Thread: County Death wobble cured ...

The new damper is just doing the job that your worn swivel bearings should be doing,if you don't replaced the bearings a shimmy will start and you'll put load through the steering it's not supposed to have and it'll lead to more trouble and money. Pat

Originally Posted by Tikirocker

Before we went away for Xmas holidays I made sure to get a new steering damper for the County. Before this time I had experienced some very nasty death wobbles ... more like fast jumping from left to right when the truck hit a particular patch of uneven road at high speeds.

I replaced the old steering damper ( Armstrong ) with a new Delphi De Carbon and the truck was perfect again, positive steering with the wheel returning to center no problem at all. Even in spite of the fact that the driver side pan hard bush is perishing due to oil invasion, the truck has shown zero signs of the previous trouble at all.

Goes to show that the steering damper does actually do something afterall!

Best, Simon.

Whilst the damper has eliminated the wobble, it is a band aid that is masking another problem with the front end, such as the panhard rod bushing you mentioned for example, but can include a number of other factors that I'll leave to other contributors to make sggestions on .
Wagoo.

As above. the steering damper is fitted to reduce kickback on very rough terrain, not to remove wobble. The wobble is due to the factors, most likely the swivels, but most likely a combination of factors, and you have just covered the problem up - until it deteriorates beyond the capability of the damper to cover up.

John

Just to clarify ... I also replaced the old tired tie rod ends with a brand new heavy duty tie rod kit. So I have replaced both the entire tie rod ends and the steering damper both. When I get back to Sydney I have the replacement pan hard bushes ( OEM ) and will have them installed. Now, would I still be having issues with the swivels after all this?

I wasn't having steering wobble or serious wandering before ... what happened is that if i hit a bit of very uneven tarmac at high speed the truck could violently jerk from left to right like it was doing slalom until I slowed right down and it went away. I'll make sure to get the swivels checked though when we get home as well.

It was noted by a Landy mech before we left home that there was a slight amount of movement if rocking the passenger FL tyre vertically, back and forth ... might be wheel bearing or swivel in that case I guess.

In any case, I found that for the trip away, which has involved about 2000k's driving ... I was able to remove this slalom effect from the behaviour of the truck - this was important for me and I found that the steering damper really made a huge difference.

Simon.

Simon,if it's jerking L/R after hitting bumps it's time for new swivel bearings and panhard rod bushes. Pat

Pat,

It's not so simple ... this slalom effect didn't happen on ALL bumps ... only on certain patches of extremely uneven road. I never had this problem off roading on dirt, rocks, mud at any other time. This only happened about 1% of all my driving and only happened on road at speed. Since replacing the tie rods and steering damper it doesn't happen at all.

I will have the bearings checked however ...

Simon.

Originally Posted by Tikirocker

Pat,

It's not so simple ... this slalom effect didn't happen on ALL bumps ... only on certain patches of extremely uneven road. I never had this problem off roading on dirt, rocks, mud at any other time. This only happened about 1% of all my driving and only happened on road at speed. Since replacing the tie rods and steering damper it doesn't happen at all.

I will have the bearings checked however ...

Simon.

Yep, that's the exact symptoms for swivel bearings in need of attention.

Saw your County at the mechanic in Katoomba just before Christmas.

I am amazed at the amount of folk that run steering dampers