Death Wobble (or Bashing My Head Into a Wall)

I know death wobble has been beat to death and I've read everything I can find on the situation but I thought I'd see if anybody had any insight into my particular situation.

A few months back I was fighting a nasty pop/clunk coming from the front suspension when turning the steering wheel. I finally broke down and replaced all of the steering components under the front end. I dropped the front axle and inspected all of the LCA and UCA bushings. After running through all the "might be's" I discovered a crack on the frame at the steering box. Some quality time with the welder and a reinforcement plate from C-ROK seems to have fixed that issue.

Now however I've got a serious case of death wobble. I've gone through all the articles and posts regarding death wobble and it seems like I've already replaced most of the parts that would be a cause. I've checked the ball joints with every method I know and they seem fine. I've gotten an alignment and had the tires balanced. Every bolt under the truck is torqued to spec.

Problem didn't exist till I did all the work to fix the other problem, so I introduced something into the equation that my XJ isn't happy with. I don't think this is just a coincidence, but I'm lost as to what it could be.

Help.........




Replaced
-------------------------------------

Trackbar
Drag Link
All tie rod ends
shocks
steering stabilizer
u-joints

Inspected
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LCA bushings
UCA bushings (including axle side)
Ball joints

Added
-------------------------------------
Steering box reinforcement plate from C-ROK


All of this on a '91 XJ

check the panhard bar axle mount. tight the crap out of it

I've got a year warranty on the alignment I had done. I didn't keep the printout. I'll go back and get another copy of it. I do remember that the numbers were well within spec.

How much lift?
Stock track bar or aftermarket?
Stock control arms?

No lift.
Stock Trackbar.
Stock control arms.

This is a bone stock truck.......

menos said:

I've got a year warranty on the alignment I had done. I didn't keep the printout. I'll go back and get another copy of it. I do remember that the numbers were well within spec.

Click to expand...

If you replaced or repaired front end component's, it may not be same.

The alignment was post replacement.

Lift the a front tire (one at a time) and try wiggling the tire left to right and top to bottom to see if the wheel bearings are bad. Also, grab hold of the front shocks by hand and see if they wiggle.

One time I had a rubber shock bushing pull through its mounting location and cause death wobble. It was a really cheap fix!

i went through all th same issues and was rather annoyed myself, start jeep in parking lot n have someone crank ur steering wheel back n forth while your watching your steering components for slop. my problem was a lower track bar bushing

worn out tires causes this too

A few months back I replaced the ball joints that I thought were good cause I still had some minor DW along a few spots on the road here (mostly induced by crappy road), however my 88 really need it. It handles better now than my stock 95 that has no offroad time. My 88 is on 33's with 6.5" lift for a prespective. Once I removed the knuckles I knew I had a bad lower on one side and the others were ok, but dry. Hey does anyone know why the uppers are so rigid?

As was stated, your axle side panhard bar (track bar) mount - check to see if the hole in the mount has ovaled/wallowed out. if so, it will allow some side to side play in your tracking.

Any particular speed/conditions where you have this DW?

Last night I was doing some more diagnostics and noticed that the trackbar was shifting by about 1/8" at the frame mount. I went ahead and replaced the trackbar. While doing so I noticed that the hole on the axle side trackbar mount is in fact wallowed out. I'll be doing this when I get a few minutes this weekend. Hopefully this will take care of the situation.

/fingers crossed......

menos said:

I noticed that the hole on the axle side trackbar mount is in fact wallowed out.

Click to expand...

While reading the replies, I was leaning more and more to this being either your remaining problem or probably a fact.

If after you correct you TB axle mount you still have an issue, rotate your tires and see what change (if any) that makes. Your balance job may not have been all that great (true for alignment as well). This can drill into whether your tires/rims are a contributing factor in your DW.

Hope this helps.

I have experienced (2) XJ's with Death Wobble and gone through alot of the same issues as you! I am not certain what year you are playing with?? but all years are suspect to this... Chrysler did have a few years around 1998-2000 where the durometer of the control arm bushings were alot of the problem, from a visual inspect they apear fine.
Tires seam to set this off more than anything. Alot of alignment shops will set your alignement and tell you that its good..WRONG.. get a print out.. Alignment can be all in the grean (as good) but be way off. XJ's lack caster, thats another big issue....
On my 2000 XJ I went with a 3" inch lift so by all means I needed slightly longer control arms to increase the caster with the lift. My first suggestion is to make sure you have evenly worn tires on the front.. Verify alignment specs with someone who truley knows alignments...
Third would be to replace the lower control arms... I worked on an XJ 1998 that had this and order control arms through 4WD hardware and they were good units, stock parts but took care of the issue.. If you are planning on lifting the jeep, order a kit that comes with the control arms with them, just make sure they are longer to compensate for the lift and adjust caster as positive as possible...
Finally check all the front end parts, verify that the track bar is tight, have someone work the wheel off the locks and watch for movement, again verify all components are good and tight. Absoluetely you MUST add a GOOD QUALITY from shimmy shock. I purchased a Rancho and have been very happy. I used a BTS on my 1993 and they was good too..
Just a tip ...if you order control arms from the dealer, ask them to look up a XJ BUX..Built Up Export.. On these jeeps they used a different material..(different supplier) and did not exhibit the issues as the United States Vehicle. Chrysler issues a TSB (sorry cant remember the # off hand) and all they did is include the p/n's of the BUX parts..
Remeber alignemnts.. Caster must be positve, the more the better, but must be equal...
NOt sure if I forgot anything..but I hope this helps.. I know what your going through, its tough, but you caj fix it.. be positive and you will get it..

Mark

When you check for play in steering components use your hands not just your eyes.
My control arm bushings looked "OK", I've replaced Track bar with KOR TB Conv., Helped a lot. Poly control arm bushings have been my fix and I still need to do passenger UCA bushings

Update-

I performed the fix I linked to above. I ended up using 1/4" plate. A 3/8" hole was just a little too small for the bolt to fit, so I had to bore it out by about a 64th or so.

Since doing this and the new trackbar (a MOOG this time) I haven't had any DW.

Hopefully this is it and I don't have to keep tearing into this thing.

Pardon the resurrection but I thought I'd update my situation.

I ended up still having DW even after the above fix. I jumped up to 31's on a 4" lift and it made it even worse. I was down to the ball joints or the LCA bushings having replaced almost everything else. I pulled the bushings and they still didn't look too bad but I replaced them anyway.

I have now been DW free for 4 weeks. I don't know why I didn't do this earlier. Oh well, lesson learned. Even if the LCA bushings 'look good' changed em anyway. It's cheap enough and takes about 30 minutes.

I was getting slight DW on my 97 with a 2" BB lift at around 70mph either after hitting a small bump or at a curve to the left.
Went wheelin this weekend and aired down from 35 to 25 on the trail. Decided to air back up at home so on the drive back noticed the DW got much worse on the freeway to where I had to put on the brakes to stop it and stay below 65mph.
There is a write up on "driveway alignment" on here so I checked it and noticed I had about 1/8th toe in. Adjusted it to zero and went to 32psi in the tires and didnt have DW this morning on the way to work.
I also had my son turn the wheel back and forth while I looked under and noticed a slight movement of the trackbar at the axle and pretty large movement at the drivers side LCA at the axle. Need to replace the LCA bushings.