I have it..... don't like it.... Want it gone... What causes it ????

Dana 60 under a Jeep, high crossover steering, drag link slighty down, toe in about 1/8, 4 degrees neg caster. Was aligned just a few weeks ago, all the parts are new, what gives? Bout scared the fawk out of my wife when it started.

Any ideas ???? Thanks

1. check all you TRE's
2. check your king pins or ball joints, whichever you have.
3. check your steering box mount to make sure it's not moving.
4. check to see if you have any slack in your steeing box.
5. Check for any slack in any steering components.
6. rebalance your tires and put the tires that take the least amount of weights on the front.
7. If you have a track bar make sure the bushings and mounts are good.
If none of theses fix the problem then you need either a single or even better a dual steering stabilizer. Or for the cure all of all cure alls then go with hydro assist. That will solve it for sure!

is this an old lift or a new one? ideal caster should be about six degrees negative, and 2 degrees shouldn't matter that much.....

if this lift has been on for a while and death wobble has just started, check tie rod ends, steering stabilizer, steering box for any play, and if you are running a trackbar at all check that too.

it's them damn dana 60's! POS! ...but I feel kinda sorry for ya so i'll give ya fifty bucks and a superb dana 30 for your rig so you can safely wheel to the mall.... <IMG SRC="smilies/biggrin.gif" border="0"> Matt gave a good answer so I had ta yank ya <IMG SRC="smilies/tongue.gif" border="0"> I think the death wobble scares the passenger more than the driver, at least the driver gets to squeeze the wheel <IMG SRC="smilies/biggrin.gif" border="0">

I'm not sure about the proper specs of your rig's alignment but I'd try to make it actually toe-out a tad. With wheels toed in the front wheels are likely to "fight" over their respective teritorries and increase the effect of a D/W. Also in my case worn out LCA bushings were seriously to blame.

Four degrees isn't enough caster, you need to get to at least five, five and a half is even better. Don't try to go too far since that will steepen the front driveshaft u-joint angle too much.

Toe-in can affect Death Wobble too but with only four degrees of Caster angle, I suspect that's the problem. Make sure your ball joints are in good shape and that your tires are well balanced. Insufficient Caster angle can make it much more suceptible to other problems like loose ball joints, tires being out of balance or out of round, and worn out steering stabilizers. Any of those can trigger Death Wobble, sufficient Caster angle normally stops it from fully developing. And it's positive Caster angle you want, not negative... so the top of the steering knuckle is positioned further back than the bottom of the steering knuckle.

Try tightening your springs. I had the wobble and it was just because the bolts were too loose. Haven't had a problem since. cheapest fix yet.

Death wobble is caused by high scrub radius. The only proper way to cure it is to change your wheels. The line through the upper and lower king pins should intersect 1 inch below the center of the tire. The distance between that line and the center of the tire is your "scrub radius". Once you get more than about 1 inch of scrub radius, death wobble in imenent. Changing your caster, toe, tire balance, shocks, tie rod ends, etc, will only cover it up by changing suspension harmonics.

There are 3 rules of thumb for setting caster.

1. never set neg. caster on a full time power steering car.

2. never mix neg. and pos. caster.

3. never set neg. caster on a straight axle car.

Your 60 is a straight axle car, should be about 4 to 6 deg. pos.

[ 10-18-2001: Message edited by: dorfs ]

i just went through this same thing with my 60. here are a few things that helped.
1. a good streering stabilizer
2. replacing the worn bearings(uder the knuckles)
3. new TRE's
4.airing my tires down more..dont know why, but the death wobble is gone.

i have cut the knuckles off and rewelded the caster angle at 9 degrees..

Okay I just went back to the shop and had them look up the caster. It is set at 4.5 positive, I have power steering. My wheels are 10" wide with 2.5" Backspacing on 38.5x14.50 TSL/SX's. I would take it the scrub radius is way off right?

Thanks