scary tow rig

[troutbum]

Just bought a new tow rig today
97 Dodge Cummins 2500....

Driving on I-215 after getting the loan for the truck finished up and I hit the construction right by redwood road. hit the bump where old road meets new decent sized bump at 60 MPH

Front end goes crazy with DW. I slam on the breaks and cut across two lanes of traffic to pull off the road

I thought it was a control arm or bushing, but everything seems tight. I was able to pull off at redwood road and rides smooth as glass again? Took it up to 70 MPH no shimmy, no DW? Anyone have any ideas?

 

[Hickey]

alignment. Check your track bar and tie rod ends too. I would just take it too an alignment shop and they will tell you the condtion of said joints.

 

[troutbum]

could be, but it was definetly caused by the bump dosent pull, even under hard braking rides smooth.

 

[Hickey]

if your joints are worn, they will be worn in patterns. all it takes is a bump to throw it out of the groove and start the DW.

 

[RockMonkey]

Is this truck lifted? Sounds like a caster problem to me...

 

[troutbum]

nope no lift...

bone stock except the auto tranny

 

[fergusor]

I heard of a couple of people with the same problem. My friend had a 95 and it did same thing

 

[RockMonkey]

A steering stabilizer will probably eliminate the death wobble, while not technically solving the problem. I would probably replace the ball joints, though. It sucks when knuckles fall off going down the freeway. Happened once in a TJ I was riding in, was a wild ride there for a second...

 

[Milner]

It is just a big x/z/t/J frt suspension sort of thing. Pretty much any thing that we have discussed about DW in the past on those vehicles, applys here.

Personal experience say check ALL ends (tierod/dlink/tbar/c-arms) if there is play, replace them. Next ball Joints and wheel bearings. And they are very sensitive to incorrect toe!!!!!!!! Toe in 1/8" is ideal. As the monkeyman said, a stabilizer is only a bandaid, address the real problem.

 

[mbryson]

TOE!!!!!




Get it aligned and let us know if that cures it

 

[troutbum]

Yeah I will take it in tomorrow

I bought it from step dad who after I told him about it said it had happened once before, about two weeks ago.

This was as I was handing him the check for the rig , he did offer to pay to fix whatever the problem is.

The good news is I got a pretty damn good deal
thing only has 70K on it.

 

[sukaB]

Yah joints go bad...
The above all comments apply here..
If you need an adjustable arm, I can help..

 

[Turbobob]

I know these things eat trac bars. Check out Geno's garage(WWW.GENOSGARAGE.COM) They sell a kit to rebuilt it, plus alot of other cool stuff for your CTD. Hope this sheds a little light!

 

[Caleb]

hahahahaha sorry, I'm not laughing at you...BUT, we have several dodges at work all in the same range of years as yours is (our all range from 94ish to 98) and we have had this exact same problem on all of ours except for the 2wd dually we have...we have spent thousands trying to fix it (taking it to the dealer gets expensive) doing everything that has been mentioned and some things helped but it never fixed it...you will also notice that you will prolly go through brakes quite often...I cant remember how we finally fixed it (the dealer would just change lower and upper arms tie rods and ends draglink basically jsut about everything on the front end and charge us around $2500 and it never fixed it) finally we started to do the stuff ourselves...I will find out for you what finally fixed it...one thing we have found to be wrong on all ours is the front caliper mounts have all been cast wrong... it ends up jamming the caliper in there and warping the rotors (dealer couldn;t figure this one out either) so all we did was grind down the mount so its level...when you put the caliper in you can see what I am talking about if its the same with yours as it has been with ours...

I am willing to bet your alignment may be a tad off but nothing significant...try it cause that would be a cheap fix if it is off by chance...I will add that until you have experienced this death wobble you really cant explain it...it happened to me going down I-15 and I thought I was going to end up in the barrier after I had alread crossed three lanes of traffic...pretty freakin scarry...I will get back with you on this...

 

[mbryson]

The Ram suspension system looks like it was DIRECTLY lifted from an XJ. Take a look at it and tell me the differences other than size and dimension..........................any?

I haven't noticed any, but there's probably some. The alignment is way cheap and will fix most problems on XJ's. I'd think that would transfer to the RAM, but that is supposition.

 

[troutbum]

Originally posted by supergper
I will add that until you have experienced this death wobble you really cant explain it...it happened to me going down I-15 and I thought I was going to end up in the barrier after I had alread crossed three lanes of traffic...pretty freakin scarry...I will get back with you on this...

Funny you mention that, I have spent most of the morning at TDR and there a million different people that swear they no the cause and they are all different

I had heard people talk about DW before, but unless you are pulling seat out of your a$$, or scared for your life you have not had DW

I drive like a granny now two hands, white knuckled, on the wheel at all times. slowing down to 50 for even the smallest bumps.

Suka-
If you mean you can get/build me an adjustable track bar I will have to give you a call. I bought this as the reliable vehicle that would not turn into a project...oh well...

 

[sukaB]

That's what we all say....
We just fixed molaslow's cherokee with one new product..
It's sweet and even his wife can drive it now...

 

[mowlasley]

Who you calling molaslow? Anyway, I had horrible death wobble that nobody wanted to touch. Got Brandon to build me a new trackbar (beefy as hell) = no more death wobble. I think it would be worth a try, and is a nice upgrade if you ever want to go higher.

 

[sukaB]

It's all about hookin it up..
Thanks man..I'm glad your happy again...By the way Nice tires...

Wait till you see or new XJ!

 

[Moon]

Definitely go with what B said. The dodges will go through all front end components some time or another and it is not cheep. do it once the right way, not to mention it will be cheeper to build it and have cheep maintenance parts than to go through Mopar and just have to replace all that stuff once a year. New shocks will help to and might as well go all the way and get track bars control arms pan hard bar or what ever Mopar calls it and get rid of those heavy ass 3/4 ton stock springs get some sort of aftermarket ones. Trust me in the long run this will save you thousands if you just go take out a small loan now so you wont be paying for it later. well I make it out to be worse than it is but that is really what I would do if I was in your situation. The springs and shocks alone will help the death wobble but wont cure it 100% until you do the other stuff.
I have the 2001 cummins and it has softer front end never had the death wobble but the front end had to be worked on adn all they did was replace the Pan hard bar or what ever it is with the 2002 one and I have put 50,000 hard miles and it is holdong up better thank goodness. But if it wouldnt have been under warenty I would have definitly had B make me one up.