Captain

Hey all. ok heres the deal. My dad (because he makes more then me ) got his bds 4.5" lift for his truck befor I got mine. He put it on and first of all, Had to make a bracket for the rear proportioning valve. The supplyed one wouldnt work had no ball or anything.. great. Lucky for us we have access to a machine shop and know a few welders. On top of that and some other minor problems and directions that the BDS engineer even said were wrong. After the alligntment the truck hops all over like the death wobble. we replaced everything on the front end. trac bar, drag links, the works. Added one of those DSS steering stableizers. Still shimmies and what not. And to boot today he hit a scrap iron truck. Befor the lift in a panic stop you could lock up the wheels. this time he said it just slowed never locked up or anything. Break pads and breaking system is in good shape.
Any help, feedback, or anything else is greatly apprciated.
Thanks
Chris

AKDSLDOG

I guess I'll takle this one, I'm in the mood. ........ First off, I would of worried if the manufacture said the instructions were wrong and didn't provide correct ones at the time of perchase. Second, depending on how big of tires he put on, theres a good possability that he won't beable to "lock them up" anymore. You get into tires that are 315 (35's) and up it's alot of rubber to slow down in a hurry. As for the shimmy and shake, are you sure you have the correct "length" of trac bars and such? You go up and your length increases. Also, without the proper lengths, the allignment shop will do you no good. Hope this will give you some idea's, the real guy to ask this stuff too would be "Phox Mulder", he's pretty sharp on the lift deal and has allready been through it.


P.S. I have never heard of BDS lift's, who and how much was it?

phox_mulder

I'm no lift expert, I just play one on TV.
I have just done a lot of reading here and pavementsucks.com, both before and after my lift.


I'd say dump the proportioning valve.
Once you get that much lift on, you're not going loading down the bed enough for it do do much of anything.
Either delete it entirely, or wire it up to the fully loaded position.
It's more than likely messing up the braking.

For 4.5 to 5inch lifts, Skyjacker or Tuff Country are the way to go for Dodges.

That being said, I'm not familiar with BDS either.
Does it have new front springs, or use spacers? Longer front shocks?
New back springs, or use an Add a Leaf?
Assuming it included new control arms, what about something to move the top arm?
If you don't reposition the top arm, you have some major downward angle on that control arm.

The "Death Wobble" could be from anything.
Bad steering stabilizer (the shock on the axle), tires out of balance or belt deformity, bent rims, trac bar, shocks, ball joints, maybe even wheel bearings.

It would pretty much have to be raining, snowing, or dirt road for you to be able to lock up the brakes now that you have the bigger rubber on.
I've done a couple panic stops and have yet to lock them up, but again, I have 4 wheel antilock discs on mine.

Above questions aside, I'd recheck the torque specs on everything replaced by the lift.
Control arms, trac bar, rear u bolts, etc.

Guy on here a while back with a 5 inch tuff country that one of the control arm bolts was overtorqued, and it sheared off on him.


phox

Captain

everything was retourqed a number of times. new longer shocks, brand new steering stablazier. All front end parts are factory parts from dodge. Came with longer coils/controll arms, lifted up the top controll arm, drop mount for the trac bar(yes its solid no movement) drop pitman arm thats tight too. rear was blocks and add a leaf. we did nothing else but put the lift on and this all happend. even after talking to the designer of the lift a few times to make sure we had the pos instructions right. tires are exactly the same as always. super narrow like 8 or 9inch wide 33" tall tires. we didnt do anything but the lift. Hopefully bds will be at big truck shows here this year so I can rip them a new hole. The kit seemed to be very compleet except there ubolts werent long enough. It also has a life time warrinty thats why we got it. was around 1100$ Im not sure what excatly to do. maybe my dtr cards need a little thing on them saying "dont buy bds its crap!" yeah
chris

Captain

the bds kit looks exactly like the stage one skyjacker kit except it has boxed controll arms insted of tubular.

