steering stabilizers

i just lifted my 94 bronco 6" and put it on 35" bfg mug Terrains. i only got a single steering stabilizer. now when my passenger side front tire hits a bump between 20-40mph i get a nasty "speed wobble" is this because i need to get a duel steering stabilizer, or dose this sound like it has to do with the suspension on that wheel??

We need more info. What kind of lift ? At 6" I'm assuming it's a suspension lift but what all did you install ? If you just threw a couple coils in front and a pair of blocks in back then yes, you have a problem but nobody can tell you because we don't know what-all componants you installed with the lift. Drop brackets, bushings, adjustable bars. Stuff like that. Without knowing any more than what you told us I'd guess that what you're experiencing is bump steer. Installing a double or triple steering stabilizer will help hide the effects but really won't do anything to correct them. Is it a lift by a reputable manufacturer and did you install any of the "optional" or "recommended" componants ? Are the tires new & recently balanced or are they maybe used or worn in a certain pattern ? More info would help narrow it down.

dsgb9840 said:

i just lifted my 94 bronco 6" and put it on 35" bfg mug Terrains. i only got a single steering stabilizer. now when my passenger side front tire hits a bump between 20-40mph i get a nasty "speed wobble" is this because i need to get a duel steering stabilizer, or dose this sound like it has to do with the suspension on that wheel??

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6" suspension rough country, new shocks, springs, add a leaf in rear with blocks, new pitman arm, and other expected hardware. kept the IFS so the brackets that come to drop the front suspension. its a kit i bought off of ebay. had two people that have put on lift help me. put new rotors and calpaers. had a 4 wheel alignment done. brad new rims with brad new BFG's. i did it all right rebuilt the trans too. almost every ting under the car is new now, nothing used.

ps have to run to work...thanks for the help so far, i hope i can figure this out with ya,ll help, ive never had a problem like this so i have no idea of what could cause it? ill take some pics of under the car. after work

After driving for a bit did you go back and re-torque all the hardware? I've heard that's something that should be done after the fist X amount of miles and again periodicly. Just my $.02

Is this a very specific & repeatable thing that keeps happening or is it more of a generalized feeling tha the truck isn't tracking straight ? I only ask because we need info. As I was thinking about it I meant to ask if this is your first lifted truck ? What comes to mind is that a lot of guys are a little surprised & take some time to get used to how the truck runs w/large tires. Large tires w/agressive tread patterns have a real tendency to follow the ruts and bumps in the road. You generally don't feel or notice it in a car but large semi-trucks usually wear down the edges of the lane leaving a crown in the center. Big tires like to follow these and bias-ply tires are notorious for doing this. I'm thinking that if you've had a 4-wheel alignment done then any reputable shop would have pointed out anything that was grossly out of whack or just plain screwed up. If everything's right & tight then I think it's more an issue of you're still being in the midddle of a learning curve and just not used to the way a lifted, big-tire truck rides. It's been my experience that the IFS trucks are always a little more twitchy then the solid-axles once they get lifted more than 4" or so. I've gone through this myself with checking & rechecking and making sure I had every possible drop bracket or adjustable trac-bar or whatever and having alignment after alignment done and then just finally deciding that this is just the way the truck drives with this lift & these tires. Do you by chance have any friends with similar rigs ? What helped me a lot was being able to switch tires with two other guys with big Fords and finally having that light-bulb-moment when I realized the truck drove a little different on each set of tires. Ground Hawgs rode diffrently from Super Swampers which rode differently from BFG All-Terrains and there were also certain parts of the roadway in places around the city that would always grab the tires and make the truck want to go off on it's own, once I started keeping track of where I was in the city when it ****** to the left or right I started to understand that the roadway was worn in a unique way right there and it had a way of making the tires wander. I think the college guys call that an epiphany, either way, If you have everything you're supposed to have and the alignment shop didn't throw any flags I'd keep an eye on it and try to get used to it. If you have a 4x4 shop in town it probably wouldn't be a waste of your time to stop on by and ask them to take a look at it for you.

dsgb9840 said:

6" suspension rough country, new shocks, springs, add a leaf in rear with blocks, new pitman arm, and other expected hardware. kept the IFS so the brackets that come to drop the front suspension. its a kit i bought off of ebay. had two people that have put on lift help me. put new rotors and calpaers. had a 4 wheel alignment done. brad new rims with brad new BFG's. i did it all right rebuilt the trans too. almost every ting under the car is new now, nothing used.
ps have to run to work...thanks for the help so far, i hope i can figure this out with ya,ll help, ive never had a problem like this so i have no idea of what could cause it? ill take some pics of under the car. after work /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

