Ford Superduty Death Wobble fix

^The locker button on fords is for the optional rear axle locker. If that’s what you’re referring to.
Still interested what caused the axle shafts, inner or outer, to need replacing and the hubs. Or are you possibly referring to different parts?

In 30 years of owning a dozen or more solid axle trucks, repairing a fleet that was used for snow plowing and being around, driving or responsible for likely 100s more solid axle trucks, I can think of 0 times that I replaced or seen a front axle shaft replaced.

Yes this is where is was going as well. The Super Duty's have lockers on the front hubs that allow you to disconnect the front axles so they don't turn while driving. Perhaps you have yours locked in manual mode and they're constantly turning while driving even while your in 2 wheel drive.

Just went out and looked, the hubs are in auto at the three o'clock position. I have never operated the manual hubs before today when rotated one to locked just to be certain it really was in auto. Turned a lot easier than I recall a friends old Bronco did.

This truck does have lockers which I almost never use and there are warnings on the dash display if the locker is engaged.

^Which also shouldn’t be cause for losing axle shafts unless the u joints ground into the yoke bores.

OP is it possible you drove continuously with the hubs locked in (not horrible and actually similar to other mfgs designs in recent years) for years on end with bad u joints until the whole mess shelled out?

agesilaus wrote:

Super Duty's have lockers on the front hubs that allow you to disconnect the front axles

You mean the knobs on the outside hub of the front axles, on new models they only engage the electronic locker they do not manually lock the axle from what I've been told. Is there some other way to lock the axles?

Yes the knobs on the outside hub on the front axles and yes the old and new Super Duty's lockers operate the same.

Your Super Duty lockers have two modes: Automatic and Manual on the hubs. To put into Automatic mode you turn the knob on the lockers clockwise until the arrow lines up to Automatic. You want to operate the truck with the lockers in Automatic mode. To put into Manual mode you turn the knob counter clockwise until the arrow lines up with Manual. Manual mode is a back up mode if the automatic mode fails to engage the front lockers (i.e. vacuum leak).

When in Automatic mode the lockers are disengaged until you turn the knob on the dash to 4Hi or 4Low. When this knob is in 2 Wheel drive mode the U-Joints and the front axle do not spin when the truck is moving which is the beauty of having front axle lockers.

When in Manual mode the lockers are engaged and the U-Joints and the front axle spin when the truck is moving. Because of this you typically don't want to operate in manual mode.

All Super Duty's including the newest ones have the same front lockers and the mode of operation is the same.

Super Duty's have lockers on the front hubs that allow you to disconnect the front axles

You mean the knobs on the outside hub of the front axles, on new models they only engage the electronic locker they do not manually lock the axle from what I've been told. Is there some other way to lock the axles?

Grit dog wrote:
Interesting diagnoses. Not that u-joints or unit bearings don’t need to be replaced periodically, but something doesn’t sound right. You front axle u joints and axle shafts should even be turning when in 2 wd and even a bad u joint wouldnt exhibit any driveability issues on a super duty in 2wd. Did you drive it with the hubs locked in forever?

Yes this is where is was going as well. The Super Duty's have lockers on the front hubs that allow you to disconnect the front axles so they don't turn while driving. Perhaps you have yours locked in manual mode and they're constantly turning while driving even while your in 2 wheel drive.

EYEMLOST wrote:

C Schomer wrote:
"Death wobble is a result of worn out/broken parts." Not true! Everything in my front end is new and I just had it aligned and tires balanced. 200 miles later, I got my first DW Friday when I hit a pothole. Craig

Some points:

1) What is YOUR definition of death wobble, then?

2) You say, "Not true!"
Please back up that claim so we all can learn.
Your point tells us nothing that re-enforces your claim.
I smell a huge assumption on your part.

3) Is literally EVERYTHING that affects your front suspension and steering system new?
IS THE RIG NEW???

You are not correct about only worn parts cause DW. I had a VW shop for years and if the dampener wore out it would wobble like crazy after hitting a pot hole. All other front end parts good. It was a common problem on bugs.

Interesting diagnoses. Not that u-joints or unit bearings don’t need to be replaced periodically, but something doesn’t sound right. You front axle u joints and axle shafts should even be turning when in 2 wd and even a bad u joint wouldnt exhibit any driveability issues on a super duty in 2wd. Did you drive it with the hubs locked in forever?

Yeah they said the U-Joint rubbed against the axle and caused them to fail. One of the Bilstein shocks was leaking fluid and there are two pages of parts replaced. I haven't gone thru them carefully.

And another problem coming up is the cab body mounts need replacing, this shop quoted $1400 but looking on YT the job seems straight forward and the new mounts are $140 for urethane or $229 for Kevlar. The major problem seems to be jacking up the cab, which I haven't figured out yet. Looks like you just remove one hard to turn bolt remove the old mount and replace with a new one. The $1400 seems to be a blue book or whatever they call it price since one of the guys on YT mentioned the same amount.

The mechanics say this is common Ford issue, the mounts are some junky material that you can flake off with your fingers.