extreme tire wobble

rightwinged

New Member
Joined
May 7, 2010
Location
new bern
Its well beyond death wobble, i can live with DW. Its to the point where the top of the tire hits the inside fenderwell, against the motor. its weird though, it only does it over certain bumps, at certain speeds. When it does though, the tire wobbles side to side extremely bad, like i said, touching the fender well. So i checked everything out. Wheel bearings are brand new, ball joints are like 3 months old and there is no play whatsoever up and down when i jack it up and wiggle. There is like half an inch play side to side, from steering. I am completely out of ideas on what it could be. oh its a 85 k5 with 10in lift and 40s. thanks
 
Ricky B said:
Also check your castor, the knuckles are supposed to be laid back a hair, with 10" of lift it will need pretty big wedges on the leaf springs to get em laid back enough to drive
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x2 needs more castor. have u ever seen a grocery buggy wheel wobble when u push it. lack of caster causes that. also tire balence can set off death wobble.
 
It could be caused by anything that has an effect on the lateral stiffness and dampening of the axle relative to the frame.

Since you have checked out the axle pretty well, take a look at the frame side; Shackle mountings, bushing condition, ect.
 
axle is down to bare houseing now, absolutely nothing wrong with axle.. i welded the steering box brace in a few months back, so its not that. tires are balanced, but to make sure i swapped around all tires, on each wheel 4 times. same story, driver side. castor angle is 5deg. i didnt think it was too bad, but maybe someone else has an input. everything leaf spring related, shackles bushings mounts ubolts, is up to par. then only thing that is a little worrying is the shackle angle, its leaning foward, not exesscively, but its not straight up and down. But I dont see how the shackle angle would cause the tire to wobble side to side, if anything it would cause it to hop. oh and it doesnt do it slower then like 20mph.
 
there was one thing when taking steering compontents apart, the draglink end at steering arm was loose. the nut snapped the cotter pin and backed its self off. but even if it was loose, i still dont understand how it would cause top to bottom wobble. if anything, it would cause side to side wobble from steering being loose.
 
what front axle do you have? if its a dana 60 with kingpins......try stacking a couple fender washers under the cap to preload the spring some more....this worked for me while i waited on a rebuild kit.
 
Many years ago I installed a drop track bar bracket on my '73 Bronco to get the track bar and drag link at the same angle. I used a BOLT-ON kit and installed it per the manufacturer's instructions. The truck drove great for several weeks and then developed bad death wobble.

I found that the drop bracket bolts were very slightly loose. I tightened them and had the same results: great ride for two weeks and then the death wobble was back. I welded the bracket on and never had the problem again.

Anything that has slack in the track bar or drag link assembllies can cause this problem. Good luck with finding your solution.
 
Problem solved.. went with crossover steering, panhard bar, and xj steering shaft. so far, drives like a cadilliac...thanks for the help.
 
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