Land Rover Repair: 96 RR 50 - 55 mph Violent shake, 19 inch rims, tie rod ends

Question
When driving down the road if I ease into 50mph a violent shake will happen in the front end and sterring wheel will go crazy also at low speeds when going over a bump or pot hole you can feel a loose feeling in the font end.  I have 2002 rr 19 inch rims on it with the hub centric rings.  I have replaced the steering damper.  I am about to change the drag link and tie rod ends.  Ive heard to check out the ball joints also.  What so you think?

Answer
Hi Adam,
check out the shocks on your RR.  I had the same problem with my Disco - it was terrifying when it first happened.  I too thought it was the damper but since then I'm more convinced that it has to do with the way the front end is designed.  

I eventually had to replace the ball joints, draglink and tie rods as well as the shocks.  Like you, I started by changing the damper to stop the shakes...a few months later it came back.  I then thought to have a wheel alignment done - just to see what it would reveal.  Wheel alignment could not be successfully performed because of a ball joint problems.  Did that and then wheel alignment (electronic) indicated another possible problem, so I changed out the drag link and tie rods.  I combined that work with new shocks because I noted they were originals and I had over 200,000kms on the vehicle.   Problem solved and no bad vibrations for the past 4 years. (knock on wood).

So...check your shocks. If they are originals, have them inspected.  Get a wheel alignment done to see if it reveals problems within the front end.  Could be a combo problem - shocks and ...ball joints?...

Best of luck,
JohnMc