Picked up my Dana60 in Oklahoma City

[ScrapIron]

Well the machine shop screwed up the dually adapters. I spent 20 minutes explaining to the man that the wheels are hubcentric and that the shoulder on the dually adapters must fit snug in the center bore of the wheel. I took him both adapters and one of the wheels.

They called me Monday stating they were ready, i drive out to pick them up, test fit one of the adapters into the wheel and the clown cut way to much material off of the adpaters. Now the should of the adapters are a good 1/8th of an inch smaller then the center bore of the wheel.

That said the adapters are still there, i came back home, pulled another wheel off of a different truck as well as the matching adapter for that wheel and took them out to him so they can measure how snug to make the adapters.

The place is beyond rediculous. Being an average joe i shouldnt have to draw this goof a picture with crayons, after all they claim to be machinists.. Now they have to machine the adpaters more and build sleeves to press onto the adapters to correct their mistake.

[ScrapIron]

Got all of the old suspension removed from the truck. Cut the cross member to approximated dimension. I just used a four inch dewalt grinder and cut off wheels. I was surprised at how easily that metal cut using a grinder.

Then i began installing the Timberline stuff. First issue was a heat shield on the drivers side which is bolted to the frame. That bolt had to be removed and the shield pulled out of the way so the 4 link bracket would slide into position. (now i have to figure out how i will reattach the shield).

Once the 4 link brackets were both installed i found that the 4 link arms would not fit into the brackets. The instructions say to use a pry bar and a BFH which i didnt wish to do. I purchased a length of ready rod and some nuts, washers and used those to spread the bracket. Once the upper arms were in place i was able to remove the ready rod and the lower arms went right in. The 1/2" inch ready rod was $19.99, that said i may take it back tomorrow and get my money back, im not opposed to a business making a profit but thats highway robbery.

Once i rolled the axle in place i found that none of the holes in the axle end of the 4 link arms were drilled large enough for the bolts that attach them to the axle, so i had to use a dremel tool to open them up just a touch.

I now have the axle under the truck and the new ford coil springs installed. I dont want to tighten any bolts until im able to sit the truck down on the ground. I also dont want to install the trac bar until the weight of the truck is on the ground, so im in a holding pattern now.

Temps are currently in the mid 90's but are supposed to reach 107 degrees for the next few days. Im hoping to have the dually adapters back tomorrow so i can install them and put the wheels/tires on it and sit it down on the ground again.

It doesnt appear that my existing fox shocks are going to be long enough so i will also have to do some measuring once its on the ground.

[ScrapIron]

Finally got the dually adapters back and installed for a test fit. Here it is with the Dodge wheels mounted and the axle all bolted in place.
Slightly more lift than i was expecting but the springs will settle in a couple of months im sure.

The 2005 dually axle is absolutely perfect width for the Van chassis right out of the box. Tires are still within the fender lip, now i just have to hook up the tracbar, the steering link, and get rid of those gawd awful blackwall tires.

I still have to hookup the tracbar, draglink, and brake lines, but all the heavy work is finished.

[ScrapIron]

Had to get new shocks, my FOX shocks were way to short. I couldnt find anyone that had the FOX shocks in stock or could even get them in a timely manner so i got some Bilsteins for the time being.

[ScrapIron]

I thought i would be smart and take the truck for a slow drive around the block to see if a i had the adjustable 4 link arms adjusted anywhere close. At 10 mph it started death wobbling.

It was so severe it would not stop until the truck stopped completely. Since its to large to flip a U-turn on a residential street i had no choice but to stay at 5 mph all the way around the block to get back home.

It death wobbled twice more even at 5 mph. Next morning i crawled underneath and it destroyed the tracbar bracket because i hadnt welded it to the engine cross member yet

I saw a photo someplace of a guy who ripped the side out of his frame where the tracbar bracket was located. Now i see how it happened. Im nervous now about welding these brackets onto the frame.

Im familiar with death wobble in jeeps but i never had one do it at 5 mph and nothing as severe as what this thing did. Not sure how im going to get this thing to an alignment shop for an alignment at this rate.

[ScrapIron]

I finally got everything sorted and installed properly. Tomorrow it goes in for a front end alignment. I installed Bilstein shocks because no one had Fox shocks available in the proper length. Im not real happy with their performance in this application already.

I also had to swap out front ABS sensors to get the ABS light to go off. I installed steel braided front brake lines and swapped it all to -AN fittings. New brake calipers and pads, new Ford OEM springs (may change these out later for a stiffer spring).

I hired a mobile welding service to come over and weld the trac bar bracket in place and i also drilled holes and installed two 7/16" bolts in the bracket as well.

