@@dillonh321 I first experienced that when I was 16 with my 79 F-150 4x4 27 years ago scared the living shit out of me the truck just started shaking like hell.
My '97 Cummins 2500 4x4 had same problem about 15 years ago. I replaced every possible component including steering box, track rod, u-joints, rod ends, knuckle ball joints, steering dampener. Could not kill it. It seemed to be a mild wobble during cold weather, but on warmer days it would be downright violent. This made me think it could be related to a change in oil viscosity; Hydraulic oil to be more concise. Turns out the stock dampener ( even when new) was not strong enough to control the wobble. Installed a heavy duty off-road style dampener and the problem has never returned. Still driving my 23 year old Ram. Love that truck.
Mine was rebuild almost 16 years (and 450,000 kilometers ago!) with all the Moog Problem Solver hardware. Warrantied for life. I get it rebuilt every 200K or so, under warranty. NEVER had a death wobble and I use a 10 ply 32" Michelin tire.
having the same issue didn't replace the ball joints but replaced every other component and going to be replacing the steering box I replaced upper lower control arms I have a front Dana 60 1997 2500 Cummins 12 valve put Skyjack dual dampener up front with the boxed in steering box and that section where you mount that square box around the stabilizer up front I think there's two bolts that hold it one to the left one to the right and then you have where your steering gear is there's that arm that comes off there's an extra piece that goes over that and I did all that now it did help but there's days it feels worse than others there's days and it seems like around 65 to 75 I will feel it and some days is worse than others and cannot seem to figure it out the only things that I haven't done is I have not done the gearbox yet which I do have one brand new and I have not done ball joints and I have not done the outer shafts that sit in the differential itself any more information that could help me would be greatly appreciated I've had a few f450s with the straight front axle in Ford but they had Lee Springs up-front never had this issue so any Insider help would be greatly appreciated
@@themechanicman3865 The ball joints in my Dana 60 front axle were totally worn out (a pile of rust dust). So bad that the front wheels were cambered in at the top. The axle u-joints were also getting loose. I'm sure all that contributed to the problem, but the death wobble didn't totally go away 'till I replaced the steering damper with an off road unit. The Cummins diesel is a heavy motor (900 lbs.) The frame rails are just able to hold everything solid when new, but years of use and rust may be a factor in itself.
First time I've ever seen death wobble on an independent suspension. I know the jokes with Dodges but I've experienced this with Jeeps and Fords as well.
Had the death wobbles on my Nissan Patrol (solid front axle), turned out to be the tyres in my case. Never heard of them on an IFS vehicle, but yeah - if the ball joints are all worn the camber/ caster/ toe would wobble about plus wear the tyres with scallops and other funky (bad) patterns so death wobbles would definitely be a thing.
Mopars steering boxes are historically pieces of junk and that doesn’t matter if they were passage cars or light trucks and van. They all have all sorts of wander issues mostly due to wear in the pitman shaft and spool valve. Combine that with a some questionable font end geometry and plus alignment settings to make the steering feel lighter because of heavy front axle weights from some of the boat anchor they have called engines as well as pretty large wear allowances for ball joints steering wobble is almost assured. While I have just bashed Chyliser motor company pretty hard and in my opinion rightfully so because the Chrysler steering boxes for it s cars remained basically unchanged from the mid 50 to when they disappeared with the RWD Lebanon and the same is true for there van and light trucks until they went to R&P. That said the full size GM cars and wagons of the 60’s and early 70’s could get a case of the wobbles as well when the upper ball joints were shot especially if the car had a case of sagging front springs which was just about any GM car with engines above 350 CID Fromm the mid to late 1960’s until GM quite making true full size cars in the mid 1970’s except for Cadillac.
@@einfelder8262 I've had it on my Patrol a few times too. Most of my issues were panhard rod bushes but the castor bushes were also split one time. I'm not far off rebuilding my swivel hubs
@@douganderson7002 Its because people dont usually drive 2wd trucks in winter. They see just as much abuse. Theres clean dodges all over but the people that dont understand that metal rusted when introduced to salt, cant be helped.
@@thehavok4258 up here in new england a new daily driver truck 10 maybye 15 years and its time for the junkyard....if you undercoat that will buy some time but salt just destroys everything....i dont get these joe homeowners buying 60k trucks that look like a shark took a bite out of the bedside and fenders 10 years later from the rust and rot...that is just my view..
