Front end wabble!

Wayne Dial

SDD Junior Member
Joined
Feb 24, 2022
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Location
Texas
I have a high speed wabble in the front end. It happens when I hit a bump sometimes. I have replaced ball joints, tie rod ends, drag link, idler arm, pitman arm, etc. All new! It still happened yesterday again. When it happens I have to slow quickly to get it to stop and regain control. Help. What am I missing?
 

DaveBen

SDD Senior Member
Joined
May 31, 2005
Messages
9,620
Reaction score
81
Location
Ukiah, California
Alignment maybe out, causing The Death Wobble. Check your King Pin ball joints by jacking up the truck and putting a bar under the tire and seeing if it moves up and down. I will bet it does.
 

Rays98GoVols

SDD Junior Member
Joined
Jul 2, 2018
Messages
11
Reaction score
2
Location
Fort Wayne
I had the same thing a couple of years back. I changed everything that people said to change.
Shocks
Ball Joints
Bought brand new Motorcraft EVERYTHING.

some of the items improved the time 'between' Death Wobbles, but what finally fixed it was the bar that goes from the Passenger side up at an angle to the drivers side. The part closest to the Drivers side the Ball joint there was bad. Replaced it and never had another Death Wobble...good luck.

I replaced ALL of my front end ball joints, tie rod ends, linkages etc for around $700 in parts with Genuine Ford parts (except the Moog Ball Joints) by buying them off of Ebay. ONLY deal with actual Ford dealers that just want to get rid of a 12+ year old part. I usually got them for half list price or better...
 

Gman

SDD Junior Member
Joined
Mar 2, 2022
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Location
Wisconsin
Besides the death wobble has anyone experienced excessive tire wear on right front tires. 2019 F450 4WD 82K miles, other 5 tires original and normal wear, right front on going on third tire soon. Done alignments, recalls, dealership, independents, old school, and new school techs and no answers. Recently I had wobble at 45mph in 2wd, got snow used 4wd, switched back to 2wd and no wobble issues for a week. Took into dealership and replaced right front 4wd lockout assembly, they didn't notice any wrong with old, replaced anyway.

At $400+ for new tires would like any ideas before replacing both front tires.
 

john mathis

SDD Junior Member
Joined
Nov 17, 2009
Messages
40
Reaction score
5
Location
ramsey,il
Besides the death wobble has anyone experienced excessive tire wear on right front tires. 2019 F450 4WD 82K miles, other 5 tires original and normal wear, right front on going on third tire soon. Done alignments, recalls, dealership, independents, old school, and new school techs and no answers. Recently I had wobble at 45mph in 2wd, got snow used 4wd, switched back to 2wd and no wobble issues for a week. Took into dealership and replaced right front 4wd lockout assembly, they didn't notice any wrong with old, replaced anyway.




Inspect that rim!
 

shooterchief

SDD Junior Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2010
Messages
21
Reaction score
5
Location
Buras, La.
I had a horrendous Death Wobble on my 2017 F250. It was so bad, that it would start around 40mph on a bump (like you described), and would have to to brake hard to regain control (as you also described).
Eventually, I replaced the steering stabilizer with a heavy duty - dual piston one. It went away immediately. I’ve been running this one for 2 1/2yrs now, without a single incident since replacing it.
I went to a local 4X4/Offroad shop. For $220 and an hour of drinking their coffee while they installed it, it was an easy and very worthwhile investment.
 

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
30,506
Messages
266,043
Members
14,622
Latest member
rhensonsr
Top