Shake of death or death wobble need some help

UPDATE fix at bottom
95 crew cab 123k with 5/7 drop using belltech spindles.

About a year ago I would get a shake in the front end every now and then when I hit a bump in the road. It got worse so I searched the forum and saw a post to replace the pitman & idler arm. I had every socket except the 1 5/16 for the pitman. So I swapped the idler and all was good for almost a year then it slowly came back. I finally swapped the pitman arm 4 months ago and it was fine again for a few weeks and slowly returned. I bought a new center link, but have not installed it yet because it wasn't that bad. This week is the worst it has ever been and I am wondering if I should get another idler arm when I replace the center link or is there something else it could be. When it shakes now (last couple of days) the whole front of the truck feels like it's going to fall off. This only happens at slower speeds around 20-35mph and I have to slow it down under 20mph to stop it.


Thanks for any help.

I am pretty sure the shaking you are experiencing while hitting bumps is bump steer which is common on lowered trucks and caused premature wear on all of your steering components.

Idler arm, pitman arm, tie rods, ball joints, bushings, and sometimes the steering boxes can be effected by this.

Check the idler arm and make sure that the holes in the frame are not being stressed or oblonged. This is sometimes a problem with chevy frames.

Last year I had the exact same problem with my truck. Would drive just fine from a dead stop to 60 or so. But as soon as I hit a bump, the entire front end would shake violently, to the point where I had to slow way down before it would stop shaking. My problem was the front shock mounts. They were mounted at a huge angle and one of the mounts was cracking. I remounted the top shock mounts and it has been fine for over a year now. Just a thought.

Thanks for the info. Just had a friend come over and give me a hand. Either the new pitman arm is bad or the splines on the steering box are bad (or both). I'll pull it later and figure it out.

Thanks!

If the splines are bad it would slip and you wouldn't have any steering wether or not you had hit a bump or not I would think.

I AM HAVING THE SAME PROBLEM. IF I AM ROLLING LOW AND HIT A BUMP IT SHAKES UNCONTROLLABLY. IF I RAISE THE FRONT END 2" THE SHAKE GOES AWAY IMMEDIATELY. ANY HELP WOULD BE GREAT.

def need to change the tie rods..... they wear out fast and you will get a shake sometimes that will almost take the steering wheel outta your hands too...

Im having the same issues as Klez is same truck. 5/7 drop. ive changed the steering box, pitman arm, ball joints , and just had an alignment. i cant seem to figure it out. i have looked at all the steering components and the only thing i can see that has any sort of "play" in it is the steering rag joint.

So i parked my truck for so long the hose to the fuel pump hose rotted off. I put a new pump in it and got it running again. I went through all the steering, suspension, tires and lastly found bad front bearings. Which then lead me to warped rotors. I used a $50 off coupon at Advance Auto and got a pair loaded rotors (IE new races) and pads for around $170 out the door with tax. That was the fix, sorry for the late update. BTW I will never knock out the races on the dually front rotors again, it's worth the money to just buy new rotors.

Mine was occasionally having the same issue and lucky I had just painted my stock wheels and noticed on big bumps or sharp turns my lower control arm was hitting and moving wheel weight. shit had me petrified to drive over 40 till i figured it out