The Ford Barn - View Single Post - '49 F-1 steering death shake at speed

Tim Ayers · 10-09-2012, 08:40 AM

Please excuse if this has been covered before, but with Hershey coming up I'd like to be on the search for some parts to fix this issue.

My dad's '49 F-1 sometime get the death shake at speed after hitting a bump.
By death shake I mean, if you hit a bump at any speed over 45 mph, the wheel will shake back and forth uncontrollably until you slow down or apply the brakes.

After slowing down to approx. 25 mph or below, the shake stops.

Here is what has been done to the front end:

1) new king pins with correctly reamed bushings
2) new springs and cups in the drag link
3) new front leaf springs
** Funny, one of the leaf springs was broken and it never did it until we changed them.

Any thoughts or input welcomes for it can be a handful and quite scary to drive when it happens. I'm also afraid something is going to break loose when this happens and the truck will crash or hurt someone else.

10-09-2012, 08:40 AM	#1
Tim Ayers Senior Member Join Date: May 2010 Location: NJ Posts: 6,198	'49 F-1 steering death shake at speed Please excuse if this has been covered before, but with Hershey coming up I'd like to be on the search for some parts to fix this issue. My dad's '49 F-1 sometime get the death shake at speed after hitting a bump. By death shake I mean, if you hit a bump at any speed over 45 mph, the wheel will shake back and forth uncontrollably until you slow down or apply the brakes. After slowing down to approx. 25 mph or below, the shake stops. Here is what has been done to the front end: 1) new king pins with correctly reamed bushings 2) new springs and cups in the drag link 3) new front leaf springs ** Funny, one of the leaf springs was broken and it never did it until we changed them. Any thoughts or input welcomes for it can be a handful and quite scary to drive when it happens. I'm also afraid something is going to break loose when this happens and the truck will crash or hurt someone else.