Thread: I think I found my problem

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Death wobble in a 27 sounds like a nightmare, glad to hear it didn't get away from you. I had a jeep put me in a ditch after death wobble popped a tie rod apart.

It's the scariest feeling when it happens. No fun watching the front wheels jumping around out of control. The other thing is that you can never relax again because you keep wondering when it will happen the next time.

Don

Just remember to only drive your T, and to leave the wheel wobbling 27 parked.

What this sounds like to me is a natural frequency phenomena in the front end. There are many contributing factors here including suspension and frame stiffness, shock rates, geometries, and wheel/tire stiffness and damping contributions.

The wheel going round and round excites the death wobble mode in all cars; most just have the factors above either combine to totally dampen the event out (you wouldn't know it happened) or drive the frequency of occurrence well above normal operating speeds.

By changing shocks you have improved the damping and by correcting the wheel you will have greatly reduced the excitation that drives the wobble frequency. However these do not necessarily change the natural frequency or onset of the wobble, just the amplitude. For example with your corrections it is possible that you could be running OK at the death wobble onset speed and then hit a bump and set it off. Now the new shocks should hopefully dampen the vibration out quickly.

I'm not trying to scare you but I would still be a little careful until I got the feel of her for a while.

Kitz

Kitz, that is the word I was searching for.......frequency. You are right, I could see the frequency increasing with speed. I would guess every rotating mass has it, you just need to keep it controlled.

Thanks for the info.

Don