Posted by Keith in Washington [108.162.246.30] on Thursday, July 07, 2016 at 14:39:32 :
In Reply to: Death Wooble posted by bill [108.162.219.176] on Wednesday, July 06, 2016 at 14:51:57 :
What ever the initial start of vibration in death wobble is, it should not grow into a violent shaking of the whole front end. If there is an out of balance or out of round tire yes you will feel some shaking through your butt or in the steering wheel. Hitting a hole or bump in the road should only flex the suspension and maybe put head into the head liner.
If vibrations grow into an uncontrollable shaking something is loose. With a tight front end with no slop the initial vibration will be absorbed by the front suspension and steering systems. If it grows into what is commonly called death wobble then something is loose and allowing the initial shake to be much larger than it normally would be.
For example if you have a loose tie rod and a tire that is out of balance the following will occur. When the tire gets to the speed where harmonics set in and the tire starts to shake and normally you will fell a little movement in the steering wheel. But with the loose tire rod end, the steering system can't dampen the shake. Instead of the tire shaking less than 1/4" in a tight system it will now shake an inch or more (if your tie rod end has 1/8" of slop it will allow the outer circumference of the tire to move more than an inch or so.) with the size of tires we run that is a lot of weight moving back and forth. If there is any other worn parts in the system they will only compound the shake into a death wobble.