Opacity

I did a search and I have concluded I felt death wobble 2 days ago.

I was on my way to the parts store to fix my brake line, I hit a bump at about 40mph, and it felt like the front of my truck was riding on square wheels. It lasted about 3 seconds and vanished.

I read that I should set my caster to 3.2 L and 3.5 R correct?

Is there a way I can set my own caster?

My steering is also very sloppy, and pulls heavily to the right. I was going to replace the pitman arm, but I noticed the torque value of 185ft/lbs in the book and I could not get the old one off. When I did the brakes, the passenger side wheel had play where it connects to the axle housing. I'm sure these play a role. I have 275/65 tires on stock wheels and the only one showing abnormal wear is the drivers side front, too much neg camber is wearing the inside of the tread faster than the outside and middle of the tread.

Could the adjustment be too rusted to mess with? This truck plowed snow for 12 years and even the silencer ring snap ring is rusted to the turbo housing, so any bolt or adjustment underneath the vehicle is most likely rusted frozen.

Should I bring it to an alignment shop and tell them what to set it to? Or is it possible they can't align it without replacing a thousand dollars worth of parts?

kawi600

youre lucky it wasnt faster. usually it intensifies to the point you -have- to slow way down or pull over. really scary in heavy highway traffic. as in, pop the face off your radio and hit your head on the ceiling bad.
Things you can check are:
Ball joints- put a prybar in there and try to move them side to side. should be no play. TRW's seem to be the best bang for the buck.
wheel hubs- raise the front and try to check for play in the wheel hub by rocking it up and down. Theyre not cheap, but its not safe driving on a bad one. It could disintegrate at random.
Track bar- get under the truck and have someone turn the wheel back and forth, you shouldnt see any movement on the ball stud side.
If you need replacements, solid steel, thuren fab, lukes link and others you see often on this site are good to look into.
If you are good with a wrench or know someone that is, you can save a lot of $$$ doing most front end work yourself.
Youll need a pitman arm puller to free that up. if you do the ball joints see if you can get a full press and receiver kit.
steering slop might be the gearbox. Some models came with a 4turn unit which feels worse since theres more wheel travel. a 3turn reman box might help.

ironman

after doing all the above and more, the last thing I did was to set toe in at zero. This was the fix for my dw.

Southtowns27

My truck had all new front end components (tie rod ends, ball joints, hubs, etc) when it "death-wobbled" for the first time. I put in new heavy-heavy-duty shocks and a dual steering stabilizer. I can't believe the difference in ride quality and road manners, and no more wobble.