pshooter

I have a stock 05' extended cab long box 4x4 cummins 6sp, with 33K miles. experiencing death wobble that seems to be getting worse. Can anyone explain what is happening when this occurs and how to stop it. I have had the front checked out by the dealer and NTB and aligned. I have heard stock shocks are terrible and good shocks help, it that true? Would a new stabilizer help? Wobble seems more prevalent when hitting an expansion joint during a mild turn (loading the suspension to one side). It can happen for no reason or after hitting a bump, scarey stuff those death wobbles

Additionally in loose gravel or wet roads rear wheel hop is terrible. If the rear tires break loose, they hop, they never just spin.

Basically I love my cummins engine but I'm not too happy with the ride or quality of suspension. Please advise.

cjperry

Replace your balljoints. I had dw and my balljoints were within the Dodge specs. I replaced them anyway and it fixed the dw. Moog is now making upper balljoints with a lifetime warranty. Mopar is still your only option for the lowers.

CapnCrunch

Its a crap shoot as to what will fix it. I had DW a couple of times with my truck completely stock, then it did not happen for over 20,000 kms?? I put on 315 BFG At's at 45,000 kms and it came back with a vengence.

1st dealer: really, we have never heard of this? I ran...
2nd dealer: changed stabilizer and tie rod ends (under warranty)

The 315's are gone now, and so is the DW for now. I am putting 285 Toyo's on next week. I am curious to see if it happens again.

I could not tell you what fixed it, the DW was there when it was stock so it was not just the 315's.

dodgestang

In my expereince with this on my 97 2500 it was always the front track bar.
I have not this problem with my 05 3500 yet, but I had hoped they would have fixed it by now...I hope I do not get it again.

bigdav160

I had the same experience with the 315 BFG AT. I put the factory Michelins back on and (crossing fingers) so far so good.

cquestad

DW is almost always caused by improper caster settings. Go to a QUALITY tire/alignment shop (not the dealer) and have them set your caster to the upper end of the spec... +5.5 - 6 degrees. You will not have DW anymore.

Worn out ball joints, bushings, stablizers, etc only magnify the DW that is already present.

cjperry

I have BFG 37 x 12.50s with about half tread that are horribly out of round. For this reason the BFGs increase the truck's propensity to dw. I went from 265s, which had never given me any problems, to the BFG 37s and immediately experienced bad dw. The balljoints were within Dodge's specs so I had the castor adjusted to 5.5 and replaced the tie rod ends, tie rod, and draglink. I still had dw so I replaced the balljoints. Problem solved. The 3rd Gen track bars do not wear like the 2nd Gen, but too many dw occurences will begin to oval the brackets and track bar bushings which will enable a small amount of play.

Incidently, I bought my truck from a friend who could not get rid of the dw. When his stock tires wore down it first occurred. He put on BFG 315s, which eliminated the problem for a while. It came back as the tires began to wear down so he bought the BFG 37s and put on a set of Rancho 5000s and a new track bar. At about half tread the dw came back. He put 265s on it and sold the truck to me. I then put the same 37s back on and fixed the source of the problem, which was the balljoints. This truck spent a month at the dealership with the techs and they could not fix it. I don't know if they didn't try hard or if they didn't know any better, but just because the techs say all of the parts are within specs does not mean you don't have a problem.

cquestad

67,500 miles on 37's on this truck...never a death wobble. Like I said before...the source of death wobble is the inablilty of improper caster to keep the tire tracking straight. The greater the caster...the more stable the truck is...you are tilting the top of the spindle towards the rear of the truck which makes steering input fight the weight of the truck. Tire condition, pressure, and suspension componets will only magnify the existing caster problem.

