Thread: Another steering death wobble

I agree with the other comments about the bolts.

If the vehicle has more than 200,000kms (or 20+ years old) for example you can assume that the bolts etc will probably be a bit worn.
I think you should consider re-doing the whole front end at once - if the Pitman Arm was worn I would assume the other joints were worn no matter how they looked. The steering is a whole system and all parts affect each other. That's why I think it's worth just doing the whole lot at once to the spec in the book.

Standard Panhard is perfect, superpro bushes + fresh bolts will sit very nicely.

I think people should understand the difference between a 'death wobble' and a steering wobble.
I've had both, easy fixes.
My death wobble, was one when on a trailing throttle only. It was quite specific on my D1. Trailing(or light) throttle, AND I had to hit a joint in the road with both fronts at the same time.
If there was just the slightest angle on the road joint(we have many on the Ring road around Melb, .. no death wobble.
Hit a bump with an individual wheel, no problem. Hit a joint in the road square on, but under power .. no problem .. only under light/no throttle, and at about 70+ k/h it basically violently shakes the wheel close to wrist breaking levels .. and felt like car was going to collapse Blues Brothers style!
That turned out to be the hopeless, 50K klm new, Pedders steering damper.
Standard Armstrong damper fitted, death wobble gone.
Stupid part was, I pulled the damper, and checked for slack spots in it's travel .. feels like new(just works like "carp").

But I've had steering wobbles along the way too. D1 has high 300's(I think 390K) now, I've replaced both LHS bearings, and only checked RHS bearings but not renewed.

Had a steering wobble issue for a couple of months again. I had a very strong suspicion it was my RH front bearing. Steering wobble was very light, made no difference if over choppy road, smooth road, straight ahead, or in a turn. It came and went randomly.
So rechecked front RH bearing this morning. Front(locking) nut was too loose for an expected 61Nm nut to come off. undid by hand with hub nut socket.
Main nut behind felt OK. But put back together as per RAVE method .. 61Nm, back off 90°, and 4Nm back on(supposed to give a 0.01 endfloat, apparently).
I only did by hand to what I think was 4Nm, then lock nut on and set to 61Nm, wheel back on ... down my regular freeway run I use to work, no wobble. Veered over towards a bumpy part of the freeway, a little strong feedback through the wheel, as expected, no wobble. All good again.
Need to do RHS bearings one day soon.

Brother got rid of his '99 Patrol(4.5lt I think), due to death wobble AND possible head gasket issue.
Head gasket would have been an easy fix, death wobble, taken to 3 different mechanics, one of them being my mech, who's a bit of a Patrol nut himself .. all things checked and renewed, but still no good.
My mechanic was the 3rd to have a go, and he did the swivels. Other mechs did bushes, damper, tie rod ends(I think) .. etc. From memory the front steering was all new in the end.
My only concern with the two mechanics that did his suspension bushes, was that I don't think they changed the nuts/bolts .. they didn't look new! .. clean yes, but not new.
And I reckon that may have had an impact on his Patrol death wobble. Plus the 2" lift, AND 100" tyres!(I dunno, maybe 35's .. something stupidly too large). But I reckon it was the bush bolts.
Being a Patrol, and the horror NVH they produce compared to a Disco .. I never volunteered my time on it!