dodge ram death wobble

a friend of mine owns a 95 dodge ram. when hes goin about 50 his front tires shake violently (death wobble) side to side as if hes turn them lock to lock faster than superman. i say that the problem is either in the track bar or in the steering itself. another friend suggests that its in the front sway bar, and that its because the truck doesn't have a shimmy shock, and by installing one all the wobble will be cured. What exactly is the cause of this and what is the solution  

ok bro i have the same problem with my 97 ram 1500 and i found the problem to that the upper ball joint brackets were bending in due to the size of the tires creating about a negative 5 degree toe in so the tires sit angled in creating the death wobble you can either have the brackets heated and bent back with trianlges welded in place so it dont happen again or do what i did and had them swap out the front axel and put in a used one with the gears from my old axel either way it will take a couple of days to be done good luck  

ok i have a 97 ram 1500 with the same problem and i found it to be the upper ball joint brackets were bending in due to the size of the tires what you can do i shave the brackets heated and bent back or do what i did and have them swap the axel for another one and take your gears from the old one and put them in the new axel both will take a day or two to complete good luck  

thanx. my buddy isnt really listenin to anyones advice. im more of a try every road there is from easy to difficult to pain in the ass until it works out' kind of guy. hes still dead set on sway bar and shimmy shock, but as much as its shaking i cant see that being the issue or the solution. so im gonna let him go with it. also it never really did it until he installed a leveling kit, and when he did the sway bar was like it is now  

oh and they are the same tires that have always been on it  

I had the same problem with my 96 dodge, but i was running 15x10's with 35" tires.I replaced my track arm, ball joints,wheel bearings, and it still would start to wobble at about 30 to 40 mph when i hit a small bump in the road. As soon as i changed wheel and tires (17x9 with 35's) put dual stabalizers on it, it rides like a caddy now. What size wheels are you running?  

wow seems like those few years have a defect i have the same problem with my truck its got 170000 miles on it but that wobble is slowly setting in at abou 50 its completly stock i aint changed a thing yet but lookin to  

hes running 33x12.5 on 15x8 rims. put stabilizer on and it seems to go away only subtly there. i just feel its like putting a band aid on an open heart surgery job.  

Your right it is just a bandaid.  You said your buddy put on a leveling kit. Either a: the kit/his installation of the kit has caused a problem or b: (and I've seen this a lot) he got hyper sensitive and noticed this wobble for the first time right after working on it. If b is actually the problem (not that he'll ever admit it) He needs to look over the entire suspension for looseness or play in the components. Also the steering needs to be checked. A loose track bar for example will allow the entire frame to shift one way which will cause the steering to pull in the relative opposite direction. Once that happens it can rebound and jerk back the other way and completely become erratic. So that's where he needs to look for his problem first. If however it really did start immediately after his lift he needs to consider what he's done to the vehicle. The sway bar didn't suddenly get jelous and go on strike and it worked fine before the stabilizer so that's got nothing to do with it other than act as a bandaid. If he added new control arms when he put the lift in that'll do it every time. Or a simple bushing change. Any time you lift a vehicle it changes the geometry. Sometimes with horrible results. No matter though its a simple fix. Provided the vehicle isn't completely screwed up all your friend needs to do is go get the thing aligned, and perhaps check around for contributing factors like that option b:  

The cause is in my opinion is insufficient positive camber, (on lifted trucks with leveling kit) I have done many things to trucks to repair the problem and have found the fix to be the upper ball joints. (3 trucks done and no repeat problems) look up and find ofset ball joints there are 3 or 4 manufacturers they allow the camber to be adjusted further. Dodge trucks are raked to push the weight forward, the lift and leveling kits change the center of gravity. there may be other fixes out there but this is a resonably cheap solution. Trust me so far it works. 2 years  

Go to: dieseltruckworld.tenmagazines.com/articles.asp?page=tenarticle&aid=3849   the site will not let me post links but this is a good article and explains it.(my previous post)  

Sorry lower ball joints  

had this problem, fixed it for 30bucks. new steering stabilizer.  

Have him crank the steering wheel rapidly left to right as you lay under te front (not moving down the road of course) and look closely at the track bar, especially at the end that is fastened to the frame near steering box. This balljoint type end usually fails around 80,000 miles or so even if maintained,if you see any slop its shot!! I would bet my house that it is! DT Products makes an awesome rebuildable/ adjustable unit that is easy to install and worth every penny! I have one due to the exact same "DEATH WOBBLE!", problem solved, not just masked with a $30 shock! When you convince him that this IS the problem let us know!  

i Have 38.5 Super Swamper TSL Bogger, I can go 10MPH and it starts too wobble. Its both tires I have had it looked at but nothing. Im taking it to a Dodge Dealer ship WED. Any Advice?
I wont it to stop. I have had the Power steering box Relaced.

1995 Dodge Ram 1500 SLT MAG V8 360 Engine 38.5 Super Swamper TSL Boggers