Well, got my rear end squared away and fixed for good now (I hope) and what do you know, on the way to dinner tonight I experience the dreaded death wobble. Now, before I had the lukes link, I never had this problem. Truck wandered on the road but it never did that. Tonight, I was cruising about 45 mph and hit a bump and I could have sworn my front end had come undone. Stopped at a light and looked out the window while turning the wheel and sure enough, the body moves, but the wheels don't. What gives? I've had the luke's link on for a little over a month. I should have left well enough alone. My old track bar while shot beyond belief, still worked great. Now I've got to deal with this crud. So maybe the luke's link isn't the fix all I thought it was. I'm gonna figure out what the deal is with that and then get it aligned tomorrow. I'll let yall know what they say.

 

That's caster shimmy....have the alignment shop out some more caster in it and it will probably go away for a little while. Do this, you'll never have another problem.....

http://www.thurenfabrication.com/trackbar.html

Have you done the DSS yet?

 

That sucks man, looks like you have my kind of luck!!!

 

Cowhand, as soon as the funds get replenished from buying the comp, that's my next upgrade. This is BS. My old track bar couldn't keep the stud standing straight up and it never once did this. Heck I never even noticed it moving when checking on it. Now I can watch the front end move like 2" before the tires start to turn.

As for the alignment, do I need to tell them to dial in more negative or more positive caster? Any numbers? What will that do to my tire wear? Thanks for the help yall.

 

i dont notice any shake, wobble, or shimmy in my front end, and its never been touched...however it is due for a greasing as it has been squeaking a tad bit.

 

Big Blue.

You might not be doomed with the death wobble.

I was really rugging it down a back road one day like last summer or something and hit a pothole that sent her into the death wobble. Yep, feels like the front end is falling off!!! Not a nice feeling on a gravel road.

Anyway, truck has never done it again since, that's like 20,000 miles ago or more.

I'm pretty sure I do need a new trac bar and should get it fixed I guess.

 

Well, I figured out what was causing it. The wonderful "bolt on" bracket from skyjacker had come loose. One of the bolts was hanging on by about 4 threads. So I cranked them down tight and added a washer to the lukes link for good measure and watched that bracket while my body turned the wheel. Sure enough, you can still a slight bit of movement in the bracket. So I'm gonna get that welded and go from there. Hopefully it will hold up for a little while longer. Now I just need to find somebody with a welder who will weld my frame.

 

well if your up to it head up north and i will weld it up for ya... ....upper michigan

 

Good to weld it or get the thuren fab track bar. Its really stout. My sj bracket is welded to the crossmember.

 

BB,

Try 3.2* L, 3.5* R. .3 cross caster. Set the toe pretty close to neutral....

 

Thanks for the numbers Cowhand. Is that gonna affect the tire wear any?

Jambbii, I'm probably gonna end up doing that.

P.O.R., thanks for the offer but your a little out of the way.

 

Hard to say....toe is a little more critical for tire wear than caster, but I haven't been able to keep a set of tires under the front for more than a few thousand miles before they started to cup. That's why I'm going to the radius arm set up and x-over steering.

I guess tire wear would be preferable to the dreaded death wobble. The extra caster will at least get rid of that. I don't recall tha factory caster range off the top of my head, I think these specs just narrow the range down. If it's over the factory spec, it ain't by much.

 

Ok. Thanks a lot. I'll let you know tomorrow how everything goes.