I still need to come up with some extended bump stops. Not sure if i want to use the Sumo bump stops or go with air bump stops from fox or another manufaturer. If everything goes good at the alignment shop im finished with the axle swap and will remove one of the rear bearing hubs from the floater axle and ship it off to have new ones machined utilizing the larger 8x200mm lug pattern.

After thats finished it goes to the transmission shop to get a rebuild and transfer case.

I also got two new BFG KO2 tires for the front.

[ScrapIron]

Had the alignment done this morning not very happy right now.
The truck still has severe death wobble despite being aligned properly, all brackets welded as per instructions, brand new tires, brand new trac bar, brand new shocks, fox steering stabilizer, coil springs, isolators, etc....

Caster was set to 5 degrees as per the manufacturers recommendation, camber and toe were set to 2005 F-350 specs. I have checked and double checked everything and it still has the death wobble.

Once i realized it still had the death wobble i went home immediately, crawled underneath and gave each of the adjustable lower arms another turn to increase caster even more and it still has death wobble. I did this twice for a total of two full turns beyond 5 degrees with no success.

Im gonna take a day off from it because im worn out from it. This is a major problem, i didnt spend thousands of dollars and chop up my x-member to have a truck that is undrivable.

This weekend i will double check everything. Is it possible that the tracbar bracket is to weak and is flexing sideways causing death wobble? I was thinking about attaching another tracbar to the same bolt the axle tracbar uses at the frame and running it across to the frame on the opposite side to maybe help prevent any sideways give or flex in that bracket?

I dont have the swaybar on it yet because i am waiting on new links. But a swaybar isnt going to cure death wobble, that isnt what they are for. Does anyone have any ideas?

[Pntyrmvr]

Any chance of clamping a Go Pro camera underneath?

Stream of consciousness here. No particular order.

If it was mine I'd pull the steering stabilizer off and carefully see if anything changes.

Then I'd put it back on and change the caster back halfway to zero.

Something will give you a hint.

Tire pressures equal? I'd drop it by a chunk and test.

Something is allowing oscillations, but all new parts should mean no worn out bits. How about a loose fastener?

Jack it up and let the suspension hang. Take a pry bar and try pushing things around.

It took me a long time to place axle shims on the correct side of the axle to fix a caster issue. I stared at it for too long and jammed my brain. Take some time off and have a buddy go through it with you.

[ScrapIron]

I think i have checked all the basics at least 4 times over at this point unless im overlooking something.

I had them blow the tires up to 60psi when they were installed.
I checked every nut and bolt on it.

Initially i drove it without the stabilizer installed but it death wobbled so i installed the stabilizer at that point with no change.

I had the alignment yesterday which made the truck at least drivable at speeds not exceeding 20 mph but anything above that is asking for an accident.

I will try the gopro idea after i get the swaybar installed. Maybe duct tape it around something so it doesnt fall off.

I dont see the sway bar eliminating death wobble. The truck should be stable even without the sway bar IMO. I have driven many trucks in the past with the sway removed or disconnected and it was never an issue.

I plan to run a sway bar but the new links havent arrived yet. I have these links coming for the sway bar and they show arriving tomorrow. The only other thing im missing is longer bump stops, im still debating which product to use.

But again a truck should still be drivable without a sway bar or bump stops imo.
Thats not to imply that i intend to drive the truck long term without a swaybar or bump stops. Obviously i intend to install Sumo stops or air stops on it, but the truck should still not be death wobbling going over regular expansion joints on the hiway just because it doesnt have bump stops or a swaybar on it right now. Thoughts or opinions?

The reason i say that is because im being told that the truck "must" have a sway bar installed or i will have death wobble at higher speeds, higher speeds being anything over 20 mph.

[posplayr]

I don't know much about this other than there is any number of flexures that can cause the windup and release of energy associated with death wobble. It is kind of like a motorcycle wobble.

How to try and isolate the issues is not obvious. maybe the Gopro will give you some ideas.

That said, that stabilizer looks like it should be more aligned with the steering link. Of course, it should not have death wobble even without the stabilizer.

I dont know if there is a clearance issue or not. I guess if you had none you might have flipped the steering link mounting bracket over?


Also, you already mentioned the Trak bar bracket can get ripped out so I suspect that is what looks like it needs a whole lot of support. That extended bracket (I'm guessing this is the trak bar mount on the right) looks like it has a whole lot of leverage against twisting the frame.

More food for thought re; the trak bar. As mentioned earlier I may be pointing out the obvious as I'm not familiar with this high lift front ends, just looking at the obvious.

https://www.sportsmobileforum.com/fo...tml#post256007