Death wobble question (1 Viewer)

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I had a death wobble on my 1997 80 . I replaced bushings, wheel bearings, tie rod ends, balanced tires, blah,blah, blah. I finally replaced the tires with Cooper stt pro 37x12.50r17's. The death wobble was gone. Everything worked great!

After 5,000 miles, I rotated my tires and the death wobble immediately returned. I'm guessing the tires need balancing.

My question... Is there something else I should check besides tire balance? Any advice is much appreciated!

Thank you!!!

Striker1-1.jpg
 
Sounds like tires need re-balanced, Mr. Blacksmith
 
I suggest you start reading here:


Then do a search in the upper right corner as seen
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I suggest you start reading here:


Then do a search in the upper right corner as seen
here:
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I subscribed and read this thread at least twice, maybe more. Because of this thread I replaced all bushings, tie rod ends, wheel bearings, and balanced tires, and a lot of other things I can't remember at the moment.

I'm familiar with the search box... I use it frequently. Thanks!
 
I subscribed and read this thread at least twice, maybe more. Because of this thread I replaced all bushings, tie rod ends, wheel bearings, and balanced tires, and a lot of other things I can't remember at the moment.

I'm familiar with the search box... I use it frequently. Thanks!
When you re-did your wheel bearings, what torque did you set them?

That could be about enough miles to be a problem again if you followed the FSM to the "T".

Otherwise, I would point to the tires and balancing based on that being the change that brought it about.
 
Get them road force balanced, Discount Tire shops typically have these machines. My Coopers were awful for DW, Nittos have been absolutely amazing and not a single weird shimmy since I threw them on and I'm 18 months in with NO rebalance yet.
 
Pull the upper and lower bolts. Make sure the holes didn't wallow out. You can drop the pan hard rod and check bolt play. I had almost 1/4 of play in mine. Welded some thick washers to the outside. Good as new.
 
When you re-did your wheel bearings, what torque did you set them?

That could be about enough miles to be a problem again if you followed the FSM to the "T".

Otherwise, I would point to the tires and balancing based on that being the change that brought it about.
I believe the wheel bearings were torqued to 47 lbs inner and 30 lbs outer. I raised the front end and checked for slack at 12 and 6. There was no slack.

Going to discount tire tomorrow...

Thanks again!
 
I had a groove worn into a spindle causing me issues and a steering gear box that needed rebuilt. This was after eliminating old worn bushings as the culprit.
 
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Check the frame for cracks near the steering box mount and panhard mount. Check the inner side of the frame as well as the outside. There's a couple common(ish) points where 80 frames crack.
 
Primary cause of 'death rattles' is bad caster - factory caster is +3 degrees but if it's anything less than 1 degree it takes very little to induce harmonics that will cause suspension shake at very particular ranges of speed that depend on a bunch of things but primarily the tyre diameter and yes balance. I have experienced the death wobble/rattle myself and at 100 kph on a highway with traffic all around it's *scary* as it *will* destroy things unless immediate action is taken to 'cancel' the suspension harmonics.
 

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