Death wobble

[shrekmoose]

Ok, walked outside noticed my tire a little low yesterday. No biggie that one tire has a very slow leak rode Down to the store threw some air in it everything was fine on the way to the store. Well when I left the store got up to about 40 and hit a small bump in the road. It was like my whole front end was gonna rip out just a very violent bouncing had to slow down and stop on the side of the road. When I got out checked everything it looked normal. Took off again same thing happened first small bump so I let the tire back down to just a hair low and it stopped. What would cause this my front end prob needs some serious work but I need to adress this first and formost before it causes a wreck. I can jack the truck up and shake the wheel and tire and all seems pretty tight other than some play in my steering box. Any ideas?

 

[Fobroader]

Do you have a 4x4?? Is it a solid axle swap?? I know this is a common issue on solid axle truck with link suspension.

 

[Toms94z71]

Bad Tie rod ends will do that, Did it to me the last time mine were worn bad, and just started doing it again to me, which is why I'm putting new ones on today. The reason it doesn't do it so bad when the tire is low, a low tire resists turning a lot more so it doesn't do the wobble back and forth after hitting a bump as easy as a well inflated tire that turn much easier. I would get under there and see how worn your tie rod ends are.

 

[fun4me]

I would get under there and see how worn your tie rod ends are.

And idler arm, pittman arm, balljoints

 

[ndians68]

im thinking it could also be a bad tire, maybe broke a few of the chords in the tire?

 

[GMCTRUCKS]

Tie rods better yet check all the front end for loose parts.

 

[Toms94z71]

And idler arm, pittman arm, balljoints

those too, I've replaced everything under my truck on the front end aside from the idler arm, and I got a new one of them to go on, just haven't done it yet, waiting for it to be a little cooler, it's still nice and tight on mine, i just want that peice of mind that it has been replaced especially before i throw 800$ at a set of tires just to get the chewed up by a worn out front end.

 

[shrekmoose]

That's the reason Im still riding on these worn out tires I have now. Chewing up a set of tires is not in my budget at the time so im going to redo the whole front end as I get time. My truck has 237000 miles and climbing by 100 every day and I wonder if it's not even the factory ball joints and TREs in it still. An older guy used it as a deer camp truck for 10 years before I bought it in April of this year.

 

[Toms94z71]

my original ball joints came out at 221k.

 

[shrekmoose]

How much play should there be in my tie rods? Both have a little give when laying under the truck with someone else cutting the wheels back and forth. The problem mainly seems To come from the passenger side wheel.