I have not had my 79 on the road long, got 2 Problems!

There is one old bridge in town every time I go over it at 30+ I get the death wobble, today I hit a 3in roll of tape at 35mph got real bad death wobble. What should I look at?

I can not keep traction, at 1st I thought it was cool! But I got a ticket for spinning tires in 3rd gear and was not even trying? I Was pulling the hill to work in the rain, 4th gear, 30 mph, was not hard on gas, and broke loose? got all most brand new 31x 10.5x15 all weather tires? Snow is coming soon need to some how fix this?

 

A 79's solid front axle should have the basics for suspension and steering control. The track bar holds the axle centered under the truck. Worn bushings at either the frame or axle end will allow it to shimmy left-to-right under the truck under the right conditions. Otherwise you are dealing with ball joints, tie-rod ends, C-bushings and radius arm bushings along with shocks up front.

As for the traction issue, are you running an LS or locker? They can get "squirrely" in wet conditions if you aren't used to them. Otherwise, take the brick out of your shoe. I'm just not sure what else there is unless the tires are worse off than you imagine.

 

Also try not to hit a 3" roll of tape at 35mph. Must've come out of nowhere!

But i agree with Grey, make sure all your bushings and ball-joints are in good shape. Maybe look into a stabilizer AFTER you get the bushings/joints redone.

 

Had my sister crank the wheel while I was under the truck, the track bar bushings are almost gone! I'm going to start there!

 

I had a 73 F100 that kept breaking the tires loose at the least provocation , (0nly one it turned out). The problem turned out to be a brake line with a pin hole that squirted brake fluid onto the left rear tire every time I hit the brakes, and lubed it up. Weird.

 

It's a 400 with 4.11s and 31'' tires, it's a torque monster, lowend under 2000RPMs are like a Cummins or big Powerstroke. I couldn't keep my open rear-ended F150 calm with 31s and 3.55s and a 400. The truck was sort of tough to drive because of it, so I defintely understand.

If you don't have a limited slip rear, change out your carrier ASAP, they make a world of difference in rain or snow, will be a cheap upgrade too, I tihink you can find a good LS carrier for under $200. On dry pavement, I can't spin my 33s even if I try with my LS rear and basically have to floor it when the ground is wet to spin them.

Also, what tires are they? AT or not, some tires are just not good.. rain is the hardest thing to get right with a tire in my experience. I had some general grabber AT2s, absolutely amazing all terrain tires overall for the price, but didn't have grooves for rain, made them useless when the ground was wet and that was in a little Honda CRV.
Snow and Rain are two totally different ballgames, the tires will probably be great in the snow.

edit: and I'm not sure it was 'death wobble', but when I had too weak of rear shocks on my Bronco and hit something, like rough tracks at high speed, it would bounce like crazy and I would lose control until I slowed down. I THINK it was the same principle as death wobble. Definitely love my TTB frontend.. but anyways, for the rear, it was KYB Monomax shocks that solved it, solid axles are great for crawling, but at speed you really have to make sure everything is tight and the suspension is dampened well for bumps when one tire hits. Loose suspension parts and/or weak shocks.. of course, fix suspension problems before buying shocks if yours arent completely shot.

 

I finally changed the track arm bushings, WoW it drives better! Best $8 I have spent on the Bronco in a while! I cant really test it out because the bridge were I have had trouble has now been repaved!

 

you can always put a roll of duct tape in the road and give it a shot LoL
J/K
i need to do this as well.
glad to see you got it fixed.

 

I recommend verifying your steering box bolts and the track arm mounting bracket bolts are tight with a torque wrench. The death wobble can have a tendency to make them loosen.

A 78 I used to have cracked the frame at the steering box becaue of this.

 

Worn out radius arm bushings are #1 cause of the death wobble. Easy and cheap fix.

 

You mean track bar bushings, I hope. The radius arms tie the axle fore-and-aft to the frame and have little to do with lateral stability.

Reminds me of the guy at the local auto parts chain store who insisted I buy "radius arm" bushings because they are the same as "track bar" bushings.