of a rocking back and forth of the front axle. This gets worse with pressure on the brakes above 55mph. However, I have checked the rotors, and although I will be needing new pads fairly soon, the rotors are not warped. My experience with coil sprung vehicles hasn't been pleasant, as I have owned two lifted Jeep Cherokees and both have had the dreaded death wobble at some point in their lives.

I know how expensive it has gotten trying to fix those Jeeps, and I am hoping for some insight as to where to start to look, Its not wheel bearings, I checked those along with the rotors last night. I get zero play vertically with the tire off the ground. It needs some new front shocks, and I will be balncing the front tires as soon as move my MTRs over from my Cherokee to the Bronco. I am hoping that a simple alignment will fix it, but it will be a week or so before I can get it into a shop for a good computerized one. Is there anything that is usually suspect on these front ends?

Its a 94 Eddie Bauer 4wd with 89K on it. Bone stock except for a flowmaster exhaust.

 

Look at the linkage ie bushings, especially the link from the frame to the axle, or just have a friend in the truck steer back and forth while you look at all the bushings. You prob have a worn drag link bushing. hope that helps

 

To add to what Deebo said, you could have a tie rod end going too. I know you said no vertical movement which should mean bearings and ball joints are ok but what about left/right play or slop from knuckle to knuckle or knuckle to pitman arm. The TTB has more than its fair share of bushings under there.

I would doubt that this would be the problem you you might check raduis arm bushings since you will be under there looking at all the rest of them.

 

#1 shimmy (other than unbalanced tires) is a bad bushing. as posted before check the bushing from the frame to the axle. also check the radius arm bushing. Shoot check them all while you are down there.

 

Thanks for the info. I'll check the bushings this weekend. I'm sure the tires help promote the shimmy, and i will be finally getting my MTRs on there this weekend too.

 

death wobble, I thought that was a "Jeep thing". I have not heard that since I was lurking the Jeep Unlim. site. I think I had one of the only XJs that didn't have death wobble!

 

Before you get too deep, try something simple. Pull the front shocks and manualy push them in and out. Sometimes they develope dead spots or will catch. Might not look leaky or anything. I've been there, a few times If you don't see any of the tie rod ends loose when the wheels turned back and forth and your front tires are straight up and down and and not leaning in like if your ball joints are bad, then I would pay close attention to your pitman arm. It's the hardest part to visually look at if there's problems. I don't know if it's been lifted or worked on much, but I've seen it more than once where someone replaced all the front end parts exept for the pitman arm-it's such a bear to get off. And you usually see VERY little slop when they're bad.

Good Luck

 

yo,
our 96 Bronco had a "fractured" pitman; drove it off the dealer's lot (bought new) and wobbled home. Each highway expansion strip caused the Bronco to dart. Thought it was overinflated tires/loose wheel; loose shock, etc. at first, but by the time I arrived home, I knew we had a problem.

Not that your pitman may be bad; our's was considered a "fluke" by the Ford area guru.

 

Yup. Death Wobble is definitely a Jeep term. Still, any coil sprung vehicle can get it. I am not experiencing anything close to what I did with my old Grand Cherokee. I destroyed a great driving vehcile when I lifted it, and spent an unbelievable amount of money try to fix the problem. Never did anything in stock form though.

I checked the ball joints, and they are fine. I will check everything esle this weekend. I'm taking it to a buddy's shop to get it up on the rack to go through the front end.

 

Just a thought and something simple to test out first...I had the same "Death Wobble" not to long ago, it ended up only being a busted bead in my rear drivers side tire. It shook extremely bad at higher speeds and even worse when the brake was applied.

 

Before you buy anything, rotate the tires. I had death wobble bad driver's side front. rotating fixed it.