Death wobble, but only some times

As mentioned in the headline, my 1989 defender has a strange thing where it out of know where starts to wobble from the steering wheel. It starts during normal driving and at various speeds and will do it sometimes for 2 seconds and sometimes 20. It will do it a few times during the same drive and then not happen for a week. No pattern and it will not do it on the same roads or the same speed as when it did it the last time.

Any clues?
Cheers

raabythomsen said:

As mentioned in the headline, my 1989 defender has a strange thing where it out of know where starts to wobble from the steering wheel. It starts during normal driving and at various speeds and will do it sometimes for 2 seconds and sometimes 20. It will do it a few times during the same drive and then not happen for a week. No pattern and it will not do it on the same roads or the same speed as when it did it the last time.

Any clues?
Cheers

Click to expand...

Are your wheels balanced and aligned ? Following that Steering Damper check, assuming suspension etc is ok.

Jack the car up so that both fron wheelsa are (just) of the ground.
Make sure the car is well supported and the rear wheels chocked.
TBox and Gearbox in neutral.

get under the front of the car and get a second person ts shake the front wheels at the 3/9 o'clock positions.
Watch/hold the steeing arm and see if you can see/feel any movement.
Get your helper to get in the drivers seat and turn the wheel as if going round a cone in the road.

Check the steering arms and rod ends whilst verything is moving. From the drop arm to the passenger wheel hub and then from the passenger wheel back to the drivers wheel hub. One of these will have some play which will cause a steering wobble.

raabythomsen said:

As mentioned in the headline, my 1989 defender has a strange thing where it out of know where starts to wobble from the steering wheel. It starts during normal driving and at various speeds and will do it sometimes for 2 seconds and sometimes 20. It will do it a few times during the same drive and then not happen for a week. No pattern and it will not do it on the same roads or the same speed as when it did it the last time.

Any clues?
Cheers

Click to expand...

Could be many things. If the wheels are not new and haven’t changed. It probably isn’t them. I’d guess phasing of the tyres. Ie both being in a matched position is the cause of it being intermittent.

Drop arm ball joint would be the first thing I’d change. If you get someone to rock the steering back and forth, engine off you can lay under and look, listen and feel for any clonks.

IMO unlikely to be steering damper as you can take those off and drive without them. Other ball joints and panhard rod bushes could be culprits too.

Have someone turn steering wheel left to right while you look for play in front steering components
My money's on panhard rod bushes ,it takes very little play in bushes to allow front axle to move side to side