Crimedog

I think it is in either the track bar or the control arms. The Dodge control arms are not very long to begin with, and with short control arms you get a lot of foreward and rearward axle movement. With the new lift it used the stock mounting locations, right? Did the alignment check out ok as far as caster? If the axle is rotated too far forward, any bit of deathwobble you get is going to be multiplied by a lot. The Dick Cepek 6" kit uses longer control arms that bolt farther back, I think it is that way for a reason. This is just my $.02, (I sit and think about this stuff during boring classes, and while on the mower )

Or it could be the trackbar. Did you replace it with a stocker? I forget the name of it, but there is one that has heim joints on both ends, and is adjustable.

Captain

yes the trac bar was replaced with stock. I'd like to find one thats better. The controll arms in the kit are longer but the mounting is the same except the top one mounts higher on the axel end now.

SjLingenfelter

Thats the first thing i would have checked.

And also like said above once you go bigger tires you have more weight to stop so you cant really "lock em up" anymore.

Captain

yes I understand that with the bigger tires. but what im saying is we didnt touch the tires. befor the lift the tires locked up steering was fine, controll was fine. after just isntalling the lift, leaving tires all alone same old tires with 90000miles on them. no locking up bad steering all kinds of problems. See what I mean?

SjLingenfelter

Maybe the lines coudl have been stretch'd or pinched or something.....Just a crazy idea.

Cowhand

I've been through the whole death wobble thing with mine. First off, check the tire balance. I had a set that were actually out of round. When I had the truck aligned, they put the fronts on the balancer, and the right front was calling for 18oz of weight. I took them back to the shop I got them from, and the front wheels had a "hop" in them. Walked out with two new wheels/tires-free.

Next, take the alignment spec's from Dave Fritz's site down to your alignment shop. I had them put a lot of caster in the front and that took care of the death wobble. IIRC, it's like 3.2* left, 3.5* right, .3 cross caster. Slight toe in, a little more if you tow. Camber should be within .5* on either side. Have them dial in the thrust angle as well.

Have you checked the ball joints? Tie rod ends? I just replaced all of mine and the truck steers solid as a rock now. I also had my fronts balanced with Equal (the sand stuff) and it's smooth as silk up to 100MPH (haven't gone any faster) with the 37's.

And I have locked 'em up-once. I think there's a dent in the floor board under the brake pedal to show for it. Now that I have much more go than stop, I leave a lot more space in front of me than I used to.

Captain

Tie rod ends are the only thing we havnt replaced yet but everything seems real tight. I shake it as hard as I can and nothing moives at all. The place that did the allightment only does 4x4 suspension and gear. thats there entire buisness but it dosent hurt to call and ask them what they set it to and give them that info. Tires could be off too but it didnt really cause aproblem befor the lift. I guess for 100$ or so I can have them balanced again. And as for me I see you running 37inch swampers? What ones? Hows the noise, wear, handeling, snow traction? I want to run 37's but cant afford the lift and dont think they will fit on my 2" lift on the front. Tons of room in the back. Eventually I want them though and have been looking into tires.
Chris

Captain

I thought about the lines. I thought maybe there just old also and are bubbleing when under high pressure? Anyone know anyplace selling stainless braided line replacements? Or do I need to have some made up somewhere.

Cowhand

Try having someone turn the wheel back and forth while you watch the steering components. Shaking the truck don't get it.

Good luck finding SS lines. EGR was the only place I could find for them and they were $$$$$$.

I run the Swamper SSR's. They're really quiet, I get about ~40K a set (as long as the alignment, rotation, and air pressure are kept up). They handle fine on dry pavement, pretty dang good in the snow, and they absolutely suck on ice. With 4.5" of lift, I had a little rub on the left side. With my new springs, (5.5") no rub.

The one good thing here is if I want snow and ice, I have to drive a good piece to find it.

Captain

Well if you or anyone else is interested in stainless lines I worked as a network admin for a small corporation for a little while a few years ago. They sell and make all that kind of stuff. I'm sure I can get a big discount if I order a bunch of them. Let me know befor I go over so I can find out what the deal is. mostly they sell to big rigs and what not but I can get my hands on all kinds of rigging, toweing, hauling, air/fuel/water/break lines, switches, chains, hoists, straps. Lots of goodies. I designed there catalogs too
Chris