death wobble

[lippy]

death wobble. Iv seen it said a couple of times. what is it?

 

[OutOfStep]

It's a steering oscillation due to the latent resonant frequency of the steered wheel of the vehice. duh :lol:

Front end shimmy, usually sparked by a bump while on-road. When its bad the vibrations are kinda self perptuating and you'll nearly need to stop to get it to straighten out. It is caused by a lot of things from unbalanced/out of align tires, to relation of steering components position to where they should be (usually occurs after a lift of over 3"), or wallered out steering parts.

 

[OutOfStep]

My father-in-laws pickup had it so bad from wallered out parts that it would actually wheel jack while going straight down the road at around 45. That and his 30% play in steering made for a real "fun" driving experience...

 

[lippy]

ok. dont have that problem. at what mileage should you change the steering box? mine has some play in it and the guy that had it befor tightened it up to max so steering is hard. so you tend to overcompensate.

 

[OutOfStep]

Depends on tire size, vehicle make, and how hard you use the box. Usually up to 10 degrees steering wheel play is considered acceptable (2" of play on a 20" wheel). If you don't have vibration it's probably the box