“Death wobble ?”

[HogHunter34]

Only death wobble I've experienced is after I shot a deer or hog

I've only driven and rode in older Ford 1/2 tons like a 1980 F-100 and 1987 F-150 never ever had an issue with this in the old styles.

Good luck and hope you don't have to ever experience it

[Jamvo]

Death wobble is a solid front axle thing. Worn front end components, alignment, etc cause it. Steering dampeners help control it but it’s a bandaid.

[Drycreek3189]

Only death wobble I've experienced is after I shot a deer or hog

I've only driven and rode in older Ford 1/2 tons like a 1980 F-100 and 1987 F-150 never ever had an issue with this in the old styles.

Good luck and hope you don't have to ever experience it

Shhh ! Don’t let everybody know that my neighbor doesn’t drive a Ford……think of my reputation even if you don’t care about yours !

[HogHunter34]

Shhh ! Don’t let everybody know that my neighbor doesn’t drive a Ford……think of my reputation even if you don’t care about yours !

My grandfather was a Ford mechanic for 36 years and that is all he ever drove in his entire life.
My grandmother drove an old tank of a Ford Galaxy 500 with a 390 engine. You could hit a tree with that thing and keep on going

Don if you ever get nervous about that Ford and the death wobble you are welcome to ride in my Tundra

[CEO]

I got the letter, but haven't had any issues. I guess it wouldn't hurt to have it done while they are offering.

[cj7zrcool]

My '19 F350 had a problem with it around 50K miles. I replaced the shocks & steering stabilizer with Bilstein units and haven't had a problem since. I'm @ 85K now.

[686PPP]

My 2016 F250 did it around 50K. Rough road construction area and only once. Had me pinched up for a bit.

[RifleBowPistol]

Only death wobble I've experienced is after I shot a deer or hog

I've only driven and rode in older Ford 1/2 tons like a 1980 F-100 and 1987 F-150 never ever had an issue with this in the old styles.

Good luck and hope you don't have to ever experience it

It does not matter what brand of truck or what year the truck is, if it has a solid front axle, and the right mixture of worn parts, it can happen. The Ford 2 wheel drive trucks don't have solid axles, unless you go back to the early 60s. In the 4WD truck, 1979 was the last year of solid front axle 1/2 ton Fords, from 1980 to 1997, you had to have a 1 ton to get a solid front axle, not even the 3/4 tons had solid axles, they had a POS twin I beam like the 1/2 ton trucks.

The solid front axle has two problems it's rougher riding than a good designed front upper and lower control arm design front end, and it can have the death wobble, if the right mixture of components are worn. Then if you have larger, heavier tires, and wheels, more wheel offset, those things make the problem happen easier, or faster, than with stock small tires and wheels with little offset. Larger heavier tires and wheels, have more gyro energy. With larger heavier tires and wheels, you can have very little wear to the front end and get the death wobble. With stock offset, size tires and wheels, you will usually have to have noticeable wear to some of the front end components to get the death wobble.

The first time I ever dealt with the death wobble, was in my 78 Bronco, it would scare the crap out of me, when it would happen. Because it would usually happen on the Nueces Bay Causeway, or the JFK Causeway. Hitting those joints would set it up, once it got started you were in for fun ride. This was back in the days when the causeways were very narrow two lane bridges. I had to replace just about everything in the front end of that truck to finally get rid of that wobble.

I have had a 89 F350 4X4, it had aftermarket tires and wheels on it also, it had 35" BFG mud terrains, just like the Bronco had. I had the death wobble on that truck a couple times. I think I just replaced the tie rods and fixed the problem.

The Bronco had those stupid rubber bushings between the radius arms and the front axle, where the radius arms clamp around the front axle. Those were a serious ***** to replace, because the bolts were severely rusted. Once I finally replaced those bushings and then the track bar bushings, I finally got rid of the wobble in the Bronco. Those were the last pieces I replaced in the front of the Bronco that finally got rid of the problem. Before those pieces I replaced all of the tie rod end a couple at a time, steering damper, I did the king pins, drag link. All of those were worn, and truly needed to be replaced, even after replacing those pieces, it got better, but not completely fixed.

My 2001 F350 has done it a few times years ago. By the point when I owned that truck I had dealt with the death wobble many times, long before it was called the death wobble. I worked in multiple Ford dealers, two were Ford truck dealers. In the truck dealers, you learn things about truck front ends you don't learn working in car dealerships. Such as what would be classified as a good part on the front end of a car, will likely be classified as a worn out part on the front end of a truck. Because of the much heavier tires and wheels on a truck, you can not get away with near as much wear on the front of a truck as you can a car. We had customers argue with us many times, saying their front end parts were fine on their truck, but then whined about the death wobble. We tried to explain the situation, they would just argue, their front end parts were fine. For a car they are, not for a truck. With the heavier tires and wheels on a truck with much higher gyro energy, you need all of the front end parts tight enough you can not feel any play at all. Tie rods, if you can grab them by hand and rotate them easily, they need to be replaced. If the ball joints are not tight, if there is not noticeable resistance to turn the steering knuckle with the tie rods disconnected, replace the ball joints. All of the front end components of a truck have to be tight, with zero play, to assure no problems like the death wobble.

Since having worked in two Ford truck dealers, I have learned a lot about getting rid of front end problems and dealing with driveline shudders. Both problems used to be hard for me to fix, usually just taking my best guess, at what to replace. After working in truck dealers, I got very good at find and fixing front end problems and driveline shudders. Working on cars all the time, you will never get good at fixing truck problems. I would not have believed that, before I worked in the first truck dealership I worked in.

I have had my 2002 F350 4X4, since October 2001, I have had the death wobble once with my truck, in 350,000 miles, I was able to fix it quickly. On the other hand, it took me months to finally fix my 78 Bronco wobble 35 or so years ago.

[powderburner]

I have a 2020 F250 It happened to me with less that 7K on the truck.

I ended up having an off road shop in Temple replace the front bushings, stabilizer, and a few other parts.

One of the big things is that when you have the front end aligned people set it where the alignment is perfect 90. For the front linkage to lock into place you have to set it at 85ish. You will not see or feel the difference but it will "lock" at that point where the perfect alignment will hold but not lock and will loosen up

[WItoTX]

My understanding of the recall is it's just a band aid. I would still get it done, but it won't permanently fix the issue.

If you want a back story on how/why the issue exists, there is a couple good thread on here about it. The jist is, the wheel/tire weights 60-80 lbs, and is dangling at the end of a long metal stick. Well it's REALLY hard to keep that bouncy rubber tire from bouncing when you hit a bump, but factory shocks and steering stabilizer work pretty well, until the front linkage gets a tiny bit of play in it. Then all bets are off as to if/when it will happen.