Source of a death wobble? (1 Viewer)

[Pin_Head]

There should be very little to no movement of the wheel left to right without moving the steering wheel. The only play should be a tiny bit in the steering box. You may have more than 1 problem.

It is possible to have only one wheel wobble, but it is more violent when both wobble.

 

[ajax1]

3 to 9 movement when pushing on your tires means play in your tierod ends, I'd change all them if I were you, do new bushings in both arms also if one is shot the other is probably close

 

[mypancreasbroke]

Alrighty, new tre's it is! Any recs for parts? I would assume like most advice here on mud, and what I've done with my truck to this point (except the heater valve I just replaced) just stick to the stock Toyota ends, but are there any beefier/updated ends worth the cost when replacing old ones? I've read many threads on peoples experience so far and am getting a list of tools together... and am actually looking forward to knocking this out. Thank you guys for your input and help and holla at me if theres any other advice/parts you'd recommend.

 

[Pin_Head]

It might not be TREs. You have to look while you are jerking the wheel back and forth to see what is moving that shouldn't be. There are so many potential sources of play that it doesn't pay to guess.

 

[BlueCruiser84]

It might not be TREs. You have to look while you are jerking the wheel back and forth to see what is moving that shouldn't be. There are so many potential sources of play that it doesn't pay to guess.

Agreed^^

You will get some movement at 3 and 9 on a tight system. Like pinhead said you need to be sure that the movement is abnormal. Usually a tierod end will be kind of a light clunk or pop. You really need three hands. One to hold onto the tierod end and two to shake the wheel.

If you are getting a clunk at the lateral control arm - I'm assuming you mean the panhard - I would DEFInITELy replace those bushings. Any slop in the panhard allows side-to-side movement which can take a shimmy to a death wobble.

I don't know what kind of duty your LC serves but I used the trail gear steering setup on mine. It was like $200 with four new ends, a steering stabilizer, and a HD tierod and draglink. The steering stabilizer took some fiddling with, though. It might be easier to just go OEM replacements from Kurt at Cruiser Outfitters.

 

[mypancreasbroke]

Guys. Thanks everyone for the help here. I now understand the steering and suspension of this truck, and was able to find the source of my issue... the front panhard.

I've known about a slow power steering leak for a long while, and it appears this leak caused the rubber in the frame side bushing in my front panhard to fail. Either from continued occasional driving, some hard hit, or a combination of both the round end of the pan hard itself became warped, thus leading to my fun wobbly experiences.

Luckily found a good shape used one here on mud and I can drive straight once again. Now to move onto this power steering leak.

 

[retrofive]

 

[mudgudgeon]

Yuk!
Not sure that power steering oil would be the cause, maye it was a contributor. Fairly normal for that bush to wear out anyway, especially if it's the original bush in a 20-ish year old truck.

 

[mypancreasbroke]

Yuk!
Not sure that power steering oil would be the cause, maye it was a contributor. Fairly normal for that bush to wear out anyway, especially if it's the original bush in a 20-ish year old truck.

Yeah, it's set me on a mission to replace all the bushings front and back. But in the process of trying to buy a house, so probably need to wait til I have a garage to work in and pick myself up a press.