Death wobble................revisited. Much better now

[Freightrain]

Ok, as a follow up to my original post about how the truck would shake itself apart about 55mph or so. Last fall I replaced the tie rod ends and that seemed to be an improvement. They were in bad shape. Still didn't fix the real problem.

Step forward to July 4th weekend and I tore into the rear arm bushings. I spent a few days trying to get them out of the truck. I got the rear cross arm off easily enough since I had that off last winter and fix it. I ran into issues getting the front pivot bolt out on the passenger side. Had Drivers side out. Passenger side was stuck solid. Even with my new 3/4 impact and lots of heat it wasn't coming out. I then went to work on the bushings under the housing. That was another disaster in the making. I got the bolt out, but getting the steel bushings out of the ends was NOT happening. Heat and chiseling was not working. Had a few people give me hints but to no avail. I then went back to work on the front bolt. With some work I finally got the bolt out. The bushing was completely toast, the inner sleeve was in pieces. The bolt was worn down in the middle from the bushing beating on it for the last ? years.

I got the front to drop down out of the brackets, I torched the old bushings out and using silvo glide I was able to reinstall the new bushings using he existing bolts and some large washers. Worked really well and with little effort. Didn't need the fancy Neway bushing installer thingmabob. I then just lubed everything up and put it back together. I have the bushings for under the axle, but not going to worry about them.

After a test drive I realized it was definitely better then before. I have used it on two road trips and it surely rides better with minimal "bounce" that it used to have. It was never really bad with the trailer, but noticable.

Tonight I got out there and rechecked my toe in. I worked on it back when I did the tie rod ends. It was close, but I knew it wasn't "right". Trying to do a backyard alignment on wobble wheels is tough. I spun each wheel and found the middle of the wobble(only 1/16" or so, but enough). I then checked across the inside tire tread line. Surely it was about 1/8" toe OUT. Not good. I readjusted the tie rod til I got about 1/16"-1/8" toe IN. I then took it for a quick trip up the road. Got up to 55mph and it really is much, much better. The steering wheel doesn't get that shimmy feel to it anymore. Just barely if you let go of it, but it doesn't jerk your hand back/forth if you hold on to it. I'm sure I could get a real alignment done on the whole chassis now. Something to look into later. I've got a road trip this weekend, 120 miles away, so that should be a good test to see how it does with the trailer.

[Rob]

Ok, as a follow up to my original post about how the truck would shake itself apart about 55mph or so. Last fall I replaced the tie rod ends and that seemed to be an improvement. They were in bad shape. Still didn't fix the real problem.

Step forward to July 4th weekend and I tore into the rear arm bushings. I spent a few days trying to get them out of the truck. I got the rear cross arm off easily enough since I had that off last winter and fix it. I ran into issues getting the front pivot bolt out on the passenger side. Had Drivers side out. Passenger side was stuck solid. Even with my new 3/4 impact and lots of heat it wasn't coming out. I then went to work on the bushings under the housing. That was another disaster in the making. I got the bolt out, but getting the steel bushings out of the ends was NOT happening. Heat and chiseling was not working. Had a few people give me hints but to no avail. I then went back to work on the front bolt. With some work I finally got the bolt out. The bushing was completely toast, the inner sleeve was in pieces. The bolt was worn down in the middle from the bushing beating on it for the last ? years.

I got the front to drop down out of the brackets, I torched the old bushings out and using silvo glide I was able to reinstall the new bushings using he existing bolts and some large washers. Worked really well and with little effort. Didn't need the fancy Neway bushing installer thingmabob. I then just lubed everything up and put it back together. I have the bushings for under the axle, but not going to worry about them.

After a test drive I realized it was definitely better then before. I have used it on two road trips and it surely rides better with minimal "bounce" that it used to have. It was never really bad with the trailer, but noticable.

Tonight I got out there and rechecked my toe in. I worked on it back when I did the tie rod ends. It was close, but I knew it wasn't "right". Trying to do a backyard alignment on wobble wheels is tough. I spun each wheel and found the middle of the wobble(only 1/16" or so, but enough). I then checked across the inside tire tread line. Surely it was about 1/8" toe OUT. Not good. I readjusted the tie rod til I got about 1/16"-1/8" toe IN. I then took it for a quick trip up the road. Got up to 55mph and it really is much, much better. The steering wheel doesn't get that shimmy feel to it anymore. Just barely if you let go of it, but it doesn't jerk your hand back/forth if you hold on to it. I'm sure I could get a real alignment done on the whole chassis now. Something to look into later. I've got a road trip this weekend, 120 miles away, so that should be a good test to see how it does with the trailer.

Got the photos you asked for and will upload shortly.

Rob

[Freightrain]

Well, the road trip yesterday(about 300 miles) showed that I have narrowed the issues down with the truck. With the rear suspension fixed up and the new alignment I have really smoothed it out. I ran it 65-70 mph all the way there/back and it really is driving much better. The wheel only got a slight shake to it occasionally as speed changed some. Besides that it rolled along nice.

I did get to stretch it's legs some and showed up some late model stuff(to smiles,waves, and thumbs up) as I wound'r up to about 75 or so passing some wide loads before getting off my exit.

BTW, I did some mileage computation from last fill up and guess what?? 11.9 mpg!!! Not bad for a 50 yr old truck running about 28K lbs. I usually run 65+ mph, and that's about 1800 rpm so it really must like it. Don't have to hold it WOT to do it, like when it was geared for 65 and I just held it to the floor.