its been my understanding that the death wobble is cured by installing a dual stabilizer bar. i ppurchased an 06 with 138 k on it and the dealership had to repair the front ent before i accepted delivery and they installed dual stabilizer and i have no wobble. my buddy informed me of this and so far , he's been correct!

 

The only thing a stabilizer will do is mask the real issue which is loose front end parts. They can help for awhile but sooner or later it will rear it's ugly head again as the bad parts get worse.

 

I too had B/F Goodrich A/Ts , after bout 50,000 plus miles on the tires , my truck start wobbling , replaced tires with toyo A/Ts , still wanted to wobble , then purchased Thuren adj track bar and Fox S/S setup from him also , no more problems at all not even a slight shimmy.

 

Put the steering box to frame reinforcement bracket on and save yourself a lot of headaches. Took me almost 4 years, and 14 plus visits to the Dodge dealer (gratis thanks to an extended warranty)- replacing every single part they could think of, AND included Dodge flying engineers out from the east coast to figure out what the heck was wrong. Their opinion? Put the bracket on. Problem appears to be solved. At least this year is the longest the truck have ever gone without even a shimmy of DW!!! My fingers are finally uncrossing....and I'm beginning to hope it's actually truly fixed.

 

My DW is back, btw... even with the new tires. It's nowhere near as bad, but it's there. Definitely need to get moving with new bearings and tie rods. I think I'll do the steering brace too, though. Looks like a good idea.

Rob

 

so far the dual stabilizer bar has done the trick for several months. to spite what others have written here, on mine it has worked. even tis past weekend at 110mph, smooth as silk!!!!

 

good thing I would hate to be in on ethat started to DW at 110

 

The steering stabilizer is the easiest and best way to stop the DW. I never had the DW but I never run my front tires below 55psi either. Since I put on the steering stabilizer, the truck drives like it is brand new. Well worth the money, just don't cheap out and buy the cheapest one out there. Do a little research and find one thats greasable and has been powder coated.

 

Question... how hard is it to change out the wheel bearings (front hubs) and right-side tie-rods? Is this something a decently-mechanical person such as myself could do with basic hand tools in the driveway?

I got two quotes today to have it done... Les Schwab wanted $1100 and another shop wanted $1400. And the second shop said it was only four hours of labor. Yet I've priced the parts locally at various auto parts stores to total under $400.

I'll do the steering box a little later.. right now I want to take care of the main problems, and then when I have a little time, I'll pull the box and do a self-rebuild on it.

Rob

 

i havent done mine. when i purchased the truck, the dealership was doing it for the next owner. it would be unfare for me to comment on your issue! sorry

 

Changing out the bearings in my opinion is not very hard, just time consuming and most importantly, patience . More than likey you will seperate them pulling them off, ensure you have a puller, it'll make it much more easier, especially if they are frozen on there. The bearing of choice appears to be Timken, and I agree with using that brand. Very stought. If you have a general knowledge in mechanical skills, you should be fine. Just a tip, spray everything down with penetrating oil the night before, and you'll be golden

 

My DW took 4 years, 14 visits to the dealer, and inspection by engineers that Dodge flew out to look at it. EVERYTHING has been replaced on that truck- just temp fixes! Finally they put a Thuren on it and surprise- no more DW! now I just have to wonder what damage the multiple horrific wobbles did to other parts. I have video of my truck DW'ing- the tires were weaving back and forth so badly it looked like they were ready to fall off. Scary, and frustrating, ****. Good luck! Save yourself the headaches and put the track bar on.

 

My DW started a month ago rolling at 100kl an hr with a jacket up truck and scared the **** out of me, on coming traffic was pulling to the sholder thinking my tires wher going to fly off or something. I jacked the front end looking for any kind of play I could find find, ball joints and tie rods looked all new with no play. Decided to go with the revised 09 steering linkage which is a much better design, dealer only part at 740$can. Installed linkage and next day the DW was right back. My truck was goin in for an alignment anyhow so I mentioned to my mechanic to take a good look at the front end while he was under there. Picked my truck up and mechanic could not find anything that could cause the DW but mentioned that if the valving in the shocks are done it may cause a basketball effect when traveling over bumps. Regardless of his opinion I wanted to change my shocks anyhow. Received my new shocks and asked my mechanic to change them sine I have a huge pool of water in my back yard due to the snow still melting (yes April and we still have snow here :s) After the new shocks installed then test driven lo and behold the dreaded DW finally happens to him, this is where he puts on his serious face and wants to get down to the bottom of things asap. While his employee sat in the truck jerking the wheel left to right he watched from under the front end to see what exactly was happening, after witnessing the entire axel wandering from side to side. He had to heat up and tighten all the a-arms and track bar bolts with a 2 foot power bar. When I picked the truck up that night and took it out for a test drive the steering has never been better, no more DW for me : )
Don't know if this is true or not but mechanic mentioned that with lift kit hardware the track bolt does not have a taper like the oem bolt and allows for a lil movement.
BTW my tires are all brand new and my dual steering stabilizer was still good so was reused on the new linkage.
My thoughts on this hole experience is that these trucks do not do this from the factory, your parts are either worn or loose due to wear and tear, everything is prone to fail eventually. You could mask or delay the problem by throwing aftermarket parts at it, chances are it could be easily fixed with proper diagnosis of your oem parts.

 

Ever since I replaced my steering damper with a nice Rancho unit, DW has been a thing of the past (knocking on wood).

Just yesterday I replaced all of my tie rods since the guy at the alignment shop said they were getting loose. It's going back for another alignment tomorrow. I'll report back if DW returns.

Rob

 

All death wobbles are caused by parasitic oscillations that just happen to match the natural resonate frequency of the assembly. Any changes that are made that shift that resonate frequency up or down will eliminate the DW. The first step is to make sure all the steering parts are healthy and within spec. Adding castor angle does quiet the overall handling and can make the front end more stable because it changes the trail, but it adds steering loads to all the arms, which can agravate any flexibllity in the system. On trucks this is usually kept to minimum because of the heavy weight of the diesel engine. Increased castor also causes the wheels to tilt into the curves partially compensating for side wall deflection of tall sidewall tires like the BFGs. Adding increased stiffness to the chassis, steering box, control arms, adding higher density roll bar bushings will all help shift assembly resonance. The very fact that the truck has a steering damper is an indicator that Dodge recognized that there is a design fault, as the use of these dampers is a band aid, not a fix. I hope this explanation adds some light to the subject.