ongoing death wobble!

[SGFMORover]

so I've got the stereotypical wobble in my 95 disco steering. does fine at low speeds but if I'm going straight and my RF hits a bump I get a killer wobble for 5-10 seconds or until I drop below 40mph. doesn't happen if I'm going around a turn or below 40, or if I'm hitting the brakes hard.

here's the thing, i've been fighting this for awhile. it doesn't get driven much so I've slowly tackled it over the last 2 years and 1000 miles.

did the steering damper first, then tie rod ends; last summer I rebuilt both swivel balls/pins/wheel bearings. new ball on the RF (was pitted) and new bearings all around. tension is probly set slightly high if anything so I know its shimmed up good. I've had some play in my steering wheel so I just did the steering box las weekend - play is gone and steering is great, takes a little force to turn but I know my pins are shimmed a lil tight.

drivin this morning and sure as hell hit a bump while coasting straight at 70 mph and thought the wheel was coming off, now that my steering doesn't have any play It almost seems worse!

I've heard of bushings doing it? but which bushings? and how does that make sense?

HELP?!

[SGFMORover]

so after a few more hours of searching forums, panhard rod bushings? any thoughts? anyone, anyone? bueller?

[SeriesShorty]

Bushings do help, radius arms and panhard bushings in particular. Another often overlooked problem area is the mount for the panhard rod. Over time, the hole can get out of round and cause a minute amount of free play. This little bit of free play can relate to some pretty serious scarey steering.

One thing you can do to sort this out is to replace the panhard rod mounting bolt with one slightly larger. You'll need to go down to your favorite local fastener store. If I remember correctly, a 9/16" grade 8 bolt will do the trick. I can't remember the length off hand, but just crawl under and take a little measurement before you head to the store.

Replace with this larger bolt, gently tapping in until it seats and see if that helps. It's quick, easy and cheap and it will at least rule out one more thing.

Good luck!

[SGFMORover]

so I did panhard and radius bushings... only went a couple miles before called back to work but at 50 I had a little wobble going over a pothole... so I suspect the issue continues. find out for sure tomorrow.... double check and swivel pins are still good, tie rod ends are still solid... bad boot on one but its only been on for 1000 miles. damper still seems tight enough, only 2 years old. did notice a marked improvement in steering feel in general though.

also noticed after putting in the steering box about a week ago that I get an occasional squirt of fluid out of the steering fluid resevoir, the little hole in the cap not a hose or anything but the level seems to be in the normal range not overfilled.

the only thing I can come up with on the wobble now is that there is a little space in the panhard mounting... the bolt hole is tight but the bushing has probably 2-3 mm of travel back and forth on the bolt before hitting either side of the bracket... can anyone tell me if this is normal on their vehicle???

[SGFMORover]

well, I made it 1300 miles in 23 hours... and oddly enough the old girl did FAR better with 4k lbs of trailer behind her.... not a hint of shake.... now with the trailer off I've still got a bit but with every repair she's getting better.
next weekend I think she'll be getting shocks and swaybar links, cuz well they're shot.

I do have to say that it was nice to know that when push comes to shove the old girl with 188k miles on her chugged right along from jersey to oklahoma.

[dublucky]

I had the same problem, for months I tried figuring out what was wrong. Every conceivable option. Turned out the second I got new tires it went away. Either my tires were balanced to a tire with more tread or a weight fell off. Either way when it would happen it felt like my car was hopping so bad it was going to fall apart. Your car would hit a resonance frequency that was really bad and uncontrolable. Check out anything on the tacoma narrows bridge on youtube. Anyway I hope this helped.

[SGFMORover]

SHOCKS!!!! who knew? and had no idea how bad they were until I started removing them, suffice to say it wasn't pretty and now she's doin great... a slight tendency to meander from one side of the lane to the other but given all I've done I'm sure my alignment is off or my tires have worn funny.... also switched tires front to back at one point in there..... my conclusion... everything was bad and it took fixing everything to slowly pull it all together.... now what project to do next? thanks for the help everyone!

[hillstrubl]

totally different vehicle, but I figured I'd share how I fixed my death wobble on my lifted '98 TJ Wrangler.

i checked everything from bushings to steering rods and ball joints....

The bolt on the upper portion of my front trackbar had fallen out. It was far up and in the frame (and under compression) 1) you couldnt see it was missing and 2) at low speeds the vehicle's weight held it in place.

good luck!

[daveb]

Next project? Fix it so it does not wander. it should track straight without any steering input. Check all the radius arm and trailing arm bushes. You can have someone rock the car back and forth while you lay under it watching for free movement. There is no reason a Land Rover should not track normally. Period.

what project to do next?

[BHIParts]

Next project? Fix it so it does not wander. it should track straight without any steering input. Check all the radius arm and trailing arm bushes. You can have someone rock the car back and forth while you lay under it watching for free movement. There is no reason a Land Rover should
not track normally. Period.

Agreed!!

I bet $16 worth of rear link-to-chassis bushings was your real problem.