@@workingshlub8861 The problem isnt the vehicle, its the owner. Theres clean 90's Dodges with original powertrains and bodies with a million miles and counting. They didnt win the truck lottery, they just do what the manual tells them to do and dont drive it in the salt. My 01 was spotless 4 years ago and i know of Fords from 2014 that are rusting out. Its 100% the owner. Get a beater piece of shit for a couple hundred dollars for the winter problem solved.
That Ram is such a gem! I wish we got any sort of cummins here in New Zealand... Otherwise its a very hefty bill to get one imported, or if your luck you might find a clapped out 6bt needing a full rebuild for a couple grand.. :/
Tony The Truck Guy Nope... Metallurgist, welder, fabricator, structural engineer. I'll run out of countin' fingers the times I've had super confident guys completely floored when their handiwork fails and I have to come in and fix it. If you are gonna do something, especially if your life or others depends on it, do it right. Good enough... aint.
Roger. Really, really not good for a steering attachment. Putting your pride/ego aside and paying a pro for just that would of been the way to go. Hopefully it never fails and kills someone, especially when towing that giant gooseneck. P.s.- Guy above me commenting was mocking the guy in the vid quoting them bringing it up that he is a safety inspector.
For 65 bucks on Amazon you can buy a stabilizer bar that bolts to each frame rail and has a shaft and bearing that bolts to the gearbox! Death wobble gone takes half hour to install.
Already tried that....still death wobble. Changed tie rods, shocks, tires, mechanic cleaned up the hole for drag link to chassis. Next step will be the damper and then new tie rod assembly like synergy
Perfect timing! 97 2wd 3500/IFS . Ball joints are TOAST, but is it the shocks causing excessive front "Boing! Boing! Boing! " Type of bounce or coil springs hence is it recommended to replace front coil springs while in there? Thanks a Shit Ton For this (pun intended 🤘🤓)
Thats cool that you was in Columbus. I work at the Cummins plant in Seymour where we make the big diesels! Too bad I didn't know you was down here or I could of taken you guys in for a tour.
On my 96 4x4 the steering sucked from day one...and the dealer/factory fix was to rotate the tires...after a few years of this and some exciting deathwobble events...I copied what some folks did on the Turbo Diesel Register forums did...I replaced the front steering components with some parts from I think 98 heavy duty steering...it immediately fixed my steering, and never saw death wobble again. The big steering component change with this fix is you have a one tiebar between the wheels and the drag link ties into that...rather than the stock drag link to right wheel, and tierod from that drag link to the other wheel. (I apologize if the terms are wrong...but I think you can picture what I mean)
That’s impressive, I owned a 96 ram for years with no problems with death wobble I was lucky From a accomplished welder please weld it hotter the next time you do this .
At 3:12 he states that position of the rack fore and aft will effect bumpsteer but its the height of the rack that will effect bumpsteer. The fore/aft position of the rack effects turning radius/scrub of the front tires. The tie rods should be parallel with the lower control arms and the distance between the inner tie rods should be the same as the distance between the lower control arm pivots to minimize bumpsteer.
you can lengthen the tie rods to counter both of those, but the factory center link is right about in line with the center of the rack now, just got home from a trip to florida and can report on all the BAD Alabama roads with a 1st gen in tow there was zero bump steer
I had a 2wd 03 dually. It had rack and pinion. Never had death wobble. My 4x4 05 2500 was a death wobble machine. Did the recall upgrade and a good starting damper solved that problem. Even with 35 tires.
I think the way you may be able to do a rack and pinion conversion is to mount the rack behind the axle instead of in front, however the first three things that comes to mind as a problem would be the front U joint, the angle of the steering shaft, and whether or not the knuckles can be swapped left for right and right for left and still work fine
It's an anti-rusting device, required on northern vehicles. There's a special form you have to fill out. Called the Id10-T form, but you have to ask the dealer for it.
I wish I could have 1 less turn on my lock-to-lock steering wheel rotation on ALL my vehicles! Sadly in northern Alberta 4x4 is a must for my cummins...
Had an 03 4*4 with death wobble. Would go away with a new steering stabilizer but they never lasted. BILSTEIN part # 24-164870 Fixed my problems. Had the truck 12 years.
