I have a '92 SASed P/U. The swap was a bit of a hack job and so I'm going in and slowly fixing it piece by piece. I've always had a little death wobble here and there but it was really minor and didn't require much worry. Then I switched tires and it got terrible! I messed with my alignment a bit which worked for a while. then the death wobble would start coming back after a couple of days. now it's permanent.

Anybody have any ideas?

One of my shackles is VERY slightly loose so i need to tighten that up and see if that gets rid of it but my tools are locked up right now.

I have a good steering setup and all is tight in there. I'm using poly bushings on my springs and they are in good shape. I think the springs are welded on to the frame correctly but I need to do some more exact measuring to be sure. And my tires aren't damaged or uneven.

Any ideas?

--Megan

 

Have a truck alignment shop or frame shop measure everything and make sure it is all good. post up a pic of the front end and steering setup.

 

ditto. nice to see you 're still here. you should check your other post.

 

What axle in the front? If toyota check your trunion bearing preload and caster angle. People with bigger tires tend to use slightly higher preload than specified in the shop manual.

 

Yup, my castor angle is a little off but that wasn't what was causing the death wobble. Is that adjustable by the way???

The death wobble was being caused by very slightly loose wheel bearing and pretty darn loose shackles. Yeah, shackles. There was actually space between the bushing and the shackle AND the spring. I noticed it earlier this week but my tools were locked up in a friend's house who was out of town but now they are tightened down and my wheel bearings are tightened and all is good.

Thanks for the advice. So is castor angle easily adjustable? I don't know how it is set up.

--Megan

 

Basically you have to rotate the axle up or down. You can do this by doing several things. You can get longer or short shackles, raise or drop the spring hangers, shim the axle at the spring perches or cut off the perches and reweld them at a new angle. However, all of these things will also change the angle of your driveshaft which may or may not matter for you. It depends on how much angle, which direction, and what kind of driveshaft you have.

More info
http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/ForSale/Shims.shtml

 

Robinhood--

Yeah my axle is already shimmed to make a pretty good angle in the front for my drive shaft. I need to torque that axle around in the rear now though!

 

In that case the only thing you can do is cut the ends off, rotate the housing and reweld.

http://www.4x4wire.com/toyota/tech/rotated_housing/

But if it's not steering or handling too badly, don't bother.

 

Forget the pinion angle, caster angle is THE most important thing up front, at least on a street-driven rig:
- http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/ForSale/Shims.shtml#FAQ1

If needed, you can cut/rotate the steering knuckles to fix both caster and pinion angles.