I did some searching and i couldn't find exactly what i wanted to know about Death Wobble. Can yall please tell me exactly what happens and exactly what causes it to happen?

 

whats a d/w

 

Hey jim, how do you like that BOV that you got?

 

Its a combination of tires that are aired up on the stiff side , shocks and a front suspension that flex a little too much.When you hit a bump at usually over 70mph, usually a long diagonal bump,such as a bridge joint, as the foremost wheel hits the bump it flys up ward against the spring while its on its way back down the second front wheel hits sending it upward while the other wheel is on its way down setting up a gyrating action, that can scare the crap out of you.My theory is if you find a way to control the bounce,e.g. shocks,play with tire pressures or different types of tires,will effect how the suspension handles those odd bumps.

 

way cool but very hard to rig up. A large trial and error type thing but still super cool. it is acuated by a button on my shifter. I will post pictures soon of complete set up.

 

I installed dual frt shocks for the death wobble. Problem solved
Check my gallery for pics

 

When I had my D/W issues my truck would do it over the same bridge joint but only in the evening when it was warm. If it was cold in the morning it would be fine .
A few time I thought the front of my truck was going to explode! Very unsettling to have this happen to you at highway speed, hence the name "Death Wobble"

 

On my 99 1/2 ton I had that d/w and almost lost it a couple times.I put bilstiens and an after market track bar and it drove like a new truck again

 

Close.....but no cigar!

Death wobble is another name for caster shimmy. It results from too little caster in the front axle. Mine occurred around 30-40 MPH. It sets up when you hit a bump off camber and the wheels begin to shake. The left and right wheels start to shimmy out of phase or opposite each other and continue to get worse until you drive through it or slow down to a stop. It is caused by inadequate caster and compounded by loose track bar, bad tie rod ends, a loose sector shaft, and/or bad ball joints. Basically anything that is loose in your steering system will move around and cause it to get worse. Tire pressure has nothing to do with it, but tire balance can have an effect on it. Suspension flex has nothing to do with it, nor do shocks. My suspension is super soft and my tires are aired up to 55 lbs on the front when driving on the street. I have no death wobble.

I replaced my ball joints, track bar, tie rod ends, installed a DSS, adjusted the play out of the steering box, balanced the tires, changed the pressures, and the DW still came back. The only thing that ever got rid of it (for a while) was to put more caster in the front axle. Steering stabilizers only mask the problem.

Check your ball joints and tie rod ends. If there's no play in them, tighten your steering box up (instructions on dodgeram.org) and replace your track bar with something that will not move, like a Thuren or DT. Have your caster set to 3.2*L, 3.5*R, .3 cross caster.

Gauranteed the DW will go away. Been there several times.

 

Cowhand-- where'd you get the caster specs?

 

This was originally posted on Dave Fritz's site.....explains the causes and corrective action in better detail than I can.

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/...8f247de789d0ef

I still need to do the upper ball joint cams to get my camber dialed in....I'm out about .10+/- on each side.

 

Possibly cold shock oil dampens the harmonics. It could also be that when you hit the bridge joint coming home the geometry of the bump is a little different,then it is when you leave in the morning.Might even be the the truck dosn't want coffee spilled all over the interior in the morning and in the evening she gets a good laugh shaking the bejesus out of you.