Death wobble

[Mudstang9443]

This morning driving to work I was going 45-50ish and switched lanes and right as I did I got a pretty heavy wobble in my steering wheel. It was enough that I had to slow down to control the steering wheel. Once I picked up again and got back up to that speed it was fine. I just put on a set of 33" terra grapplers this past weekend and I've driven 50 or so miles since and this was the first time it happened. I haven't had a chance to get underneath and take a look at anything yet but I figured I'd post on here to see if anyone has any suggestions on what it could be. I'm thinking maybe tie rods and/or ball joints? It's a 96 XLT with a tt and shackles on 33s.

 

[1997XLTRollover]

Turn your steering wheel with your engine off while you installed them? If you did you introduced air into the steering system which will cause that. Exact same thing happened to me, same speed. Just do a bunch of lock to lock turns in a parking lot at real slow speed to clear the air.

 

[2TimingTom]

typically death wobble isn't a thing on torsion bar vehicles. It's usually only associated with coil sprung solid axle vehicles.

You just got new tires installed...... I'd look at your lug nuts. Are they tight?

Tie rod ends could be the culprit, but unlikely. Ball joints could also be, but unlikely.

 

[Mudstang9443]

Turn your steering wheel with your engine off while you installed them? If you did you introduced air into the steering system which will cause that. Exact same thing happened to me, same speed. Just do a bunch of lock to lock turns in a parking lot at real slow speed to clear the air.

Yeah I actually turned the wheels when the front of the truck was jacked up and there was power steering fluid spewing all over the place so that makes sense. Thanks for the advice!

 

[1997XLTRollover]

Yeah I actually turned the wheels when the front of the truck was jacked up and there was power steering fluid spewing all over the place so that makes sense. Thanks for the advice!

No problem, I learned about this recently myself the hard way as well haha. Scared the **** out of me.