Talking about trucks and frames

I am working on a 95 Ford F250 with a 460 gasser 250K it has a death Wobble the worst I have ever seen. When you hit a pot hole hang on for your life its almost uncontrollable and the wobble stays with it till you come to a dead stop. Dead stop not slow down it will bounce you in the seat scary as ell...

Lets face it hauling a 1000 lb engine for 250K is a chore for most trucks add in Fords love of twin I beam are in this case Twin-Traction Beam (TTB) all is worn out. BTW Ford is the only ones to use this screwy set up...

Down and dirty. The upper ball joints are worn out I mean worn out so lets go after the ball joints. All the steering linkage it in great condition. Lets go get the shocks guess what they have been replaced I see noting wrong with them I would install them on my own truck so I leave them be.

The owner is dead set on the belief they are bad I say no this is not a shock issue. I mention the spring bushing and shackles show ware more than I am comfortable with. My 95 F250 came from the factory with a steering stabilizer his did not I thought that was strange.

I go googling it seamed the normal reply's were did you put a track bar on it my thoughts why would this set up need a track bar the TTB housing is attached directly to the frame that's your track bar.

I go looing deeper at the pivot bushings to my surprise I find the bracket on the right axle pivot point is broken. I find rivets snapped off on the cross member below the engine. I am going to write this off as an effect form the worst death wobble I have ever ran across.

I don't have real good pix yet I will snap one of the bracket when I get the old one off. Its a hard place to get at to take a good pix one you would never look. The best I can do now.








From the rear the pivot point

Seized U-joints on the front axles will make the
steering on those things unpredictable too.

I like Ford's don't get me wrong, but
im amazed how many completely
different front suspensions they have
had over the years yet so many
different ones suffered a death wobble

Until recently, a twenty six, twenty seven year old pickup truck with a quarter million miles on it rarely owed anyone anything anymore. I would have a hard time investing much more money into one, but that chassis has very little rust.

Please let us know the outcome, thanks.

Steering stabilizer was the first thing that came to mind, like you
mentioned. My dad had an f series truck a lot older that this one and
it had a pretty good shimmy, stabilizer did the trick. But it didnt shake
near as bad as what your describing. Be interesting to see where you
end up with it.

I had an 86 F250 and never could get it to steer good, all over the road. Different alignment shops. Installed the sway bar even tho not called for on a 2 wheel drive and with that front axle that is what he has as well. New tires did not help. Friend had a 85 set up same way no ptoblems. Was a smaller engine in mine tho and he had the diesel.

About a year ago I worked on an 84 GMC one ton,4X4 with the worst death wobble I'd ever seen.The steering box had a huge ammout of slop,figured that was it.I replaced it,it was surprisingly cheap too.The death wobble got worse.It was the axle jointsThe front end guy that I use thinks the tight joints took out the steering box over time.

I had the axles out when doing the ball joints. That's another story will fill ya in on it later.

Some of these trucks do drive bad some drive good... Yes at 250K it has more issues than the ball joints I am going after the front spring hangers, bushings in the leaf springs and axle pivot bushings. I will need to make some tooling to remove/install the bushings. I plan to do this without removing the springs are TTB housing.

Dodges had that also. There is a thing called Luke's Link that takes care of it. Works on Fords also.
Lukes Links

My 1984 Dodge D350 does the same thing. It shakes so hard, you would think the windshield would fall out.
I to can't find anything wrong. Sometimes it does good and other times it starts to shake, loaded or not
loaded.

Does it have oversized tires and a lift kit? I have a 97 F350 crew, 4wd, and it came with oversized tires and about a 4" lift kit. Soon as I can find stock wheels the lift is coming out and the mudders are history. I think all that stuff puts a LOT more stress ont he front end.

FWIW, I had it aligned a year back or so, because of tire wear, not death wobble. It's got 230K on it, with the little 351 which is fine for my uses. It steers fine, although it's kind of vague if you know what I mean. I bought it because I wanted a 4 door of at least 3/4 ton and NOT a diesel that was solid rust-wise, so big tires and a lift just happened to be my curse.

This is on a 1984 Dodge D350 Dually, rear-wheel drive only.

(quoted from post at 20:44:56 08/09/21)
Does it have oversized tires and a lift kit? I have a 97 F350 crew, 4wd, and it came with oversized tires and about a 4" lift kit. Soon as I can find stock wheels the lift is coming out and the mudders are history. I think all that stuff puts a LOT more stress ont he front end.

FWIW, I had it aligned a year back or so, because of tire wear, not death wobble. It's got 230K on it, with the little 351 which is fine for my uses. It steers fine, although it's kind of vague if you know what I mean. I bought it because I wanted a 4 door of at least 3/4 ton and NOT a diesel that was solid rust-wise, so big tires and a lift just happened to be my curse.

Click to expand...

Stock as stock can be.

Identifying these axles can be a pain there is a tag on the back of the fright front axle you will need the numbers off of. You will also need the spring numbers off the door tag. To my surprise the ford part numbers are stamped into the spring its at the front close to the shackle end.

