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What an experience!!

S

southernrebel20

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Georgia
I believe I experienced death wobble today. I put 3" front springs in yesterday. Driving home today and was doing about 65mph when I hit a good bump and thing wobbled and for a second and I let of the gas and it stopped. I drove it a good 20 miles on the highway/city before that and nothing bad, a constant 50-70mph. No trouble after that bump either. I guess that bump set something off. I read many a post about this and figured I should replace the trac bar with an adjustable, and get the jeep aligned. Am I on the right track?
 
Perfectly! Don't forget to get the tires balanced, that took away the last little bit for me.
 
First thing to do is check the toe on the tires, there are some write ups here on NAXJA that will show you how to do it.
 
Lol if all you had to do was let off the gas you're lucky! Last time I got death wobble going 65 I almost hit the jersey wall. I usually have to jam on the brakes until I get below 20 before the wobbles stop.

Like said I would check the essentials first. Do a driveway alignment, check your balljoints, tierod ends, control arm bushings etc. Looks like you're on the right track though.
 
At 3" of lift your caster will be off if you have stock control arms. If the caster is not right a simple alignment won't cure death wobble.You can shim the lcas at the frame end like they do from the factory, there's no need for new control arms if you do it this way. Gojeep the Aussie did a nice writeup on this a while back. Of course check all the previously mentioned parts, they will all contribute to d/w.
 
new control arms should be coming in this coming week, would these put the axle back to were it needs to go? I measured from the middle of wheel to front on both sides and there was only a 1/16th difference from side to side. So maybe the stock control arms are pulling the axle back towards the rear and I need longer ones to compensate for the lift height?
 
Yes, that is what happens, but you can use the factory shims for up to about 3 1/2" of lift. Evidently you have adjustable control arms on the way & that's definately the way to go. I have fixed Rancho lcas for 3" of lift & when I went another 3/4" with a spacer, I had to shim 1/8" to fix the caster.
 
Check make sure nothing is loose or worn.
Tow it out 1/8 in, even with the same setup I bet you never feel it again...
 
So I don't even need new lca's? Just shim the factory ones? I'm going to check my toe today. I've read that the xj's with the 242 T-case should be at 0 toe meaning they should have the same measurement front inside of tire to other side and back inside of tire to other side. Is this correct? Also if shimming will work, is there a size shim to use for a 3" lift (approximate will work) or will it be different for every jeep?
 
If you drive in full time set the toe at 0" I only use my full time in snow or off road so I set mine at 1/8" just like my rig with a 231. For shims use one of the adjustable control arm charts & shim accordingly. I think 1/8" works for 3" of lift. I went to a wrecking yard & robbed the shims from a half dozen XJs. They come in several thickness' just like old GM control arm shims. some rigs just have a couple of thin ones & others have a thick stack. XJs weren't built to very high tolerances. These shims are unique to XJ & MJs, don't try to use something else. Just loosen the nuts at the back of the lca brackets & the shims fall out. Some are up to 1/8" thick.
 
cherokee chuck said:
At 3" of lift your caster will be off if you have stock control arms. If the caster is not right a simple alignment won't cure death wobble.You can shim the lcas at the frame end like they do from the factory, there's no need for new control arms if you do it this way. Gojeep the Aussie did a nice writeup on this a while back. Of course check all the previously mentioned parts, they will all contribute to d/w.
Click to expand...

This was the cause of my death wobble at about 4" with stock lca's. Fixed skyjacker lca's for a 3" lift cured it at the time by correcting the caster.
 
For the LCA's i'm gonna try the shim idea. I'll hold off on the adjustable LCA's. Looks like about an 1/8 will work. I measured my toe adjustment today and in front of axle from tire to tire is 49.25" and in back of axle from tire to tire is 49.75". So am I toed in like this \---/ a 1/2"! That along with my caster being out sounds like the problem. So set toe to 1/8" out meaning tires slightly like this /---\ ?
 
Ive never understood the 231/242 thing,how does the axle Know the difference?Anyways, the larger the tire is the less toe required.Shops and books work off factory specs.
 
No toe in means / \, out means \ /, I believe you want 0 toe in or 1/8" toe in max. Not sure what 99xj4X4 meant but I dont think he meant toe out
 
RCP Phx said:
Ive never understood the 231/242 thing,how does the axle Know the difference?Anyways, the larger the tire is the less toe required.Shops and books work off factory specs.
Click to expand...
I agree, but evidently if you have full time 4wd you need 0 Toe, not just Jeeps but all full timers. I read this in a tech column in an off road magazine explaining diy alignments, but as previously mentioned I don't use full time on dry pavement & neither does anyone else I know with a 242. It sure is nice to have when the roads have patchy ice though.
 
So I fixed the track bar issue today. The axle needed to be moved 10.5 32nds towards the passenger side. I haven't driven it yet to test it out. Will shim lca's this week. I'll post tomorrow when i get the chance to test out what the track bar adjustment did.
 
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