Outer Limits 4x4 Board

I keep experiencing death wobbles when i hit small pot holes on the road. I have checked the panhard bushes, had a wheel alingment, wheel balance. Im running 6in lift with 37's. Ive fitted snake racing drop and have checked they are the right ones for 6in lift. But im lost now because i still keep experiencing them. Any help would be much appreciated.

had a similar problem with a sierra. was a combination off pin bearings and wheel bearings. jack one side up stick a bar under the tyre for some leverage and give it a liftif there is some movment there you will feel it.

alo had a tyre with a bad belt in it that was causeing another sierra to do the same couldnt find the prob anywhere till bout a fortnight later when a bulge apeared on the tread was nearly a third the circumfrence of the tyre

Check your front panhard bushes and also that the panhard bush bolts are tight.

Cheers

what sort of tyres are they? bias/radial

check

wheel bearings
panhard bushes (worst offender)
tie rod ends
king pin bearings

I have 35s and as soon as it starts to do this I change the ball joints and it always solves it, they do not feel worn but only 1 or 2 mm of movement magnifies with big tyres, 37’s would be hell.

mine does the same with 35s on it and one steering ball joint is stuffed might change it i think haha

Check that the bolt hole for the panhard mount on the chassis isn't flogged out, and that the bolt itself isn't worn.

Check everything.

Wheel bearings, radius arm bushes, steering box adjustment, ball joints, king pin bearing plate shims (not sure if they are the same as nissan?)

Although I drive a Maverick (patrol), I find that the wheel bearings are usually the culprit. I give everything a once over every couple of months to be sure. Good luck, can be a tough one to find.

ball joints mine does it with 35,s
getting the whole front end overhauled in a couple weeks all bearings ball joints cv,s ill let u know if it solves it
cheers mick
ps can castor do it as well? mine used to do it bad then i got arms to suit my lift wollah fixed!!

Not so much on it's own, but it will amplify the other causes.

Look mate, you'll be there forever trying to fix the problem, the problem is the big lift, i had the 7" lift in mine with all the proper drop arms and castor adjustment. ran good for a while then the death wobbles kept happening and never went away. go back to 4-5" and 35s good luck.

i rekon its the weld where the pan hard join is, that is pretty common.

use to experience in mine from time to time but now i fixed it by mounting the steering damper in a different position and it drives perfect, but i am still going to do a full overhaul, new steering links etc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCy6Ml3cj54

mine gets a wobble and brake dive happening with 65mm lift.

i think the castor is out

pinkfloyddsotm wrote:use to experience in mine from time to time but now i fixed it by mounting the steering damper in a different position and it drives perfect, but i am still going to do a full overhaul, new steering links etc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCy6Ml3cj54

post up a pic of your steering damper?








for the OP, if you have checked everything else, check the bushes in the Snake arms, they are well known to flog out quickly

You should have lifted you drag link to match when you lifted you panhard rod so they line up and avoid bump steer.

MJ80 wrote:i rekon its the weld where the pan hard join is, that is pretty common.

is the fix common too? I need to fix, reinforce both ends of the factory /chassis brace..

80's_delirious wrote:

pinkfloyddsotm wrote:use to experience in mine from time to time but now i fixed it by mounting the steering damper in a different position and it drives perfect, but i am still going to do a full overhaul, new steering links etc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCy6Ml3cj54

post up a pic of your steering damper?

ill take a pic tomorrow arvy for you.

shorty_f0rty wrote:

MJ80 wrote:i rekon its the weld where the pan hard join is, that is pretty common.

is the fix common too? I need to fix, reinforce both ends of the factory /chassis brace..

yer it is common for the chassis end bracket to crack .

mine was doing something simular i found the king pin bearings buggered and panard bushes where gone and a buggered tie rod end check everything twice.

use genuine panard bushes

lol [/b]

Hi I have been chasing a wobble in my 80 as well. I think I have found mine. Pan hard bush on the diff wsas flogged out. Urethan was split. When we were checking everything it felt fine. Do your self a favour and pull off the panhard rod and physically inspect the bushes.

Photo of split bush


i wil be replacing both with factory bushes.

Hope this helps

Cheers Chris

mine does this when i hit the breaks, has a 3" lift and 37's...

how do you adjust the steering box?

it is unlikely to be the steering box. If it happens under brakes, check wheel bearings.

adjustment is done by loosening the locknit on th top of the steering box, use a large screw driver to adjust the pre-load srew, then tighten the lock nut.

steering wheel should have about 30mm of side to side slop/free play at the steering wheel.

if you overtighten the steering box preload, you will accelerate the wear/ also they tend to wear in the 'normal/straight ahead' position before they wear at full lock as this is wear most driving is done. If you tighten pre-load on the steering box in the straight ahead location, it can be too much pre-load at full lock


as 4runnernomore ofund, things can look OK, but a small amount of wear on something can be all it takes to start the problem, the bigger the tyres, the more likely it wiil show up.

Replaced bushes today with factory rubber ones . NO MORE WOBBLE

Another thing that will cause death wobbles is bias belted tyres in cold weather. Left sitting overnight, they get a big flatspot on the bottom. I checked everything in my front end and it would still do it in the morning. I threw on the Big Horns and fixed!

Another thing that will cause death wobbles is bias belted tyres in cold weather. Left sitting overnight, they get a big flatspot on the bottom. I checked everything in my front end and it would still do it in the morning. I threw on the Big Horns and fixed!

BadMav wrote:Another thing that will cause death wobbles is bias belted tyres in cold weather. Left sitting overnight, they get a big flatspot on the bottom. I checked everything in my front end and it would still do it in the morning. I threw on the Big Horns and fixed!

bias ply tires went out in the 70s. Can't understand anyone still making them?