Hey gang, I've made strides in shimmy at around 30-32. But some still exists. Agree that I still have something not quite right. Considering trying the steering damper since driving season is about on me. Would appreciate hearing which dampers work and a picture or 2 of one installed.
If you have a shimmy, its because some part(s) of your steering and/or suspension system or tires are faulty.
Installing a steering damper isn't going to make the problem go away.
These trucks aren't tractors. They track straight, don't wander, and actually handle pretty smoothly when all parts are functioning properly.
I'd start with the basics by swapping wheels front to back / back to front and see if there's a change. (inflate and balance tires, etc.)
1950 Chevrolet 3100 (Ol' Roy)
1939 Packard Standard Eight Coupe (The Phantom) | 1956 Cadillac Coupe de Ville (The Bismarck) | 1964 Ford Galaxie 500 coupe |1966 Ford Mustang (Little Red) | 1969 Pontiac GTO (The Dishpit) I 1979 Ford F-100 | 1976 Ford F-150 (Big Red) | 1995 Ford F-150 (Newt)
Our service truck at work is 2005 Ford F250, it came with a factory installed death wobble at highway speeds when you hit just the right bump in the road. We installed two additional dampers on the front for a total of 3. It cured it, but it makes for some really tough steering even with power assist. On a manual steer truck, I would not want to drive one very long with a damper installed.
A quick fix is pumping in the thickest grease you can find to tighten up steering and suspension joints. We used to pump in thick white wheel bearing grease in the front ends of buses to get through state inspections, if the grease tube wasn't warm, it wasn't going in, even when warm you about had to stand on the handle to get into the joints, but they were darn tight when you were done! It would be a good test to see if its the truck or the tires.
Every one of these I have seen or tried never helped a thing, Dennis. It is an okay idea and seems it might just work but in application it is much more snake oil than cure. I don't know exactly why but I have decided there are two fundamental problems: the shimmy action is too small for the shock absorber to be effective in stopping it...and please let me explain a bit. The dampers are nothing but common shock absorbers used for a different purpose. If you take a shock absorber and move the plunger in/out by something like 1/2 to 3/4 inch, you'll see there isn't much damping going on with only that much movement. It will probably take more like 2 inches before you get the shock to do what it is supposed to...and as you already know a shock absorber allows one motion to happen quickly and easily and the rebound action is then dampened. That's the design of the things. At any rate the dampers don't work. That's the "given" part of the equation.
The second fundamental problem is a shock absorber was never designed to operate in a horizontal position. Doing that causes the valves to starve and work improperly, the oil and gas in the shock to turn into a foam and it just all goes to pot in there.
That's my 2 cents worth. Please spend them wisely and good luck!
~ Jon 1952 1/2 ton with 1959 235 | T5 with 3.07 rear end
I e had the deathwabble and went through every steering and front suspension component. I changed from bias ply to radials and still had a slight shimmy when hitting a bump or pot hole. I have the tires now at max pressure and it has seemed to eliminate 98 % of the shim with the pictured dampener installed. ( They don’t make one for our trucks. This one is modified from a later GMC TRUCK .
Just curious if you notice the steering being harder to turn? Looks like a good clean install. What tire size are you using? Our service truck '05 Ford has a tall tire on it and and I kinda think that's part of the problem with it's death wobble.
Nice job. From my looking around, I've only found those with brackets for a much larger diameter tie rod. Like 1 3/8 or larger. Your brackets seem to match exactly to our 3/4" rod. Can I ask where you sourced them?
1939 Packard Standard Eight Coupe (The Phantom) | 1956 Cadillac Coupe de Ville (The Bismarck) | 1964 Ford Galaxie 500 coupe |1966 Ford Mustang (Little Red) | 1969 Pontiac GTO (The Dishpit) I 1979 Ford F-100 | 1976 Ford F-150 (Big Red) | 1995 Ford F-150 (Newt)
All of the 3/4 “ clamps were obtained from the more current stabilizer kit. The brackets were made to fit our trucks. Easily modified with the factory instructions.
