F-450 "Death Wobble"?

[Camarogenius]

Anyone who's ever been cursed with the ownership of a dodge 4x4 knows the death wobble. Well, now my 450 is doing it.
Same M.O. as the dodge problem. Hit a few bumps at just the right speed, and it starts an increasing oscilation, until you either come to a stop, or turn sharply.
What gets me is that this is a leaf spring, Solid front Axle, and it has a front track bar as well as a huge sway bar. It shouldn't be doing this.
What peices do I replace first? The front end is good and tight, and tracks well, but the steering wheel isn't centered.

 

[6.9poweredscout]

are the shocks good?

-Jon

 

[8404 superduty]

Check your track bar, I had the same problem when i swapped my TTB out for a Dana 60. I used a stock track bar of a 91 F-350 but i also added lift to the truck.

Your track arm needs to be at or very close to the same angle as your steering arm and as long as possible. If your truck has any lift to it you might need to drop your track arm.

 

[oldmisterbill]

I had a 1947 Dodge 1 1/2 ton that had the death wobble also-even after new kingpins and a good tight front end.Physics haven't changed since then. Any way I spoke to an old school truck mechanic and he said maybe the axle needs to be tweaked a little or the kingpin inclination was wrong making it walk on its toes a bit (as if the top of the axle was tipped forward slightly) He shimmed between the axle and the spring plate (by eye )and it was fine after that. Ps the truck is a twin to the one in my avatar,The avatar one by the way is still in MA and has 6500 miles on it.A project I,ll never finish.
It has a 5 speed with a manually shifted (big long rod)2 speed rear end.and a 251 Cu inch 6 cylinder Crysler flathead.

 

[subway]

track bar is usually the main culperate, look it over good. yes they are leaf sprung but the shackles are not good enough in these trucks to prevent death wobble by themselves.

my brother in law just went through this about a week ago on his 96 F350 crew. track bar was loose and his actual spring bolts were bent. wheather or not the bolts bent from the bad death wobble of a 8 hr trip or the accident last year we dont know. but straight bolts and a tight track bar fixed his.

 

[towcat]

get a steering dampner kit put in asap.
ironically they came from the factory without them.
the kit is $50 iirc
here's the pics...

 

[opusd2]

Steering dampers do wonders. When my 73 Ford's front end was still worn out, I put on a new steering stabilizer and it tamed the beast quite a bit. But replacing the bushings and ball joints did even greater wonders.

 

[82F100SWB]

Steering dampers are only a band aid, Ford did factory install them on some trucks, but there is absolutely no need for them, all they're good for is leaking and getting bent. My big truck drives straight and true on 38.5" Bias Boggers without one. It's all in the track bar on those trucks. If you have death wobble and it isn't an alignment issue, you have bushing issues, most likey track bar, but possibly spring eye too.

 

[Austin idi 7.3]

ya i had the same problem in my 91 f-350 and my track bar waz bent and i got a new 1 and it straghtned it right out....but i snoplow with my truck so i go threw my front end all the time and if yuo plow the track bars take a beeting

 

[k_williams1982]

I'm a little "off subject" here, but since everyone is talking about the track bar, will a stock track bar work on my truck when I get around to installing a D60 in the front? My truck is lifted 4", so will I need a aftermarket track bar to install on my truck so that I don't have this problem?

 

[BigRigTech]

I still get the death wobble with my steering damper installed. The wobble is a caster issue in my opinion.....The kingpin angles are wrong. I know mine are wrong as I had it on the alignment machine at work and it was way off on the caster and toe'd out bad......I just haven't got around to correcting it yet...Maybe some day this summer I'll get to it.

 

[subway]

I'm a little "off subject" here, but since everyone is talking about the track bar, will a stock track bar work on my truck when I get around to installing a D60 in the front? My truck is lifted 4", so will I need a aftermarket track bar to install on my truck so that I don't have this problem?

by BIL's truck has the stock track bar with a drop bracket. he has a 4" lift on his.

the other lifted 150 i parted had a drop bracket to. bending a linkage for lift weakens them significantly.

 

[8404 superduty]

I'm a little "off subject" here, but since everyone is talking about the track bar, will a stock track bar work on my truck when I get around to installing a D60 in the front? My truck is lifted 4", so will I need a aftermarket track bar to install on my truck so that I don't have this problem?

I swapped a Dana 60 in mine and I reused the stock track bar off the 91 donor truck. I just bolted it to the right TTB bracket. My truck sits oh 3 or 4 inches in the air.