Death Wobble at 80km/h

[BryceHas]

I have the usual GU death wobble and was wondering what people have done to fix it? I have a hunch it will just need the radius arm bushes to be replaced but i'm not sure

[mudski]

You will have better luck with next weeks tattslotto numbers than finding a definitive answer to what fixes the issue. In my case it was poorly balanced wheels. But I had to replace every bush under the front to find this out. Lol.

[Clunk]

Panhard bushes, radius arm bushes, bearings, as has already been said, can be caused by a multitude of things.

[Rossco]

Yeah panhard is a good place to start, pump some grease in the tie rod & drag link ends if that fixes it they've got a bit of play. Check wheel bearings are tight and swivel hub bearings too.

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[Yeti's Beast]

Buying new tyres fixed it for me


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[Grant209]

Picked my GU Cab Chassis up 7 Days ago, had the same problem with the Death Wobbles at 80klm.

Started off with:
- wheel balance and alignment . . . No Change
- tighten up wheel bearings. . . . No Change
- remove king bearing flange . . . All Good - No wheel wobbles

Grant

[pollenface]

- remove king bearing flange . . . All Good - No wheel wobbles
Grant

Can you post a pic of this flange? I'm not sure what the actual part is. I have the same problem.

[Hodge]

Can you post a pic of this flange? I'm not sure what the actual part is. I have the same problem.

It's a shim. Here is a good video where this bloke removes the shim and fixes his wobbles.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPLgglRbDF0


Also here is MudRunnerTD 's post showing a good diagram of it.

http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forums/showthread.php?36513-swivel-hubs-bearings-replacement&p=657612&viewfull=1#post657612

[pollenface]

Yeah I actually found that vid soon after, cheers. Looks like you can order any size shims on ebay.

[Grant209]

Yeah Sorry pollenface, it's been a busy week or so for me.

If you haven't already played around again . . . . . here's my reply.

You shouldn't need to buy any New Shims, it's the removal of One (1) Shim from each of the Bearing Caps (Top & Bottom from each hub) that should fix the Death Wobble Problems as the video "Hodge" posted shows how to do so that you will be looking at, removing the Shims increases the pressure on the Inner Bearing onto the Swivel Hup, and with any luck the removal of your Death Wobbles.

If it dose not stop your Death Wobbles, then you may be looking at replacing your Four (4) Inner Bearings, this should be the only reason why you would need to buy New Shims, as the a result of your Inner Bearings being worn and needing replacing, then you would also need to replace your shims too . . . . I think.

Now I've only owned a SWB Landcruiser with a Solid Front Axle before, and it had a whole heap of issues in the front end which gave me death wobbles too, my Landcruiser went through a full front end suspension rebuild, so I don't really know what was behind it's death wobble issues, more then one I think.

The video Hodge posted and I think you said you have watched, is the same video I watched before I did my shims. It's very simple and straight forward to do. You will probably fuck one of your shims trying to get the Bearing Cap off. All up it took me about 2hrs all up to remove One (1) shim from each of the Four (4) Bearing Cap.

[pollenface]

Yeah I'll give it a go, thanks mate.

[Nixon]

Changing my Coopers off road tyres to the original road tyres made a big difference.

[10G]

Does removing the swivel hub shims do any damage long term?

They were put in there for a reason. I've looked at everything over the past month, had bushes replaced and still got the shakes. They come and go. One morning they were so bad I almost pulled over. Next morning, same stretch of road, same speed and barely noticeable.

Are the lower swivel hub bearings hard to remove and reinsert??

[Truckus]

Yep...with my suspension lift...basically BIG WHEELS Truck Alignment specialist, plus a wheel balance plus 2 new custom off set trunions and kingpin bearing sets finally got perfect wheel alignment, no wobbles, no steering pulse and drives beautifully.

Cost me 1900 bucks, saved me thrown tools, shinned Knuckles, high blood pressure and muscle and joint aches that go for days...and I got long warranty on the repairs!

Anyone near central coast..I recommend Big Wheels truck align at Gosford as they do lots of modified Nissan work and do good work.

[DaveGQ]

Have recently started getting the death wobbles... can be pretty scary when you're doing 80-100 and the car starts jumping all over the road.

I've noticed it's not as bad when the shocks are at their firmest setting (I have Tough Dog adjustable).

I initially thought it was bad front shocks, so changed them out, but still no luck.

Took the car in for a wheel balance and alignment and they found two of my steel rims were buckled, so I had those replaced, still no luck with the wobbles.

Will try a few suggestions in this thread

[mudnut]

If the wheels have been balanced by a shop that knows what they are doing wth 4wds, then check the easy stuff first. Check the wheel bearings and nip them up if needed. Then check the panhard bushes by using a crowbar to lever the panhard rod. If all good do the same with all the other bushes.

If all good, disconnect the steering damper and force it in and out. It should have considerable resistance to movement.

If good, then play around with the shims.

[DaveGQ]

So, i started off with the easy stuff - the Panhard rod bushes. They looked ok from the ground, but I decided to remove the rod anyway, and sure enough they were pretty flogged out.

Had the standard rubber ones in there and they were warped, replaced them with the polyurethane ones and since then it's been driving like a dream.

$55 for a set from Repco

[MB]

Glad you’ve been able to safely fix your dreaded death wobbles too Dave Mate and
honestly well done for sharing [emoji106][emoji106]
Please do keep a routine eye/check if off-road on your new polyurethane bushes, they are definitely a tighter by nature fit for all bushes but unfortunately when they decide to let go/crack/pieces, there isn’t a great deal of time left to replace versus OEM/rubber bushes but they are definitely a shipload more affordable than Mr Nissan [emoji857][emoji2959]


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[BrazilianY60]

If the wheels have been balanced by a shop that knows what they are doing with 4wds...

You got me curious on that one... What difference in balancing (out of the car, on the balancing machine) would be for a 4WD versus street car? Aren't wheels all balanced the same?

[garett]

You got me curious on that one... What difference in balancing (out of the car, on the balancing machine) would be for a 4WD versus street car? Aren't wheels all balanced the same?

some people try and use a cone that fits in the middle of the rim. not great for a 4wd rim, better off with fingers that line up with the bolt holes.

[BrazilianY60]

Interesting. Never seen this finger type mechanism. I've been seeing all my 4by´s wheels being balanced with the cone stuff all my life and thought it was normal. Will research into that...

[mudnut]

You got me curious on that one... What difference in balancing (out of the car, on the balancing machine) would be for a 4WD versus street car? Aren't wheels all balanced the same?

They will test the wheel, and if it is significantly out, they will break the beads again and refit the tyre at a better spot, instead of just whacking on a load of weights.