Deuce steering issue

[jerseyjello]

Hi all,

1970 AM General M35a2 I have had for a number of years now, every so offten I get a steering wobble like when you hit a bump or pot hole with only one tire and the whole front end shakes violently left to right you have to jam on the brakes and slow down rapidly to make it stop. Now I have had this problem a time or two in the past with regular 4x4's. I have checked eveything like the drag links to see if anything is loose but evrything seems tight. My truck has the air/ asist power steering on it too.
Just wanted to know if anyone has had this problem and is there a fix/solution for it???

Thank You

 

[dm22630]

My truck shakes when some of the tires are flat. Are all 10 tires running @ 50 PSI? They can be completely flat & look inflated.

 

[kendelrio]

How long has it been sitting? The tires DO go out of round after sitting a while. Does the problem go away after a while?

 

[Chevytruck]

My truck shakes when some of the tires are flat. Are all 10 tires running @ 50 PSI? They can be completely flat & look inflated.

we a thread on this a while ago. and that person had to inflate their tires to stop vibration.

 

[WillWagner]

Tire pressure and/or wheel bearing pre load.

 

[jerseyjello]

Tires and pressure are good I have a slow leak on the right rear outter tire. I drive the truck at least once a week, but I think the problem is in the front end, the only way I can describe it is I have heard it called; a "death wobble".

Everything with the steering seemed tight. But maybe should I jack up the front end off the ground to take another look at steering stuff?? I could not find any play in anything before.

 

[JDToumanian]

Like Will said, I'd be checking wheel bearings... or maybe it's a bad shock combined with an unbalanced tire...

Jon

 

[ctmustang]

death wobble

I know the death wobble all to well. at my shop we work on cars and trucks but can relate to the bigger trucks. experienced this wobble in lots of jeeps and 4wd vehicles, it is usually steering dampener, or a suspension part.with the wheels on ground and somebody you trust behind the wheel have them rock the steering hard side to side and watch each piece and see if anything seems moving out of ordinary.

 

[BEASTMASTER]

my 5 ton did that once, thought the front end was falling out.had to jack on the brakes to make it stop. don't go down that street anymore. could be the shocks.had a mack do that and they had to replace the front spring hanger pins and bushings

 

[jerseyjello]

Get the front tires balanced worked great on my bobbed deuce it did the same thing.If your running stock 900-20s switch the fronts out with a set of the rear tires the stock NDTs get crowned after a while being on the steer axle and switching them might save you a lot of money in time and fixes that dont need to be done.

Yeah, I'm running stock 900-20's and I would say the fronts are pretty worn down. I'm going to try switching them with two from the rear and see what happens before I do anything else!!!

 

[HOMER]

also you might want to check the toe in. the wheel alignment

 

[nk14zp]

check your castor

 

[FormerNewMVGuy]

I agree with checking the tow, I had a problem with the death wobble on two of my deuce's, Adjusted the the tow, and the problem went away.

I hope it's that easy for you

 

[Kyle Rajasthan]

Check your spring mounts

Hi all,

1970 AM General M35a2 I have had for a number of years now, every so offten I get a steering wobble like when you hit a bump or pot hole with only one tire and the whole front end shakes violently left to right you have to jam on the brakes and slow down rapidly to make it stop. Now I have had this problem a time or two in the past with regular 4x4's. I have checked eveything like the drag links to see if anything is loose but evrything seems tight. My truck has the air/ asist power steering on it too.
Just wanted to know if anyone has had this problem and is there a fix/solution for it???

Thank You

I had the same problem on my old 87 Chevy Blazer. The truck had a six inch lift and was riding on 35's. The cause of the problem was the rear leaf spring mounts on the front axle had worn out. The bolts were there in the mounts, but there was no rubber bushings left. This allowed the whole axle to shift back and fourth once it started to move, such as when I would hit a bump or a hole with one tire. Applying the brakes has the effect of stabilizing the axle, and stop the violent shaking. Sound familiar? Any vehicle with a leaf spring suspension can have this happen, particularly in the front, so check your bushings and see if they are worn out. I hope this helps.