Death wobble

[mach1mustang351]

Hello.  I am experiencing a death wobble in my 87 wagon.  I have a custom lift I made with machined drop spindles. All front end components are good so I suspect the dampener cank keep up with the bigger tires.  I have a Rancho dampener on there now but it is 5 years old or so I was wonderign if anyone knew of any stiffer dampeners or if anyone went with a dual setup.  Thanks 

[shaggimo]

Keep in mind, extra steering dampers are just band aids for the real problem. You really need to give the car a good shake down to find the real culprit. If nothing avails from that, check your alignment, speaking from experience (lifted jeep 34" tires), if your tow is out, it will take you for ride, lol. I usually set mine a tick towed in from zero, yes it does travel and wander a tick, but no deathwobble. You'll have to play with that a bit, (say 1/8 in- testdrive, zero- testdrive, and 1/8 out- testdrive, for example), to find out where your car handles and reponds the best without wobble. Once your front end is tight and correct, that little shimmy shock won't help or hinder you until a component starts to wear out, if I chose to, I could remove mine from my jeep without any ill issues, I just keep it on for a just in case tie rod failure.

*Another thing that is commonly overlooked, tires, when's the last time you had them balanced? They can and will cause nasty vibes and wobble if they're out. I've been guilty of this one, lol, couldn't find the wobble after alignment, deceided to rotate my tires, wobble gone, next day balanced the two I swapped around, put them back to the front, no wobble, lol.

[eaglefreek]

  I have a custom lift I made with machined drop spindles. 

Would like to see more info on the spindles.

[mach1mustang351]

   I have a custom lift I made with machined drop spindles. 

Would like to see more info on the spindles.

Those are top secret   I have a buddy who is a CNC machinist who made it happen.  it worked a lot better than my balljoint spacers to make up for the body lift.  The thing works good... other than the said death wobble 

[BenM]

At that point you may be at the bottom end of what the front CV shafts can handle. Have you considered lowering your differential a little?

I've had bad toe and an a strut rod bracket where the hole was worn egg-shaped both create death rattle.

[mach1mustang351]

The CVs are at a stock angle.  The car is body lifted.  I basically dropped the engine cradle down and everything along with it.  (steerign box, idler arm etc.)  I had the girlfriend help me in the garage today and I did find some wear in the pitman.  Not a whole lot but some.  My store in town didn't have one so I will have to get one Monday form a neighboring store.  Hopefully this is the issue.

[mach1mustang351]

well today i'll be the poster child on why it's best not to work on things tired and when you have a ton of things going on.  After a week of driving my car carefully as to not create the death wobble I had some good free time today and tested the front end again.  After taking the load off of the upper ball joint i was able to see exactly how messed up it was.  The crazier part is I replaced that balljoint before but it went bad.  The other 3 balljoints are still reasonably tight and are factory.  No more cheap chassis parts.  I'm going Moog this time. 

[BenM]

Good deal, at least it was simple. I didn't discover my lower joints were that bad until one let out. All the grease had washed out on me and I didn't realize it, and it doesn't take long after that.

[mach1mustang351]

I'm  little disappointed with the chassis parts on the car.  The ball joint that failed is a 2 year old unit and it is loser than the 3 stock ones still on the car.  All the tierods are 3 years old (hardly any miles) and they are squeeky and making noise even thought they are well lubricated.  I replaced the pitman with a Moog recently and I think I'm just going to bite the bullet and get Moog every where for it. 

[shaggimo]

It's getting more and more difficult to find decent replacement parts today  , cheap throwaway junk, much like the cars produced today  .

[BenM]

I've had good luck with NAPA and Carquest parts, not so much with Advance and AutoZone. I also have begun grabbing NOS parts when I find them online at a reasonable price.

[mach1mustang351]

I do work in the parts field and I don't want to throw any competitors under the bus but the aftermarket parts world is a little tough to figure sometimes.  People with their own "house" brand can change what is in that box at any moment.  That is why they do this.  There are places out there too that claim it is one thing and maybe 50% of the product is that brand and the other half is mixed no name stuff.  There are good parts houses that don't do thins but since I work for one of them I don't want to be biased