Death wobble tech

[O2batsea]

I'm diving in to my death wobble problem on the 2A. As most of you know this has been converted to coil suspension and currently has about a 2 inch lift using bearmach blue springs and has Bilstein shocks. Front axle is from a Range Rover Classic.
At the moment I have everything set up per factory spec, yet the wobble occurs at almost every tiny bump in the road when moving at speed. Under like 40 MPH, no issues.
I think I wanna move the damper to the location on the drag link rather than its current location on the Panhard rod. That might help

 

[Red90]

You should not need a damper. Really you are best leaving it off as it masks the issue. With it of, you can find the problem. Something is loose.

- Swivel and hub bearing preload.
- Panhard rod bushings and bolts.
- Anything loose in the steering system
- Toe.

 

[Z.G]

- Swivel and hub bearing preload.

Seems like the culprit in 75% of people I talk to on the phone. Easiest to fix too

 

[O2batsea]

Ill do the swivels again tomorrow, remove the damper and test drive it. I'm suspicious of the adjustable panhard with its polyurethane bushings.
I'll add that the radius arms are cranked Safari Gard caster-corrected. 2 inch lift

 

[rover4x4]

I recently got a gnarly case of death wobble on my Classic recently, my DS hit a big bump in the road that the PS didn't hit. I am confident my swivels are in spec, the only thing that hasn't been replaced are the panhard bushings. I hope to deal with this in the near future.

 

[LR Max]

Question: Do you have stock Series steering or did you convert to power steering?

If stock series, check the steering tie rod between the steering box and relay. I had a tie rod end go bad there on me and took a shop to find that one.

Otherwise check the usual suspects. Swivel preload, Panhard bushing, tie rod ends, and inspect for anything majorly wrong.

 

[MountainD]

Mine was cured by swivel pin preload. I am doing new axles now and I am adjusting the preload with the seals removed to get them perfect.

If all bushings and ends are correct, this is most likely your issue unless you have a larger, underlying geometry issue.

 

[Mffoster]

Mine was cured by swivel pin preload. I am doing new axles now and I am adjusting the preload with the seals removed to get them perfect.

If all bushings and ends are correct, this is most likely your issue unless you have a larger, underlying geometry issue.

Recently dealt with this on my NAS 90. Before rechecking the swivel pin preload (which I had recently set when replacing cv joints) I verified that all ball joints were good. Turns out the rebuildable ball joint on the steering arm was a worn, dried out lump. Put in a new rebuild kit and was certain that the wobble would be fixed, but no. Laid under car while my wife moved the steering wheel back and forth and it was clear that the front axle was moving left and right from the pressure of the steering arm. Panhard rod bushings were shot - very surprising since I had replaced them within the past year, so had not even considered that they might be an issue. New panhard rod bushings and the wobble was fixed.

Truck has had about a 2” lift, 255/85 16 BFG’s for probably 20 years and never had any wobble issues. Thought I may have set something incorrectly when replacing the cv joints, since the wobble started a while after that. Eventually realized that the wobble initially started and then got worse after a couple of challenging trail runs, including the Rubicon again. Possibly the extreme suspension flexing managed to wipe out the bushings. Very surprised that the steering arm ball joint wasn’t causing problems, since it had clearly run out of grease sometime last decade. Have had the truck since new, never thought to check that ball joint.

 

[Caligula]

corrected swivels on a 2 inch lift is overkill, this as well as too much lift on noncorrected swivels will move your center axis from a desired cross "+" to an " X"

 

[Uncle Douglas]

Death wobble has almost always been panhard related ime.
Loose hub bearings or tie rod ends 2nd.
Swivel preload a very, very, distant 3rd.

Square tires will death wobble a truck in an NY second.

 

[LostChord]

Mine was also due to the panhard rod...bushings in particular.

 

[mgreenspan]

Only ever had it once and it was pan hard bushings. Almost non existent.

 

[javelinadave]

Fixed a couple of truck with the death wobble. Each time it was a worn bushing or an aftermarket poly bushing. Factory bushing is the only way to go.

 

[O2batsea]

Yeh this adjustable one I got from a certain vendor in the Buffalo NY area has poly bushes. It's going in the dump as unsafe. I guess it could be fit with genuine bushes but I choose not to fool with it any more.

 

[O2batsea]

Question: Do you have stock Series steering or did you convert to power steering?

If stock series, check the steering tie rod between the steering box and relay. I had a tie rod end go bad there on me and took a shop to find that one.

Otherwise check the usual suspects. Swivel preload, Panhard bushing, tie rod ends, and inspect for anything majorly wrong.

Nothing from the original Series steering remains except for the column and wheel. The rest is "adapted" from other coil sprung Rovers. Yes it has power steering. All parts on the truck have fewer than 500 miles on them. All parts are either genuine or first quality aftermarket

 

[Uncle Douglas]

sa

Yeh this adjustable one I got from a certain vendor in the Buffalo NY area has poly bushes. It's going in the dump as unsafe. I guess it could be fit with genuine bushes but I choose not to fool with it any more.

Save it for us Bill, don't chuck it. Just had that same adjustable panhard fail on Trey's 90 after only 500 miles. Failed so badly it had death wobble while still in low range. Granted almost all of that was offroad @ Moab and Western Colorado but 500 miles. Yet another instance of tried a polyurethane bushing, and came away hating.

 

[Red90]

Fixed a couple of truck with the death wobble. Each time it was a worn bushing or an aftermarket poly bushing. Factory bushing is the only way to go.

Unfortunately the currently available genuine bushes are crap and do not last.... If you have good original bushes, do not change them.

 

[Robert]

I ordered a set of genuine bushings from one of those online dealer websites. It showed up in the package with all the funny writing on it, but it did not have the third metal sleeve like the originals. That was 3k ago. Wobble is pretty bad right now.

 

[LiquidMoose]

I too have had bad results with genuine panhard bushings, lasted 1000 miles, went poly, 15K miles later, all's well.