Dangerous situation, need some help please

[Flatpat]

I have a 1978 K30 Crew Cab that I have been getting back on the road. I'm having an issue where if I take a fairly sharp turn at a little bit of speed (15-25mph), the truck will start a very violent wabble, like the tires are going to fall off. If I slow down to a crawl it stops and then I can continue on and it rides great. It doesn't do it on slower turns or the sweeping highway turns and so far it's only done it on right turns. I made sure all the wheels are on correct and the lugs are torqued down. The tires are radials and in pretty good shape. Figured it wasn't a tire since it straightens out. Best I can tell everything is connected throughout the suspension and nothing appears broken. Any ideas? It's pretty scary.


Thanks,
Patrick

[Rusbuilt]

Is your suspension stock?

[Flatpat]

Best I can tell it's stock.

[JTRACEY]

I can tell you that I was driving a buddy of mines truck, and when I hit a bump, or took a rather fast turn the same thing would happen until i slowed down. When i got below 10 it would go away just like you said... It ended up being his wheel bearing... Not to mention the damn things were less than 6 months old...

[andrewmp6]

Its known as death wobble the whole front axle will jump around.As how to fix it i don't know on a leaf spring truck but some on here will tho.

[Bishops Trucks]

I had a bronco that did that. Turned out to be a wheel bearing. I found that out after the whole locking hub assembly blew out.

[Bret B]

Something else after checking those ball joints/king pins, and wheel bearings, consider adding a steering stabilizer. The "Death Wobble" has been talked about a lot on solid axle trucks on other sites. It isn't just a GM, Ford, or Dodge issue, but happens with some solid axle trucks. After doing the Dana 60 solid axle swap from the Dana 50 TTB, I added the stabilizer and could really tell the difference. I don't know for sure what the wobble is from, but from what I understand it is caused by the steering parts wearing out quicker than other parts because of the stresses put on them.

[Flatpat]

Thank you for the input everyone. I'll go through and take a look at the bearings and a stabilizer.

[LONGHAIR]

It's more of a Dana60 thing than just blaming it on "straight axle". It happens because of the difference in the ball-joints. The D60 doesn't have the traditional ball-joints like the D44 or GM 10 bolt does. It has a tapered (roller) bearing for the lower and a similarly shaped solid slug in the upper. The uppers are "spring loaded" under that 4 bolt cap. IIRC, someone makes a shim kit to eliminate the spring? But I haven't messed with a D60 for many years.

[Flatpat]

Thanks LONGHAIR, I ran across the springs online earlier. I'll have to see what "fixes" are out there.