extremely bad steering shake jusdder

This site contains affiliate links for which LandyZone may be compensated if you make a purchase.
M

marty_b

Active Member
Posts
166
Location
sandwich kent
I went off road and broke my steering damper. Fitted a new heavy duty one. Drove for first time last night and coming down dual carrage way my steering/front end started to vibrate and judder really bad opened one side of my bonnet. Slowed right down and stopped then continued my journey it didnt do it again for about 6 miles then it happened again happens more over 65/70mph and its more stiffer/shakey over bumps any ideas?
 
marty_b said:
I went off road and broke my steering damper. Fitted a new heavy duty one. Drove for first time last night and coming down dual carrage way my steering/front end started to vibrate and judder really bad opened one side of my bonnet. Slowed right down and stopped then continued my journey it didnt do it again for about 6 miles then it happened again happens more over 65/70mph and its more stiffer/shakey over bumps any ideas?
Click to expand...


Soooo tempted to say go and film it and post it on here BUT FFS :eek: :eek: :eek:


Sumat else is broken I'd say ;)
 
I fully compressed the damper 6 times before fitting 4 times slow and 2 fast. Cant see no bent rods. Driver swivel joint looks very leaky though. It wasnt doing it before I fuddered the old damper
 
It's called death wobble and is very common.

Tighten your swivel balls, that's the best solution.

LR steering dampers are probably tuned to the correct frequency whereas aftermarkets may not be.

Mine does it completely randomly and has done for years throughout numerous setups.

Tight swivels works best :)
 
Death wobble is one of the many joys of coil sprung Landys. Most often it is due to bad panhard rod bushings and improper swivel pin tension, but can be the result of a combination of things like worn dampers, weird tyre wear, a worn out steering box and bad ball joints. When mine went south, it turned out to be a combo of problems.

Check the panhard bushes for play. There should be none. Give your cross rod and drag link a shake to see if there is any slop in any of the ball joints, or have somebody give the wheel some back and forth action while you are under the beast and and look and listen for play. With the front of the car on stands, check for play in your wheel bearings and swivel. Grab the tyre at 9 oclock and 3 oclock and see if you can feel play when you give it a back and forth. Then grab it at 12 and 6 and give it a shake. If you feel slop in both positions then you have wheel bearing issues, but if you feel slop at the top and bottom the you most likely have swivel pin issues. To fix that you need to remove some shims on the upper swivel pins (if there are any left).

A steering damper replacement alone will not solve the problem if you have the other problems.
 
marty_b said:
I fully compressed the damper 6 times before fitting 4 times slow and 2 fast. Cant see no bent rods. Driver swivel joint looks very leaky though. It wasnt doing it before I fuddered the old damper
Click to expand...
When swivel pins are loose they can allow stuff to dribble out. In fact, when and if you increase the tension on the pins by removing shims, put a container under the ball because as the tension is released on the pin, it oozes.
 
Hey WSR

Mostly mine is fine and in fact drove to wales just great last weekend with no trouble.

Pretty much immediately after a couple of easy lanes it developed wobble at 40-45mph

this lasted all day!

I am meticulous with my car and it has no play because on -50mm offset wheels the wobble has always been prevalent and powerful.

It had some new balls joints just months ago, the others are perfect, new adjustable panhard rod with rose joint last year, steering damper has done around 1000 miles (mainly offroad) etc etc and yet i was still having trouble

finally narrowed it down to panhard rod bolts that were worn and giving slop so i fitted new ones and this improved things generally.

when the death wobble returned last weekend i was surprised but overall just thought 'meh' and will deal with it, no doubt it will go away as suddenly as it arrived! :D
 
right everything looks good but i think i have found a mixturre of 2 things 1: drivers side i have play in the swivel and passenger side the swivel has no play but the wheel and brake disc have play so could it be swivel bearings drivers side and wheel bearing passenger side perhaps here is a crap vid of swivel and wheel bearing??




 
planning both swivel bearing and wheel bearings this weekend. as i have new brake discs waiting to go on as well. is there any guides how to do them never done them before
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

B
Intermittent steering shake
Replies
6
Views
1K
tilly2
T
R
Brakes having an episode 🤦🏼‍♀️
Replies
10
Views
711
Datatek
Datatek
D
Steve's Land Raft
4 5 6
Replies
103
Views
7K
Dauphproto
D
Naf623
Disco 2 Road feedback in steering wheel; how much is normal, what to go check?
Replies
13
Views
2K
Naf623
Naf623
R
Freelander TD4 starting problems
Replies
8
Views
1K
Nodge68
Nodge68
Back
Top