Death wobble

Post by **Ctrow** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 7:26 pm

Got a friend with death wobble and is having a hard time locating the problem. Not much of a mechanic, but has got some money. Does anybody know of a shop around here he could take it to?

Post by **BlueDodgeRam** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 7:33 pm

i go to south main, but campus exxon is probably good too

Post by **shmoken875** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 8:46 pm

pride and joy all the way, those guys are awesome

Flava-Puff Crawler · Post by **Flava-Puff Crawler** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 9:01 pm

BlueDodgeRam wrote:i go to south main, but campus exxon is probably good too

These guys will charge you out the a$$. Do not recommend them. Would go to Pride and Joy!

Post by **Steinberg** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 10:28 pm

death wobble 101:

"death wobble" is a specific sort of vibration. a truck that is experiencing death wobble may be perfectly smooth normally, but upon hitting a bump just right, the front end will begin shaking side to side violently and will not stop without corrective action.

death wobble is usually due to the axle having side-to-side play. depending on the suspension type, this can be worn tracbar bushings or leafsping bushings. play in the steering linkages generally does not contribute significantly to death wobble, but others may have a different opinion on this statement.

the mechanics of death wobble are a bit difficult to picture, and even harder to describe in words. with lateral play between the axle and frame, even a slight bump in the road can drive the axle to one side of the other relative to the frame. when the axle moves sideways, the steering linkage causes the tires to turn the opposite way that the axle has moved. with this unintentional steering, the axle drives itself rapidly back to the other side of the truck, at which point the steering linkage will steer the tires the opposite direction and restart the cycle.

one way that i've found to stop death wobble when it happens is to deliberately steer the truck. deliberate steering will hold the axle to one side and stop the oscillation. slowing the truck down usually does not kill the wobble until you're cut your speed way down.

Post by **alk1174** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 8:00 am

Check and tighten all suspension bolts before you take it anywhere.

Post by **TheGr8Doughboy** » Wed Nov 15, 2006 3:39 pm

Bad TREs did it to my truck in a bad kind of way...

somethingbroke · Post by **somethingbroke** » Wed Nov 15, 2006 7:10 pm

bad tire balance, alignment, and TREs are my usual culprits respectively

Post by **VerticalTRX** » Wed Nov 15, 2006 7:58 pm

somethingbroke wrote:bad tire balance, alignment, and TREs are my usual culprits respectively

I guess I must be lucky then, my tires are unbalanced, TREs are completly shot, and my alignment is out by almost 2" (damn stump.) On a side note, its hard to keep the truck in the road, but no death wobble

As for the topic at hand, I will second the fact that south main auto is over priced. I've never dealt with Pride and Joy, but I've heard good things about them.