Death wobble, but not quite lethal yet… and catalytic converters

[Flyfish]

Sounds like you just have a tire out of balance.

Agree. I’d move the front wheels to the back and see what happens. Quick, easy and free.

And if you have someone rock the steering back and forth, you can watch for play in the lower column rubber coupler and steering box/pitman arm/steering linkage.

 

[German Gruner]

Swivel pin preload is unfortunatelly the most difficult of all checks to do, but if it is OK, all the rest can be not optimal and wobble will not appear.

Regards

 

[WaltNYC]

The worn shock bushings made it wobble badly whenever I hit a pothole. badly. scary.

 

[terryjm1]

This is the place to start. Get yourself a good fish scale. A small one for under 5lb fish. Like Tugela says, improvement is notable. Nothing makes as big a difference in handling. It’s easy as long as you understand the procedure.

Any reason not to get a digital fish scale? Something like this?

 

[Gordo]

Also, I usually measure my preload after the initial inertia, ie once it’s moving.

 

[Greg_M]

Any reason not to get a digital fish scale? Something like this?

Another option:

 

[discostew]

I kind of like that last one Greg posted. Digital would be ok. I guess no reason digital wouldn’t work. I would be concerned the reading wouldn’t stabilize in time to get a good reading. You only have a little travel. The reading will be really high when starting the swing, then settle into the actual preload reading. I actually think I might upgrade mine to that newton force meter scale. That looks really good

 

[terryjm1]

Another option:

View attachment 64042

I’m going to buy this one. Thank you.

 

[terryjm1]

Thanks to everyone for sharing your thoughts on this. I finally had the time to get to the next step on dealing with my death wobble problem. I replaced every bushing and joint on the front suspension (because it needed it, not necessarily to address death wobble). As I hadn’t driven it before doing the work (needed new brakes all around) I do not know if death wobble was a problem before doing all the suspension work. The first drive the wobble was noticeable, I removed the steering dampener to see if it would get worse and it was a whole lot worse.

Based on the suggestions here I determined it was most likely swivel ball preload. However, WaltNYC reported his was due to worn shock bushings. As that was relatively cheap and seemingly easy I figured that was worth a try.

I won’t bore you with the details but replacing the well worn shock bushings completely solved the problem.

While this solved my problem, next time, I will look at swivel ball preload sooner rather than making it my last stop.

 

[WaltNYC]

Glad that worked for you.