Please help "Death Wobble"

Hello all,

Im new to the forum, but based on what I've read so far, I know that if you all can't help me find the problem than I just might as well get rid of the xj. Here it goes... I've got a 91 xj with 6" lift. The lift is made up of
skyjacker springs,
Rusty's control arms,(upper adjustable, lower fixed)
Skyjacker droped pitman arm,
skyjacker adjustable trackbar,with steerig stabilizer,
rusty's shocks,
home made sway bar disconnects(extended)
the rear is as follows...
Rear springs w/ AAL
3" block
2" shackle
custom drive shaft
t-case drop bracket/washer.
I'm running 33" big O tires on Steel chrome rims.

After a offroad trip the track bar got loose and I experienced my first death wobble at 70 mph. I tried having the vehicle aligned but it didnt do any good, in fact at 7* caster its very loose, im running approx 2-0 right now with little success. the tires were balanced the upper control arms changed, the steering lincages changed, the shocks changed, the pitman arm put in, the whole lift is about 6 months old. I can't find the problem, and neither can anyone else. Please help.

Ok, the thing you have to realize is that when the Death Wobbles come knockin' it's because something is loose, worn or flexing. First thing you need to do is crawl under that rig of yours and tighten up everything- rod end connectors for your drag link, tie rod and track bar, then the tower the track bar connects to, steering box bolts, control arm mounting bolts- everything! Make sure the rear suspension bolts are all torqued correctly and correctly inflate the tires. Then set your toe to be parallel or maybe a tad toed in. Set your castor to I think 5-7 degrees (don't recall the ideal angle). Before test driving REMOVE the steering stabilizer. Having it installed will dampen a small amount of DWs but that will only mask the problem and it will continue getting worse and accelerate parts wear. It's best to dial out DW problems before installing the mostly useless steering stabilizer.

Once you tighten everything up have a buddy work the steering wheel back & forth and check for even the smallest sign of unwanted movement on all the ball joints, mounting points and so on. If you have the stock steering linkage it might be flexing and it's time to upgrade. Don't count on the flexing to become apparent during the stering wheel wiggling test. Another source of DWs are worn/too soft control arm bushings

Thanks for the reply...
You mentioned..soft bushings. I've got stock bushings and thought about upgrading to urethane ones, the reason is because once i got under the rig and had it driven towards me to check the moving parts I saw some tip-in movement on the axle housing when the brakes where tapped. I thought it was a little execive but I didn't think that it was a issue that could effect the wobble the way it is. What do you think?

Now, another thing that I noticed once I had the wheel balanced is that on one of the wheel the tech put about 7 oz of weight, I didn't think anything of it since he said that they were balanced, but a friend of mine said that's just too much... Opinions?

Try tightening things up before replacing the bushings- unless you've been re-using the old bushings. If you suspect the tire, try using one of the other tires. Large tires can sometimes be hard to balance

I forget where it is, should be a link to tech write-ups somewhere....

eagle ( i think it was eagle) wrote an excellent article on this subject.

and remember, its not death wobble unless you shit your pants.

If it's outa control, it's DW regardless of bowel discipline!

Well, at 70 mph with a 30000 lbs. Petebuilt diesel behind me, the shitting the pants insident did occur, I just dind't want to seem like a cry baby.

But if anyone can set me up with some links I would really appreciate it. I've read many already but it would not hurt to read more. Hell, maybe after this ordeal is over i can write up my own. (though I shouldn't count my chickens before they hatch)

this is what worked for me (i get tired of carrying extra boxers);

i tried everything, including running close to 2 degrees caster. the only thing that stopped it was the RE drop control arm brackets with the supports.

because of the ca angles at 4.5" plus of lift (really kicks in at 6"s), you allow your suspension to do some pretty crazy things. installing the drop brackets, or going to a long arm set-up, will solve it for good.

i've been death wobble free for almost two years. i've had lifts from 3"s up to 10"s. right now i'm at 7. once i installed the drop brackets, the dw was gone. i've had loose track-bar, bad ballances on tires, worn tires, bad steering stabilizer, and all of these things didn't cause the xj to dw. before installing the re drop brackets, any one of these things would have caused it.

the brackets are worth the price and pita to install.

Greddy

As a DW veteran, I dunno where this crapping of pants comes in... Mine (@4.75")would hit solid DW at moderate acceleration @ 45 mph. 44 mph was fine, LOL after a new stabilizer & bolt (which didn't help-only mask) I found I could nail the fun pedal in 3rd gear up through it & shift to 4th at about 50 and it would cadillac as long as I kept the speed up. 44 and below was fine, but for road speed, I'd drop to 3rd and nail it...kinda felt like Chuck Yeager goin supersonic but it was all good fun.

After a few days of this new adventure, my LF wheel fell off and I didn't crap my pants then either...had to put both hands on the wheel for a moment and spilled my morning coffee, but that led to some fixin! New adjustable TB, new steering & TREs, set toe in at 1/8" in and it was all OK.

Recently went through same BS last weekend...no DW since I kept it under 40, but it was there waiting to pull out the reaper and hook me...

I will say that I've found wider-heavier wheels/tires (8" @ 4" BS - 33x12.5) to be a whole lot more forgiving than skinny (OEM 7" @ 5.25?" - 31" and 33"x9.5) It may be that the larger meats have a similar effect as a stabilizer-counteracting forces that the skinnies amplify? I :dunno: but I don't want to be a test-dummy for that.

I also am interested in the drop-bracket advice since I am now at 6" and my angles are bad.