Death Wobble

[Armo]

I keep having my track bar wear out ive installed 3 new ones in the past year all from either wearing out the rubber bushing, beating the ball joint, or both. The last track bar made it barely over a month.
I plan to get a dt profab track bar but i feel i need to ask what else could be causing this? It has me stumped since just a year ago i rebuilt the front end with new ball joints, tierods, had the steering box adjusted to remove the slack, and put in a new stabilizer with shocks. I jacked it up and everything still looks good even the wheel bearings still seem tight. The only thing that is on its way out up front other then the track bar again is 1 u-joint but both sides will be replaced shortly after getting the aftermarket track bar.

It just seems odd to me that the stock track bar dies so quickly. I cant help but think that something else is causing it that i havent looked into yet.

Id like to fix this right cause this last time i got the death wobble it happened shortly after an s curve thankfully on a straight where i could get it shut down before i hit the other s curve while doing 70 mph.

 

[marblecrusher]

What kind of track bar have you been using? If u have a lift im hoping u were using an adjustable aftermarket one. Also what brand ball joints are you using. Im a fan of Thuren trackbars myself, and you will see they have a great rep on Cumminforum.

-Jordan-

 

[Armo]

Ive been using an oreilly house brand track bar and using the hell out of their warrenty. It isnt lifted it is still stock height with stock tires and the ball joints if i recall were moog ball joints.

I drive a few miles of gravel road daily with the occassional lap around the farm and pretty consistently haul 1 ton in the back though this last track bar had highway miles mostly with very few offroad miles and had only been used to haul 1 ton once. I maybe had put on 450 miles before the ball joint failed on this one. Mostly the rubber bushing fails first on the track bars ive replaced. I tryed replacing just the rubber bushing once but the ball joint end fails shortly after anyways. This would be my 4th track bar in a year so ive had it expecially since this one failed so quickly and produced one scary ride that luckily happened on a straight stretch of road.

 

[marblecrusher]

Moog ball joints are good ball joints, but like said check out Don Thuren, heres his track bar he sells lots of other performance parts as well
http://www.thurenfabrication.com/stocktb.html

-Jordan-

 

[Armo]

Thanks ill look into it seems he also has another bar that doesnt have the ball joint as well.

 

[Armo]

Was doing a bit of googling and browsing a few other forums and found that i probably have a compound problem of caster set wrong and track bar. I remember when i bought this pickup used, the original track bar pretty much had no rubber left and the ball joint end was shot along with everything else in the front but it didnt death wobble even when i adventurously took it up to 50 mph. After the alignment and all new front end parts i now get a touch of slack in the track bar and it will death wobble even as far down as 35 mph. Ive even noted a slight wobble at highway speeds over any bump that only isnt present when the track bar is brand spanken new. After one guy posted about the caster in one of the cummins related forums i found a few more guides to explain it a bit more in detail and i must say it makes sense some what.
http://www.ozebiz.com.au/racetech/theory/align.html
http://www.simpsonmotorsport.co.uk/uploads/files/SuspensionSetup.pdf

I also found a forum where other vehicle owners complained of this problem if the caster is also set up near 0 Quiet a few of them had several alignments where the shop just plain set it up wrong and simply setting the caster a bit positive removed the wobble issue for them. When i get the time ill be trying out adjustment of the caster to see if it helps.
Hope this was helpful to anyone out their battling death wobble as well.

 

[058hammer]

Try setting it at +3.5deg. It stopped my death wobble.

 

[Armo]

Try setting it at +3.5deg. It stopped my death wobble.

Atm im waiting on some poly bushings to replace my old stock bushings on my link arms then ill be taking it in to get the castor set. Ill definently ask them to set it at +3.5 degrees when i get the chance.

For now i went with the dtprofab bar and i bought and a ebay steering brace. The profab bar did wonders for handling even over what a brand new stock trac bar did. After that i added a steer brace i bought off ebay(was surprisingly a quality product) that took out the rubber band effect i was having on turns at higher speeds especially when i had a trailer connected.