We've completely rebuilt the front of our 2003 Ram 2500 4x4 with the exception of the upper control arms and still get DW. The suspension is bone stock, zero lift. Our local mech is suggesting a dual stabilizer set-up. I'm tempted to give the Bilstein part a try.
I remember when I did daimlerchrysler customer service in 2005, we had so many calls for 4wd ball joints. So many. I think we had more than one recall issued for 99-02 at that time (once again, 2005). We also authorized a lot of lift pumps if i remember correctly.
TJ (same steering system, same problem, at least in the 4x4 Dodges) owner reporting in... That's a cool swap, and my hat really is off to that guy, but it seems massively easier to just replace the torque arm/tie rods as a PM about every 50-75k mils and just not worry about it. I rebuilt 100% of the steering on my TJ at 100k on the clock just _as_ a PM and I've never once had death wobble. I can believe that it's worse on the trucks, particularly with the Cummins, but... Man.. Lots of work... and 2wd only. Again, really nice job he did on it though!
Next time you're in town (Columbus), you should set up a meet and greet. We also make some big boy stuff down in Seymour you could probably take a tour.
Nice video i have a 1995 3.9 an is true you get tired for compensating the road angle an even more with a load right now I have a steering damper from rough country and it work fine but I think this will work better
My 2003 Hemi 2500 has that same steering from the factory. I love it but because it has some of those parts mixed in having trouble finding lowering kits or lift kits for that matter 🤣
Have an 04 Ram Cummins 4x4, like Ford they have many aftermarket applications for steering stabilizer shocks. When my stock one wore out went with a Fox shock style. never had any issues. I run 35/12/18s.
Bob G Did you read my post? Try running any vehicle that has stabilizing shock without one...Ford , and older strait axle Chevys run them also, if you remove it at a certain speed they will all start doing this. Obviously you are so biased you are unable to have an intelligent discussion. or even understand what I wrote. Here is a Ferd with the same issue.. www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=3&ved=2ahUKEwjbudWl7fHmAhX1dM0KHbylC7kQwqsBMAJ6BAgFEAo&url=https%3A%2F%2Fm.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D4JV7L8bBo1Q&usg=AOvVaw3OhdJvhTNprICoLpoT_SCS
@@itchytriggerfinger7622 nope, death wobble is 💯 due to worn parts, or improper lift geometry. Stabilizers were added by the factory to make sure there was no issue on a standard factory allignment.
Bob G I don’t agree, yes other problems and worn out parts incorrect alignment can cause or make it worse. take my word. Run one without. Ford ,Chevy or Dodge and see what happens. Believe me they are there for a reason. I have experience in this I have worked in a tire shop for 4 years. I have seen many different brand trucks with worn out Shock stabilizers where there is absolutely no resistance in the shock. They will start death wobbling.
Once you've made sure your steering box is not moving around at the frame and nothing is loose you simply replace your old tired out parts . You can brace the steering box pretty easily as well and you can go all out by tapping your steering box for hydrauluc assist ports and mount a steering ram to the axle and tie rod... you really shouldn't have death wobble with a system that has no loose parts , but a steering assist ram will prevent DW even on unbalanced 44tsl.
I had a GM truck that did this whenever I want 60mph...turns out it was the damper shock...the one that goes sideways in the front. Replace damper shock and issue want away!😃👍
Cool idea but death wobble on a 2wd. On my 93 w250 I just replaced worn out drag link. And added a rancho dual steering stabilizer. I run 33 and have 350k miles on it. No issues. Good video
That video of the shaking looks scary, but that is nothing compared to the speed swerve of my first truck which was a 47 Dodge pickup which had two and a half turns of play in addition to the lock to lock on the steering wheel. At top speed, or about 45 mph it would start swerving and you really needed to keep that steering wheel spinning back and forth and required the whole road to stay out of the ditch. My dad's grain truck was even worse because the steering wheel was so big it had about three or four turns of play. Steering issues from bad worn-out truck suspensions go back a long way.
@@Billybobaggins9 I Live In Canada, And We Have Snow For 4 Months A Year... If You Don't Have 4wd Your Retired And Don't Need To Leave Your House... Not Everyone Lives In California And Drive A Prius Budz 🤣
@@Billybobaggins9 That's hilarious, peoples driveways where I live are bad enough you need 4 wheel drive on wet concrete. When it snows your trapped at home the residential public roads are not plowed.