You will have to scroll thru the pix to see the tag.

https://torqueking.com/product/sku/1980-1997-ford-dana-50ifs-front-axle-identification-idn-135/

If you go by the front axle GVW on the door jam tag it the liter axle : ( These folks and got me out of a few jams they do have the shackles and bushing at a good price.



https://www.sdtrucksprings.com/

Sorry to say but I had shocks do that on 3/4 ton GMC van. I was sure I
had ball joints or tie rods bad. When they said bad shocks at $1100 I
said go ahead figuring I would get some money back when that didn't fix
it. I was wrong, ran smoother than new with their new shocks.
Dave

That is going to take some work to fix those cracks. It would have been a lot cheaper if he had fixed
it 125,000.miles ago!

If you go there on a TTB axle the left seal was leaking to get to the seal the differential needs to come out : (

Key works TTB left axle seal

I was able to get the seal out and made a driver to install it while in the truck : )

Seal way in there.




Driver made from a bearing race driver kit. I turned it down to fit the seal.




This post was edited by Hobo,NC on 08/09/2021 at 06:32 pm.

You are centering the wheels properly, using 2 regular lugnuts, tightening the other 6 to 400+ ft-lb, then changing the two regular lugnuts out for the big ones?

If you get Ford 2-piece lugnuts, you only have to go to 250 ft-lb.

Dang I missed that I was using lb-ft : (

Update on death wobble. I got the bracket off the one I ordered is M.I.A. so I found another.




I started on the bushings went for the axle pivot first there's not much room so I had to make some I got the Pota power out and spread the springs.




I never had much use for a pickel fork it helped to walk the bushing out. Ford folds over the little side of the bushing why I dunno its not going anywhere. That presented a challenge the chisel inside the pickle fork folded it in life is good.




Why you don't throw away a old bearing race. There's no room for a ball joint press. I have a small one to do upper control arm bushings but it was a challenge also it was going to take to much time to make an adapter for it so its make something fast from scratch.




Back side, I brought a tool a few weeks ago just for times like this. It has quite a few sizes of bushing drivers in it, it came in handy the black disc is from the kit.




The kit google BTSHUB 52 Pieces Custom Bushing Driver Set Transmission Wheel Axle Bearing Race and Seal Installer Remover Tool Kit. My review was a 3 there are a few things about how they attach the driver to it that don't make sense. Yes I would buy it again.




I have had this truck to work on for a bit I could not get to it as I knew it was gonna tie me up for awhile. The pix does not do it it justice it pops a eye catcher looks like new money. It was built years ago on a budget lots of farmerzation to the running gear.




I thought he just wanted to get it going make it dependable and add AC. I got the fuel leaks repaired, the alternator charging and was going to take it for a shake down. I went down the road a 1/2 mile you could not hold it in the road I put it on a lift the steering gear has been changed the gear mounting holes burnt out with a torch one bolt hole broken out. I called we need to have a pow wow he said money no problem (I already knew money was no problem) I want a street rod I can drive anywhere. He said do it like it was yours and money no problem. I declined I don't want to be tied up for the next year on it. I also don't have the time to research the combination and all the doodads that it would need. I have enoufh problems as it is don't need one planted in my shop for the long run. Stuff like this is a labor of love and I don't need it.

Update all bushings and new shackles are in still waiting on the a new bracket. It was not as bad as I thought it would be lucky me my bud Mic stopped by I needed a third hand with the ball joint press. I used one of the drivers out of my new bushing driver set this bushing needed an extra bearing race as room was short on the back side. I made a tool to crimp the back side in like Ford did it would have worked if I had it out in a press. Now I understand why ford crimped the bushings in I will tack weld the pivot bushings in tomorrow for insurance.




On to the bushings on the ends of the leaf springs I was dreading it. The O.D. of the new bushing was 2.205 the bushing driver set had one 1.995 and one at 2.240. In my head I would thing the hole in the spring end was 2" so use the 1.995 well it wanted to cock off to the side when pressing. About this time Mic showed up with his extra hand I used the bushing driver that was larger 2.240. All was going well I pushed the old bushing out about a 1/2" stopped to swap back the the smaller driver. The driver was stuck I thought this can not be good. I did get it out by driving a screwdriver in this place on the end of the spring eye to spread it open are relieved the tension the driver came out..




HUMMM its not a closed link it has tension on it I put the bigger driver back in and forced the old bushing about 3/4 of the way out that is as far as the cup on the end of the ball joint press would let me go.






This is where dumb luck comes in I removed the press the old spring bushing fell out the oversized bushing driver has the eye of the spring opened up.




I put the new bushing in the spring it goes at least haft way in EZ till it hits the bushing driver I left in the spring.






I put the ball joint press back on with a piece of metal again the new bushing it drives in the new bushing the bushing driver falls out the other end life is good.





It feels good to see a tool you think will come in handy and it pays for itself the first time you use it Dumb luck...

Great post Hobo. I learned from it. Thanks for taking the time for photos and to post them.

Garry

Thanks, the bracket did not come in today its a whale taking up space. GRRRRRR...

I may have to hut a used one.