Weierd And Scary Wobbling. Please Help.

[matts98disco]

I think this may be related to my recent Bilstein steering damper because after I got it and went to install it, I noticed that (when laying under the front) the left end side of the damper when I tried threading the supplied nut, it would make about 3 turns and it would get real tight and start spinning the stud the nut goes on. the washer and bushings could spin freely because of this. I thought nothing of it for some reason. Well I take me and my brother to knoxville and got up to 60 and a few mins later the whole truck start of shaking like it had 2 flats. I pull over and all seems to be ok. Well 10-15 mins later it starts again. The weird thing is that I could sense it would happen. The suspension would hit a bump start bouncing, and have a viscous wobble so bad. I went to the hardware store to try and get a different nut. It threads on the oem stabilizer great whereas the supplied nut wouldn't. So tomorrow I will try and put the oem stabilizer back on until Atlantic British sends me a replacement. I checked all the suspension and driveshaft to be sure the wobble wasn't from there and all seems ok. I hope it is just the stabilizer doing this. Any thoughts?

 

[basstard440]

I got a death wobble from my work van and I know the fear that you must have felt. My problem was from a hanging caliper.

 

[joey]

http://forums.landroverworld.org/search.php?searchid=76842

It has been talked about a few times... could be several things, but if you were unable to tighten the stabilizer properly this may be the issue.

 

[matts98disco]

Joey the link you posted doesn't seem to be working for me.
Yeah Im going to put the oem one back on after work today and see what happens.

 

[joey]

hmmm that is odd... just do a search on "death wobble"

 

[matts98disco]

Joey,
Well I got ahold of atlantic British to get a new bilstein steering damper because I found the old one had a broken weld allowing the stud to spin. they overnighted me a new one, and I installed it today. oddly enough when I first installed (and got it nice and tight) I took it down the road. at first it shook horrible. but I drove around a bit more wondering if the oil in the damper just had settled and maybe the bushings weren't seated. well I took it and got to high speeds purposely looking for bumps... and it absolutly wouldn't death wobble. 80 70 mph it didn't matter. I hope I don't jinx me but all seems to be good thus far.

 

[joey]

I would still be careful... death wobble is normally the swivel preload or the panhard rod bushings. The steering damper can have some effect but it will not normally be the end all of issues.

Personally I run an OME steering damper and Bilstein shocks.

 

[matts98disco]

But the thing is it never did it before I installed the damper. I never messed with the panhard bushings or preload. what would you do about the swivel preload to change it?
thanks

 

[joey]

Dang, then I will keep this in the back of my head in case I need this info again.

Thanks

 

[matts98disco]

WOW what a day Joey. My truck start doing it again after work. I wonder if it is just to stiff for my aging suspension. Tommorow the oem goes back on, road trip, and I will log my results on here. If the oem does it, atlantic british will be swapping my bilstein steering damper because I want a new oem unit..... This income tax I will get new panhard rods, poly bushings, swivel balls or whatever and jave the whole damn thing redone. Either way I will log my results after putting the oem back on.