Alignment Shops

[GilesTaco]

The tacoma has always had a hint of death wobble from right after I finished the solid axle swap, but didnt get bad until recently. I was sure that the slop in the suspension bushing was the cause, but after replacing with new springs, poly bushings and 3/4 bolts its gotten even worse. Our logic as to why this is happening is tighter setup equals feeling the wobble worse inside the cab. We did a good check of all the steering components tonight and found the steering box was loose and the shackels had a few more turns in them. Tightened them up and take it down the road and bam, bad death wobble still.

So that you understand what I mean by death wobble, the truck wont stop shacking until its stoped or close to it and its triggered by uneven road surfaces and potholes. A flat smooth road doesnt do it.

The first option we are going to try is find acurate alignment readings. This brings me to my question. Where is an alignment shop that has people who will be knowledgable about what they do? I need to make sure that its in spec first and then go from there.

If anyone has any comments or similar experiences I would be grateful for the responses and or assistance.


Brian

[Lukipela]

It could be your steering stabilizer, I know that a blown stock steering stabilizer, the front slightly out of alignment, and any bump in the road is what would cause my shit your pants scary death wobble. But I drive an xj and don't know that your would just be as simple to fix as mine was.

South Main Auto Service is a good place to go.
http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?la ... o%20Repair
They are not hard to find, you can see them from the street and they are before you cross the bridge over 460.

[Steinberg]

sounds like a repeat of cody's rig- his front end was tight as could be and it still got the wobble. his caster measured out to something like 10 degrees positive (about double what it should be), and my best guess is that was his root problem. I run fairly low caster on mine and so long as my tracbar bushing is not completely shot, it rides fine. I have an angle-finder-dohickey- we can measure the caster camber and toe on that biatch in your driveway.

PS... I have yet to need a steering stabalizer on my rig.

[Billet Benny]

Brian,
Death wobble can stem from many things the easiest to think of being worn bushings, steering box, etc. However, the root of the problem often lies in the equipment you're using combined with their settings, including but not limited to caster, toe, camber, wheel/tire concentricity, wheel/tire balance, spring rates, and play along any joint in any way from tierod ends to ball joints and pitman arms. What you have a resonance that by some way of your setup causes it to be excited by common road bumps.

DO NOT try to just fix it with a steering stabilizer. Fix it without one and then if you like add one later. Putting on a stabilizer is a band-aid and is not fixing the root of the problem which may allow it to occur unexpectedly at anytime in the near future along with allowing it to get worse.

I don't know an alignment shop worth a shit around here, but getting a pro alignment done first is the best thing to start the trouble shooting. Beyond that it's time to really inspect things and find out where the cause of the problem may be.

[alk1174]

I helped him go through it last night and here is what we know so far.
-Springs with all poly bushings are new and tight, there is no noticeable play in the susp.
-Shackle angle is pretty steep still trying to get that set correctly but would like to break in the springs a little to see how they will settle but cant because of the DW
-Air pressure in tires is at 38
-The TREs seem to be tight.
-The steering box was tightened (we think the death wobble shook it loose) the box appears ok but could be suspect it is leaking and was loose on the frame but I cant see any noticeable play
-One driverside balljoint has some play, pass side seems fine
-Caster measures around 5deg off of the top of the steering arm.
-There is some degree of toe in not sure how much.
-Steering stabilizer seems ok it has been there all along
-U bolts are tight
-Wheel bearings have not been checked but seem to be tight
-Tire balance and shape are questionable if I remember correctly he said they rode rough (35x1250 BFG MTs)

As it stands now the only things I question are ball joints or alignment. Anyone think of where elso to check?

[CRAWL3R TJ]

Unless South Main Auto has changed in the past couple years I would not go to them unless you are looking to spend money on other "issues" that they come up with. I took my TJ to Roanoke Spring Works for an alignment since I work in downtown Roanoke so it was easy to drop off and pick up after work. I wasn't having any problems with death wobble, but the Jeep did tend to pull to the right pretty bad. They got it straightend out for me. Now that I have gone to 36" TSL's I have death wobble, but the panhard bushing is shot and the tires need to be balanced a little better. Just haven't had the time to work on it.

[Steinberg]

5deg caster sounds reasonable to me. check the toe-in with a tape measure on the lip of the wheels in front and behind the axle. this will give you an idea if the toe is WAY off or not. if it drives smooth up until you hit the bump in the road, I doubt tire balance is the problem- you'd run into some vibration before the DW if that was the case.

just curious- where is the steering stabalizer positioned on your rig? between the tierod and axle housing?

[alk1174]

The steering stabilizer is tying the tie rod to the housing. I know his toe is set in, we tried to get some decent measurements off the rotor but the brakes were in the way.

[Steinberg]

we tried to get some decent measurements off the rotor but the brakes were in the way.

i usually but the tape up against the lip of the wheel on each side. another shadetree option is to jack up and spin each wheel, and score a line into the tread with a sharp point.

[GilesTaco]

The steering stabalizer is between the axle housing and the tierod. I am almost positive that the steering stabilazer has nothing to do with the death wobble. This shit is unbelievably bad and seems to be something not visable to the eye which leads me to alignment. The only spec that seams off is the toe and that being too much toe in. I dont know that for sure though because I dont think I can measure acurately enough on those boogered up old tires.

Benny, you mentioned components not working correctly together. Can you think of something not alignment related that could be causing this to happen.

Thanks for the replys and keep suggestions coming

[Steinberg]

Steering stabalizers are often a band-aid fix....true. But don't forget that MANY vehicles with leafsprung front axles came from the factory with a steering stabalizer and/or tracbar. Even with good leafsprings and bushings there is going to be some lateral play between the axle and the frame- enough that stabalizers and tracbars were needed for proper road manners even with street tires. If you think your stablizer is old and shot and you are out of other obvious ideas (alignment) go ahead and replace it.

Back to your original question... Cody had mentioned that Collision Plus in Cburg had the most up-to-date alignment rig in the area. However.... their alignment did not do his jeep much good.

[alk1174]

What was Codys solution to the DW?

[Steinberg]

band-aid'd it with a stabalizer. we never did fix the caster on his. Cody's was a bit different though- his would kick in at a certain speed, regardless of the smoothness of the road.

[yotacowboy]

couple things i'd try:

run ZERO toe-in. big tires don't act like little tires. every toe-in spec you'll get for that axle is based on stock sized tires.

lower the pressure in the tires. i can't say i've ever run more than 27 psi with larger (than 33") tires.

also try swapping tires front to back, one at a time.

it also helps if you know anyone running the same tires, on similar rims, to try a completely different (but same size) set of tires.

[maybs]

Get bigger tires... that fixed my DW.

Sorry I can't be of real help.