I live in Canada.... My first truck I got when I was 17 years old, it was regular cab 8ft box RWD. If I didn't have a load I needed 20 sand bags and winter tires to not slide all over the place I drove that truck for 10 years.... Then I got a 4×4 Diesel with a crew cab, I will never get a RWD truck ever again, just no, no ,no... Winter time needs 4×4
I did 98.5 HD steering and universal steering stabilizer in my 96 4WD and it's been 1 year so far no problems still tight as new .however it was way more than 350$.
Most of us with the 4wd just use stuff like the 3rd gen track bar and the steering shaft brace and call it a day. thats crazy! Id love to see some custom oversize rotors and calipers on a 2nd gen. Not just the knuckle swap from ford D60 or 3rd gen dodge but something with a late model, those rotors are huge in comparison. lots of owners run larger wheel diameters and that makes the already weak brakes suck more. you need a larger rotor, and maybe steal the ABS from another application to keep the thing from locking up.
@@someuser3024 dad has a 97 with hydro boost, I hate the feeling of the pedal. and if it shuts off you loose all power brakes, with vacuum there is some reserve to get you stopped
Rich looks like he's at home @10:44 in his ideal Cummins cockpit. But I'm at home in my cockpit w my 1st gen 7.3 Powerstroke that pulls like a motha and sounds great!
Hi, I know some of the 05 - 08 ford f250 / 350 had same issues. It was also called death wobble by ford (TSB). They had some lame explanation low tire pressure, shocks even wrong tires. Anyway i still have my ford 2006 F250 XLT 5.4L. still works great fir my needs but once in awhile when i hit a bump the wheel starts acting up or even goes out of control. Yes, i changed my shocks, tires, check air pressure. It also has stock aluminum rims so not over sized. If you ever come across any ford with this issue please make a video on how it got resolved. Ford just couldn't even fix or deal with it. Thanks
Now I am no expert on death wobbles or any such things. From the comments it seems it's because of steering component wear, mostly in 4x4 trucks with a solid front axle? So to my way of thinking, the steering component wear really just highlights a design compromise associated with the solid axle. I am thinking is it that the solid axle can't be engineered with enough caster angle to stabilize the wheel?
Never experienced death wobble in my 2000 Ram 2500. 4x4 290 k miles. Only thing that is upgraded is a gearbox stabilizer. All other tie rods and ball joints are Moog.
looks like boogers in the video, covered in oily crap, but they are long layered stitch welds...dads not a welder by trade, but it is more than perfect for something like this
The Unimogs use hydraulic ram steering. They also make those kits for rock crawlers that use the same kind of system. Essentially, replace the power steering pump with the hydraulic pump, weld the necessary tabs to the axle, install ram, linkage and plumb the flexible hydraulic lines. This should provide a similar solution while not adding any additional wear points.
I was hoping to find a true solution for the Mopar 4wd solid axle death wobble. Guess I'll stick with the old tried and true, check for wear every month and replace parts that move in a way they aren't supposed to.
Told my boss he had to wait until I was done watching this vidya to get my men back to work, he sat down and watched it with me and the next thing you know were out at his 2wd Cummins measuring shit and ordering the “pipe”, his shit is sloppy as hell and he’s tired of it!
Had numerous 2nd gen rams and never experienced death wobble or trans problems aside from minor solenoids. Curious what specifically goes wrong. We've had autos, manuals, 2wd, and 4x4.
If I may ask a question about a engine swap. I have a 1990 Chevy 2500 single cab with a 350 and it runs real good but it’s a turd for sure. New like 200hp and like 300lbft now 190k later I’m sure not near that much. So the question is what would be a good diesel swap to just get new stock power numbers or just a little better in torque but get genuinely decent mpg. As this is my daily driver and as a mechanic I really just don’t want another mpg car to maintain I would like to just drive my old truck if I can get it into 20 mpg range. I also rarely ever haul anything just for reference. Maybe a side by side rarely
For some reason Jaron doesn't look like a typical ace mechanic, but hearing him explain the procedure for his fix sure changed my mind on that. Good work, however this is obviously not a typical driveway repair job... 🙄