Rancho 5000 shocks and stabiliers are crap IMHO.

moparfan

hate to sound stupid, but here goes...'

what is death wobble?

tweeter

No such thing as a stupid question, except that guy who wanted to know the difference between a 2500/3500 after he had bought one, but I digress...
Ever seen a shopping cart with the front wheels whipping side to side as it was being pushed down the aisle? That is death wobble, caused by incorrect caster adjustment. Caster is the imaginary line drawn through the upper and lower ball joints and the tilt of this line from verticle is measured in degrees, and as stated above in another response, needs to be be carefully checked/adjusted at a reliable shop.

moparfan

so the steering wheel is being pulled from side to side by this condition even at speed? that would be deathly dangerous, so to speak!

tweeter

Hence the 'DEATH" wobble term, another good one is "The hospital shakes"

moparfan

tweeter,

Thanks for the info.

pshooter,

Hope you get the dw eliminated soon!

bluepp

The big problem here is the alignment techs dont understand what causes things to happen so they dont know what to change to correct a given problem. Just because a unit is in specks doesnt always fix things. There are TWO things that will cause a DW. #1 Harmonic ballance of ft. wheels. #2 Caster setting.. Lets start with Harmonic ballance. There are TWO ballance conditions of wheels . STATIC and HARMONIC. Static is up and down bounce of the wheel. Harmonic is side to side wobble. IF the harmonic ballance of a wheel is OK but the static is off by 5 oz and the wheel ballance man fixes the static by hanging 5 oz wt. on one side of wheel ,then he fixed the static but has caused a harmonic imballance. The wt. must be split and 2 1/2 oz be put on each side of wheel to maintain the harmonic that was correct to start with. Now most wheels will be off on both static and harmonic. Thats why you see wt. opposite each other and spread around wheel.
So heres the problem - They hang the wheel on there million dollar ballance machine and spin it . Have you ever seen the machine shake?? No but it says put a wt. here , so they do and spin again, machine shake NO, but put a wt. there . Pretty soon there done and replace the wheel to truck. They ever spin the wheel up after replaceing on truck ?? To see if it'll shake shimmy or wobble.??? If the machine is off your ballance is off. A lot of guys will hang the wt. just on inside of wheel for looks or maybe the hub cap wont fit with wt. on outside???
Bottom line you gotta be a a$$ hole and watch and question the job. If I had a DW I'd insist they spin the wheel up on truck after the ballance job with CAB DOOR OPEN, and that door better not move or diddle around . Also the wheel must be IN ROUND, to within 1/8th to 1/4 inch. You can ballance a square wheel and tire but it wont roll smooth even if in ballance.
Now #2. Caster . As explained earlier caster is the imaginary line drawn up and down through the center of the ball joints. If that line is exactly strieght up and down you have 0 degree caster and 0 degree camber.
If that line leans to the outside on top 1 degree you have positive camber 1 degree.
If it leans in toword center of truck 1 degree you got negative camber 1 degree ETC.
If line leans to the front on top 1 degree you got 1 degree negative CASTER
If it leans to the rear on top 1 degree you got 1 degree positive CASTER ETC
Positive caster will make the wheel want to turn towards center of truck , negative caster will make the wheel want to turn out away from truck. These caster setings should be within 1/2 degree of each other to counter ballance the pull of the other wheel.
It was mentioned earlier that the in speck range is +5.5 to - 6 degrees So lets set the right ft. wheel at -6 which will give it right pull to the ditch and set the left ft. wheel to +5.5 which would give it right pull to truck center, It would take both arms to hold that baby out of the ditch, it would have so much right pull. BUT it'd be IN SPECKS!! So (in specks ) dont mean much. Again if you got a DW you gotta be a a$$ hole and make them give you the setting numbers before and after the lineup.
As was mentioned earlier have them set the caster to the top end of specks. Well you gotta know where its set at now. If its at o degrees seting at top of specks will sure change things. But what if its already set at top??
Another thing , Just what speed does this wobble take place at.??
TOO much positive caster can cause a LOW speed wobble 10-15 mph . If you got a wobble at 10-15 mph , and your wheels ARE ballanced, Then find out what the caster setings are and go 3-4 degrees negative., keeping them within 1/2 degree of each other. with the right wheel being the more positive . This gives you a hair left pull to compensate for road crown.
If you got a high speed wobble 35-40 up ,then more positive caster will stabalise more.
Worn parts dont cause the DW. Good stiff parts cover it up and resist it . But there not the cause. OH BOY