Test Drive with a wobble... and some other problems

[jperecko]

So I took my truck for its first real test drive today and had some issues... a little disappointed but I cannot say that I was not expecting anything to come up.

First up is a CRAZY death wobble at ~30 mph. The entire front end was as far as I can tell literally jumping side to side. After nearly crapping my pants I managed to make it back home... never experienced it first hand or this bad at least. Anyways... I clearly need a track bar. Does anybody have a spare track bar and bracket? I would love to make it worth your while to ship it my way. If not, does anybody know if these things are available new somewhere? I know I could fab one up but I do not really have a "fab friendly" location available to me right now.

I also have another issue with my throttle... I hooked up a direct mechanical linkage to the pedal and now I have a feedback loop where if you are not really smooth with the pedal, the engine pulling forward causes the truck to surge until you let your foot off the pedal. I would hate to completely redo this setup... any idea of stiffer or softer throttle return springs would resolve this?

 

[gonecrazyi]

Those track bar brackets are like gold and are nearly impossible to come by. Ive been trying to sell a dana 60 for awhile now, and most of the offers are to buy the track bar and its mount.

I didnt have mine hooked up for about 2 months and never had a death wobble, but when it did start happening I hooked that ****** up fast.

 

[jperecko]

So I found a track bar bracket from a lift kit (I am about 4" lifted I think...) but am still on the prowl for the track bar itself. Thanks folks.

 

[Optikalillushun]

some hiems and dom tubing...make ur own.

 

[jperecko]

some hiems and dom tubing...make ur own.

very much aware of the simplicity... but as said earlier... not in a fab-friendly situation right now. Though for something as simple as a track bar... I might be able to manage a couple minutes of MIG trigger time.

 

[towtruckdave]

All you need is one of these. Trust me.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/S...1995|Make|FORD|Model|F-350+PICKUP&prefilter=1

 

[DeepRoots]

trac bar and a power steering dampner fixed it for us.

best of luck..... got to see a "tech" turn as white as a ghost when we took him for a ride before we fixed it up I thought he was gonna jump outta the truck

 

[Shaguardriver]

Track bar is going to take care of the lions share with Death Wobble. With the lift make sure you extent the track bar to make up for the lift angle.

 

[LCAM-01XA]

All you need is one of these. Trust me.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/S...1995|Make|FORD|Model|F-350+PICKUP&prefilter=1

Dave, those do work good, but if he's running the factory setup with the shackles in the front then his whole axle is moving some, a steering damper won't help against that.

 

[OB_WAN]

typically a steering dampener hides the true source of the problem. From what I've seen, death wobble tends to occur from something loose in the axle/springs/hubs/tires. once it gets started, a combination of loose connections magnifies the problem. Had a friend with an early bronco(coils, c-arms) that had horrific death wobble that was caused by a worn out tracbar bushing coupled with oversize, out of balance tires(and likely misaligned tracbar).

I have minor death wobble on my truck right now. I believe my problem is a combination of: sticking brakes and poor alignment(too much tow-in) coupled with tires out of balance, loose hub bearings, or loose kingpins allowing for some initial "wobble" which gets magnified by worn out tracbar and/or spring bushings. I'll be going through my axle in the next few weeks to do some maintenance. I do have positive caster(while driving, turn wheel, remove hand and steering wheel returns to center on it's own) so neutral to negative caster is not the source of the problem.

 

[towtruckdave]

The biggest cause I have seen for death wobble, besides a seriously out of balance front tire, believe it or not, is an out of round rear tire.

In over a million miles of commercial towing with F350s and F450s, I never had a truck with a working steering dampener wobble.

I am not disagreeing about loose suspension components causing the problem. I want to be clear on that. However I have seen mint condition, 2 year old trucks with low miles and otherwise perfect suspension wobble as soon as the oil leaks out of the stabilizer.

Sure is crazy to have an E350 on the wheel lift at 70 mph and the damn thing starts a shakin'!