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Death Wobble!


ncmikeotus
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I recently bought a 1991 pathy 5 speed. It has a 4" body lift with 30x9.5 tires. I immediately noticed on the highway that my steering wheel allowed for roughly 10-15° of play and when i wasnt holding the steering wheel on either side of the "slak/play area" the truck would do a sort of death wobble. The wobble would start slow and progressively become aggressive and would only be relieved by me releasing the accelerator. Also, when i let go of the wheel it veers to the left. If anyone has any ideas please let me know. Ive only been working on vehicles for about six months and never worked on suspension/steering.

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I'd suggest checking ball joints, tie rods, centerlink first, one (or more of them) is probably responsible for the slack,I had similar play before replacing all of them, once there right then my next bet would be a wheel alignment

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One of the members here also repaired his by changing all of the bushings in the rear suspension after no luck with the front ones. I think he mentioned that the Panhard rod appeared to be the main culprit in his case. I would suggest you do all of the bushings at the same time. Assuming the truck isn't a daily driver like mine.

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Replace front and rear bushings, front upper/lower bushings, check shockies, idler arm bushings and check idler arm isn't twisted out of shape and get a wheel alignment. I'd love to see the wear on the tyre treads, must be crazy worn on one side.

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Good call. You have a (some) serious issues to get to that point, and if you aren't sure what to do, taking it to a professional you can trust is the smart thing to do.

Don't feel bad, front ends can be rather complex and mystifying at first. Just use this as an opportunity to learn as much as you can. ;)

 

B

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My death wobble came from a severely worn out pan hard bushing in the rear end and elongated bolt holes on both bottom link frame mounts in the read as well. Cut off all of it and bulit a triagulated four link with Johnny Joints, cleared that death wobble right up. :aok:

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  • 5 years later...
On 2/25/2015 at 12:47 AM, ncmikeotus said:

Im taking it for diagnosis tomorrow. Will keep yal updated. Thanks for the comments!

Any updates? Got a strange shift/wobble when going on/off the gas over 20kph ( mostly when going off) and already replaced front tension/compression/strut rod bushings

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19 hours ago, Slartibartfast said:

Sounds like the rear suspension link bushings are going.

 

Yeah I'm starting to wonder. Today I checked tires and they were at 25-28psi, filled to 40psi and its a lot better now I think. Highway driving will tell.

 

The bushings do seem good though when pushing the car around by hand and jumping on it. Its pretty awkward to get parts for the bushings it seems. I can find control/trailing arms everywhere for the R50 but 87-95 is nothing!

Only part I can find is the bushings here for a whopping $200 USD with shipping https://www.4x4parts.com/i-18914449-pathfinder-split-design-trailing-arm-bushings.html

 

brutal

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