Thread: Death Wobbles

Originally Posted by Judo

Re: shock nuts being tight

When I undid the bottom shocker nuts they were well and truly seized on. Spanner on the bottom, multi-grips, rubber strap around the shock all failed. The answer was to simply soak the nut in WD40 for a decent length of time. Then I undid while holding the shock by hand! I actually put the finger of a rubber glove over the nut with an elastic band and filled it with WD40 overnight. The next day it was hand tight.

Thanks I did use WD40 but will give it another try.

Originally Posted by SouthOz

So im guessing that it didnt have the wobble before the wheels were off? You didnt bent a steering component while jacking the front up to change the shocks? That would put the wheel alignment out.

Thanx
Dave

No damage done to the steering components, and no I didn't notice any problems before I pulled the wheels off.

There are many posts on here regarding RRC and D1 steering wobble as it is probably the most common problem they face.( other than oil leaks)

You have to check all the steering components
1 Panhard rod bushes. Remove Panhard rod and see whether bushes in one piece or the centre tube unattached.

2 Tie rod ends. Have SWMBO turn the steering wheel side to side and put your hand around each tie rod end. Side to side good, up and down bad

3 swivel bearings and wheel bearings. jack up each wheel and see if you can move the tyre in and out and observe whether it is the whole hub( swivels) or the disc part only ( wheel bearings)

4 steering box. Have SWMBO turn the steering wheel side to side while you look at the drop arm.
5 leading arm under axle bushes
If you are a sensitive new age guy , you can tell whether the wobble is both wheels going in the same direction (Panhard rod bushes) or the wheels going in opposite directions.( swivel bearings , or tie rod ends). Generally if it is these the sound and fury will be greater than the movement of the steering wheel suggests .

Regards Philip A

I had a death wobble in my 110. After changing everything one thing at a time, it ended up being the steering damper. Because it wasnt very old I never thought of checking it.
It had a very small amount of undamped play in it of less than 5mm, but that was enough to start it off.
I replaced it with a old one for a trial and it has never been a problem since.
I also had a fully rebuilt front end by the end of it plus a heap of still good spares.

Philip and Albert are on the right track. But don't underestimate wheel alignment. I had the brake upgraded on mine and the death wobbles were so bad it took all my skill to keep it together same symptoms as you. Wheel Alignment fixed it. Could be any of them

If you have a few ks on the clock, might be time to also check your swivel pins for play, also a wheel balance can be a cause, I've had the death wobbles on a defender, and it ended up being worn swivel pins.

Have you fitted non standard rims?
I once fitted some wheels to a Suzuki Sierra that had much greater offset than they should have, got terrible wobbles sometimes.
Could not solve and had to get different wheels.

Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk 2

I would be looking at the panhard rod bushes, seen this a few times including on my own 110, mine started off just a slight vibration above 70, then after a fairly hard trip out to wallaroo became completly undrivable above 50kph, turned out my PS fluid leak had a bit of a reaction with the poly bushes on the panhard rod, they were still intact but had turned into a soft spongey like material... very strange.