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it has happened a couple of times maybe 5 times this week. i have all the readouts for that camber, caster, and toe and all checked out. it rides strait, no pulling or pushing. to say it's a "speed wobble" is just the best description i have for it. when im at about 30mph when the passenger tire hits a bump (the only way it will start) the wheels and steering wheel turn left about 1/8th of a turn then right, then left,etc its almost uncontrollable and it will not stop until i stop completely. if u have ever ridden a skate board to fast u know what i kinda mean. i have driven big trucks before and my friend used to have my same truck, bronco 6" lift 35" tires and ive driven that before to.

i have worked in a race shop on corvettes for 2 years, built my desktop from scratch, can do a motor swap in one day...in other words i can turn a wrench. im no noob to cars and working on them. this is not something normal at all, if it was people would die. i cant find any slack in the steering or anything. also the place that did my alignment also changed my wheel bearings and put new rotors and calipers they spent 9 hours working on it and didn't find any thing, as far as i know.

there is no getting used to this, if this happened on the highway, it would flip my car, its that bad.

here is some pics of the under side

im kinda picking up from ya'll that this is not a common problem 1 step forwar, 2 steps back ) still love my Bronco tho

i do have a 4X4 shop and was just hoping that this was an easy fix.......im used to working on low and fast not, big and bad ass thanks for all the help....wish i had easier questions for ya'll

Ahhh. I understand *completely*, I've had this EXACT same problem. Problem is I can't tell you how to fix it on yours. One of my 78/79's did this. It was fine around town at speeds under 30-40 but when I got up on the highway it would drive perfectly until I hit a bump & then the front end would shake viscously & the wheel would whipsaw back & forth. Once it started there was no way to stop it short of completely stopping the truck, slowing down didn't help. Is this what YOUR truck is doing ?

When it happened to me it was in a solid axle truck and the problem turned out to be the track-rod. It was pulling so hard that it actually sucked the bolt head *and the washer* thru the bolt hole in the frame and once it did that it allowed the frame-mount for the track-rod to pivot on the lower mounting bolt (the one in shock-mount) and that's what setup the whole see-saw thing. It scared me enough that I didn't **** around with it at all, I got an adjustable track-bar (K-bar-S I think or one of the Bronco vendors) and a new track-rod drop-down bracket. When I repaired the mounting point in the frame I welded a piece of thickwall pipe between the boltholes on the inside of the boxed frame to prevent the frame walls from distorting or bending inwards when the bolt was torqued down or when 4-wheeling and it also guaranteed that the new bolt & washer wouldn't punch thru the frame sidewall like the original one did. I then fabbed a large backing plate that went on to distribute the stress from the washer & bolt-head. On the 78/79 one of the quad-shock mounts is also used as an attachment point for the track-rod bracket and the bracket had been pivoting so badly that it had bent the shaft of the shock in that mount & I had to replace that as well.

To be honest with you I just haven't screwed around with enough lifted TTB's to feel confident giving any sort of advise on this other than to tell you what happened in my case, what caused it & how I fixed it. I just went out now & looked at the front end of my 88' and it doesn't even *have* a track-rod so I'm guessing Ford did something different to positively locate the axle & frame. Since they're completely different front ends I'm not sure if my experience translates over to your problem but if it's doing the exact same thing then I'd at least guess that the root of the problem has something to do with the body/frame swaying above the axle and that feedback & motion are being fed thru the steering wheel as the springs try unsucessfully to absorb lateral oscillations.

dsgb9840 said:

it has happened a couple of times maybe 5 times this week. i have all the readouts for that camber, caster, and toe and all checked out. it rides strait, no pulling or pushing. to say it's a "speed wobble" is just the best description i have for it. when im at about 30mph when the passenger tire hits a bump (the only way it will start) the wheels and steering wheel turn left about 1/8th of a turn then right, then left,etc its almost uncontrollable and it will not stop until i stop completely. if u have ever ridden a skate board to fast u know what i kinda mean. i have driven big trucks before and my friend used to have my same truck, bronco 6" lift 35" tires and ive driven that before to.
i have worked in a race shop on corvettes for 2 years, built my desktop from scratch, can do a motor swap in one day...in other words i can turn a wrench. im no noob to cars and working on them. this is not something normal at all, if it was people would die. i cant find any slack in the steering or anything. also the place that did my alignment also changed my wheel bearings and put new rotors and calipers they spent 9 hours working on it and didn't find any thing, as far as i know.

there is no getting used to this, if this happened on the highway, it would flip my car, its that bad.

here is some pics of the under side

im kinda picking up from ya'll that this is not a common problem /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> 1 step forwar, 2 steps back ) still love my Bronco tho

i do have a 4X4 shop and was just hoping that this was an easy fix.......im used to working on low and fast not, big and bad ass /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> thanks for all the help....wish i had easier questions for ya'll

Click to expand...

yup thats it...except im not brave enough to test highway speeds /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />. thanks atleast now i have a place to start looking. thanks a lot /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />