98 ranger death wobble after oil change

[Four0Sport]

soooooooo i bought a ranger to drive back and forth to work. couldnt beat the deal. the explorer is now resting at my dads. I have had the ranger for 2 days, yesterday and this morning it drove fine on the interstate, smooth as could be. today at work I had one of the techs put it up on the rack to change the oil and on the way home from work I experienced my first case of death wobble. and my second, and third, and fourth.

I hit a bump on the on ramp and boom. death wobble. i sped up to come out of it and a few moments later it was gone. few miles down the interstate, small pothole, death wobble. then again, then again on the road to my house.

steering looked fine, tires are fairly new, previous owner never had any problems. never started to happen until truck was on a rack. tech placed the pads on the frame, not the steering or suspension. the only thing on the front end that we saw could need replaced was a torn boot on the lower ball joint.

I have never experienced death wobble until today. even with my lifted explorer with beat suspension and choppy tires I have never had this kind of trouble. been doing some searching on the web on different forums and dont really see alot of advice for death wobble on stock suspensions.

any advice or feedback is appreciated!

 

[swetrid]

Air in power steering system, start it up and turn it all the way to left and shut off engine and let sit for 15 minuters. It will be good after that.

 

[Tbars4]

..If they did turn the steering wheel with the engine off, that could be the case...I like to take my trucks to an open parking lot and turn while driving almost lock to almost lock to burp the air out..

..That torn boot on the ball joint might be worth looking into a bit more..

..Without knowing any of the specs I'm assuming you are talking about a bone stock 94 Ranger 2wd 14" wheels rolling on 27" tires with at least power steering..

..Looking forward to your Ranger Registry...

 

[Four0Sport]

98 Ranger supercab 4x4, 4.0 ohv, auto, 3.73 ls, stock 16s

air in the power steering huh? ill have to make some figure 8s in the parking lot after work today. cap off or cap on?

Ted, I looked into the balljoint issue enough to know that they are the factory balljoints with 160K miles. Sharp truck though, I got a heck of a deal. I'll start a registry when I get a bit more time. Grand opening festivities at my new job starting today so i may be busy lol

 

[Tbars4]

..Cap on or you will have fluid everywhere..

 

[greenbeer]

Check the ball joints thoroughly, I just did all four on a 98 3.0 supercab 4x4 with 62k on the clock. First time in my career as a mechanic seeing a Ranger with less than 120k with loose ball joints!!

 

[Ranger Al]

I too would check the ball joints.

 

[tmwalsh]

Next time it starts to shimmy[that's the old term, anyway] slow down instead. Speeding up only aggravates the condition in my experience. Most times there was a problem in the steering linkage. Something that was pretty much held in place would get moved by motion of the suspension[such as a ball joint] and then the suspension cycled from load-to-unload and back over and over until the load settled things back in their 'normal' position.
Get out the book, and check the balljoints. There will be a specified procedure depending on where the load is carried. Some are checked with the lower arm supported, others with the lower arm un-supported.
tom

 

[Four0Sport]

tech did have vehicle in nuetral and turned the wheel to get it to line up in the bay.. parked it with the wheel locked to the left.. wobble gone. fluid looks horrible though, need to change it.

thanks everyone!

 

[BBBB51]

Thx guys for the info . Its good to know.