steering problems, death wobble
 

ok so iv been fighting a death wobble issue with my dodge for a while. iv replaced all the worn out components on the front end and everything is tight now except for one thing, the Pittman arm. when i got the truck the previous owner just recently installed the lift kit himself and had left the Pittman arm along with a few other things loose. i tightened up the Pittman arm up and the truck drove great with no death wobble problems at all for a month or 2 but now the death wobble is back, when i hit the railroad track to fast, when i hit a bumpy road, sometimes it will go into a death wobble. so i checked the front end out and everything is tight as far as ball joints and tie rod ends, ect but the Pittman arm is pretty loose but the nut is as tight as it can be, the steering box itself shows a little slop and the pitmant arms also seems to be a little loose on the shaft so i guess the splines are worn out from being loose before and the steering box itself is probably also worn out.

so the question is what do i do, i really dont care about having sloppy steering as long as the truck is safe, so im thinking a good steering stabilizer will take the slop out when hitting bumps which would stop the death wobble but still leave me with a sloppy steering wheel. the truck has no stabilizer at all right now, would just adding one solve 90% of my problem right off the bat? would adding one of those Pittman arm supports eliminate the need for me to have to replace the steering box? i guess what im asking is if it were you, what would you do? right now im leaning towards slap a steering stabilizer on it.

and also, if i did want to change the steering box, do i need a new pittman arm as well even if its brand new? i would think that the splines are not just worn out on the box but that the pittman arm itself is worn out with it...

You sure that the splines on the steering box are screwed up, it should b made out of a harder material than the pitman arm and all the slop should b in the pitman arm only, but since it was run loose i dont know, ive never had death wobble trouble with my truck ever, but i run all moog chassis parts under my front end and if you put a lot of ruff miles on u need it, as far as the steering stabilizer i cut those little light weight links off of the ends and put heavier ones on, have done the same and told the same to my fellow pipeline buddies and we dont exactly stay on the pavement, track bar conversions are a waste of money, make one or by good front end parts, i redo my whole front end every single year no matter what, everything is warrantied and i just exchange it :tu:

You mentioned ball joints and tie rods, but have you checked the track bar ? :c:

yea the ball joint on the end of the track bar is slap worn out, would this be the main cause of the issue or just one thing contributing to the issue? i was thinking about just building a new one with heim joints on both ends.

Remember they will take a beating all yur side to side weight around corners is on them, have seen bolts shear right off b4 needs to have something to absorb some shock at least like a polyurethane bushing, but yea yur track bar is yur issue, but for couple hundred u can buy a brand new moog and b done with it and if it wears out u just take it in and exchange it lifetime warranty at auto parts store, i always have a spare, moog lasts the longest and is heavier in diameter on ball joint end

well iv decided on the fix. i went ahead and ordered 5 3/4" heims joints, 1-1/4" .120 wall dom tubing and all the tube ends, jam nuts, misalignment spacers, ect all for around 200 bucks and im gonna cut the end of the track bar off and use one of these QS Components Inc. Quality Racing Rod End & Components, cut the male end off of it and weld it to the end of the trac bar and put a heim joint in it, then build a new drag link and everything to convert the truck to crossover steering and go from tie rod ends to all hiem joints. this should solve all my problems at once and still costs less then a moog track bar. now i just need to find a 3/4" drill bit and drill my knuckles and pitmant arm out. ill start a new thread when the parts come.

I was haveing the same problem i rebuit it like 4 times but i did the new style converson kit on mine wit the new style track bar that has bushings instead of ball joints over a year ago and i havent had any problems since