As has been asked,where are the pics of your setup.King pin inclination,camber, toe in and caster are your main focus points here. You may have a issue with scrub point.Its hard to fix your problem without seeing it. JW
Well if everthing on the front end is good? I would put a dampner on and drive away. Or you can chase your tail till the cows come home and still end up in the same place. I put them on all of my hot rods. --TV
I agree on some level but Jeep and Dodge can't figure it out, all their straight axle 4x4s come with a stabilizer. I went through everything on my buggy sprung front. Everything was new, tow set at the alignment shop and caster at 9 1/2 (a bit more than it needs, I know) It was bad enough wobble the few times it happened that I didn't even enjoy driving the dam thing, wondering when it was going off again (much like my last wife). One steering stabilizer later and all is well. I wish the Valium would have had the same results on ex.
Thats all I'm saying and if you get a correctly done axle, like I did from 296V8, well, there's half the battle right there.
Well, don't let anyone brow beat you about putting on a stabilizer. I kind of knuckled under to that thinking for a while before I put mine on. My car had all new king pins, tie rod ends, spring hangers/bushings, new balanced tires running straight and true. I also have 9 1/2 degrees caster and 1/8th toe in. There was just nothing left to do, so I put one on and wish I'd of done it a lot sooner.
One of the things you also need to watch for is to make sure the cross steering rod, that goes from one side to the other is straight and large in diameter. Many times the death wobble has the front tires pointing in opposite directions because the cross steering rod is bending. When I built my roadster I had to put a drop in the steering rod to clear some parts, I used 1 inch 4130, .065 wall for the steering rod and added additional gussets at the drop. If I had the alignment "right on" the car was pretty stable but one good bump could send it into the "death wobble" so I added a So. Cal steering dampener and have never had a problem since. I like them. Rex
BINGO,,Castor will shake one to death when you least expect it, Had a magnum axle in a car few years back it would death wobble above 50-60 about 1/2 the time ,Magnum said put 5 degrees castor, I did still would happen so i ended up putting in 7-8 degrees and it stopped, could run up 100mph never shook again
Maybe not gospel, but it holds a little more weight than just a random opinion And you know what they say on opinions, they are like ***holes, everyone has one some just smell worse than others
TRY THE CASTOR SETTING FIRST...IT DON'T COST A DIME TO DO....IF IT DON'T STOP IT, BUY A STABILIZER AND COME BACK ON HERE AND TELL EVERYONE HOW STUPID WE ARE.......Simple enough..............I've been wrong many times....I ain't proud.....but if it does fix your problem, send me a $25 Gift Certificate to Waffle House...hehehe...thats' a Hot Rodders Steak House
Buy a Stabilizer, install it and go on to the next problem. I fixed my problem and it will fix yours. Iceman
McGurk's suggestion to search for "Death Wobble" is good advice. Never searched for "Death Wobble" , but did look at DETH Wobble. Note misspelled ***le. Lots of info there. My death wobble was cured by a trip to a hot rod friendly front end shop. Toe in was off. Pics and/or complete and specific description is essential to solving your issue.
I love it that some of you scoff at the addition of a stabilizer with all of the comments about So-Cal and selling their products. I have a friend who had just built a T roadster and the first time out he had his shorts puckered with the so called "death wobble". He took it to both of the front end shops here (one that had been in business for over 50 years and both having stellar reputations) and after relieving his wallet of a couple hundred bucks both sent him on his way with the ***urance everything was OK. He didn't make it 2 miles from either shop before the front tires tried their damnest to shake themselves loose. Mind you this was a fresh build with everything new and couple of "expert" fine tunings. He swore he was about to park the car. At the time there was an old retired mechanic that lived a couple of doors down from me and I related the problem to him. At the time I had an old VW behind my shop and the old guy went out and removed the steering dampener (wasn't hard as I had rolled it on it's side getting ready to remove the floor pan). He had me help him fashion a couple of brackets to install the USED dampener on the T. NO more wobble...................and that was 30 years ago. The T is still on the road and it still sports the "used" VW dampener. Go figure Frank
It's amazing that some guys are mentioning that their cars 9 1/2 degrees caster is wrong, but didn't fix it. Yet wonder why they need a damper?
That just proves two things, not all shops can adjust a hot rod and a dampener is a quick fix. I had death wobble when I first built my T. I got back to the garage, set the toe in and cured it. Out of all the hot rods being built, an "I" beam set up with radius rods is as simple as it can get. If it's not right, something was done wrong on the ***embly side. The proof is the thousands of early cars without them. It's that simple. Take everything apart and start over. It ****s, but it's what has to be done.
A guy I worked with bought a few year old Jeep CJ and it has DW from the first day he got it. He took it to a 4 wheel drive shop and they checked everything out and found the stock stabilizer was worn out. They put a new one on and he was back on the road with no more DW. According to Jimmy Shine, no car has left SoCal in 30 years without one on the front end. Since you are only looking at $40 painted or $80 chrome, it really isn't a big deal to just try one. I would be very surprised if you do and report back that you saw no difference. If nothing else, it tightens up the steering a little for better feel, especially with bias plies. Just my opinion. Here is a little video on how Jeeps can get DW too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GupYHM1pCcY Don
A few photos of your front end as it is would likely help us see a misstake made in base set up,but there has been a lot of help given already that may of fixed it for you?? Never seen one that could not be smoothed out nice.
Since I'm the one who said I had 9 1/2 (didn't say it was wrong, just that it was a bit much, 7 was what I was shooting for), maybe you can reword that comment to make some sort of sense.
I mess with old Jeeps and the "Death Wobble" is a common complaint. Some bolt on a damper and say it's fixed. I say the damper just masks the problem if the vehicle wasn't originally equipped with a damper.Of course larger heavier tires can cause problems. On these O/T old Jeeps the wobble is often a combination of ingredients; ,slightly loose tie rod ends,slightly off toe and or castor,king pin tapered bearing preload,and tire balance. I chased a wobble that finally was a front tire with a slight flat spot.
Had the death wobble in my T-bucket and discovered the rim of the right front wheel (a Weld Draglite) was bent. I eventually replaced both front Draglites with Wheel Vintiques Series 13's but I also added a steering stabilizer from So-Cal. I made a bracket out of angle iron and attached that to the underside of the front spring perch. Then, I simply bolted the body of the stabilizer to the bracket and clamped the piston end onto the tie rod. Replacing the wheels alone likely would have solved the problem but I really like the way the stabilizer tightened up the steering. I highly recommend it.
Try this ****ogy: You have a bad disc in your lower back. Pain pills make it feel better. The disc is still ****ed up and probably getting worse. But you don't feel a thing.
Or this ****ogy: Your back is really fine, no problems at all. But you work out to strengthen the back muscles so you feel even better................enhancement !! Don
The OP says he has a g***er but absolutely no information on the front setup,,I can't even begin to offer a opinion not knowing anything about it. HRP
I agree with F-6Garagerat. Tha dampener probably makes a differance on a frontend that has no problem and one that does, however, they are ugly and look out of place. There are hundreds of thousands of cars running around without them and they work fine. Using newer cars that came with them as an example of them being a good idea doesn't cut it.
That would have fit if the OP said, hey my front end is fine, no problems at al but I'm wondering if a stabilizer might make it even better. This was not the case. Nice try
You'd really have to be looking very closely to even know there was one on the front end in most installations. Here is the one on my Sons RPU. Don
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