Death Wobble/Steering Shudder

[jray95]

Sorry for the long post. I did a quick search and didn't find exactly what I was looking for so......

Today I experienced a violent steering wheel shudder in my '02 that I would describe as the old "death wobble" you hear about on solid axle trucks, Early Broncos, Jeeps, etc.

At 55mph, in a slight right hand turn, a little bit of a bump in the road triggered it. I held on to it as the steering wheel was rotating left and right a few degrees (maybe ~10deg) and it wouldn't stop until I slowed down to around 35mph.

I crawled underneath and didn't see anything obviously bad (tie rod ends, ball joints, etc).

Then I noticed when turning the steering wheel (with the engine running, but parked) I could feel it shuddering slightly as I turned it.

The PS pump makes quite a bit of noise so I wonder if its on the way out.

Anybody else ever experience this?

Thanks in advance!

 

[jray95]

Ok, so I've read a few things on the web about air getting into the PS system causing this type of behavior, and that turning the wheel from lock to lock several times can help work the air out.

I did this and the shudder that I could feel in the driveway was gone and I haven't noticed any shudder at speed.

So maybe that was it, but I'm suspicous of how the air got in there (haven't had it jacked up, no work done to the truck recently, etc). The PS pump is really noisy so I'm also suspicious of that.