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Death Wobble Thread

What was the cause of your death wobble?

  • Track Bar worn or loose

    Votes: 75 29.9%
  • Bad Hubs

    Votes: 11 4.4%
  • Tie Rod ends warn or loose (either drag link or Tie Rod)

    Votes: 32 12.7%
  • Warn Steering Box

    Votes: 9 3.6%
  • Alignment issues

    Votes: 67 26.7%
  • Tire Ballance Problems or out of round tires.

    Votes: 70 27.9%
  • Control Arm Bushings.

    Votes: 35 13.9%
  • Steering stabilizer bad.

    Votes: 35 13.9%
  • Other problem. (please explain)

    Votes: 30 12.0%

  • Total voters
    251
Had two jeeps that had DW. 2000 WJ had DW due to a bad upper ball joint and worn tie rod end. Ended up replacing all ball joints, tie rod, drag link, tie rod ends for the cure.

My 99 XJ had horrible DW from a worn track bar bushing. Tie rods were on the worn side, too. I replaced the track bar with RE 1660 and ran currie's hd steering FTW.
 
I've had dw from almost every possible cause over the years. I've found running a little toe out will make dw go away no matter the cause. Last weekend, got dw from a worn tierod end. No parts store in the area, toi the tires out an extra 1/2" and no dw. The only drawback to toe out is it makes the jeep wander due to less return to center force. Fwiw I replaced the worn tierod as soon as I was near a parts store.
 
Funny this thread would reappear at this time.
My wife had her tires rotated @ the tire store which resulted in some front end wobble.
Of coarse the sales guy tried to sell her a steering damper which she declined.
I swapped the front tires, that fixed it.
 
I don't know if this counts as contributing, but my dad just fixed his slight bit of DW in his JK.

A bad alignment way prematurely wore out his ball joints, giving him DW whenever his front tires became a little unweighted at higher speeds (IE going over bumps / DR Moab should know about the drive around the west side of Utah Lake, it was pretty bad out there.)

It's funny, even with a bent D30 and all kinds of worn out bushings and TREs I've never experienced DW in my XJ. :thumbup:
 
Mine was due to track bar bushing, drivers hub assembly, and a broke driver side ball joint....all due to jumping 5 1/2 feet and all the weight landing on the driver side front wheel... which was a 15x10 with a 33x12.50... hehehe
 
dw is weird stuff. drove the mj for months with a totally sloppy pitman shaft in the steering box, a very worn out track bar, and a driveway alignment....never got a hint of death wobble at any speed, even on the worst san diego roads. wtf?
 
I've never actually had death wobble - however I did have a SHOT trackbar joint (it exploded - all other components were brand new) that had about 3/4" of play in it. This leads me to believe that death wobble is a COMBINATION of a few worn items, and replacing just one thing might not fix it. YMMV.
 
Changed out my track bar bushing for a Kevin's Offroad hard durometer bushing, along with the KOR 9/16 bolt and flag nut. That took care of the problem with DW, however, a couple of weeks later I also had the tires balanced (after a few days in Death Valley, had substantial freeway vibes) and the shop that did the balance work said that at least one of the tires had been out of balance for a while, so I suspect that was also a contributing factor. Put me down as believing it can be more than just one element.
 
I'm reviving this thread from the dead, only because I feel what occurred in my situation could be of benefit to others.


My rig is lifted 3.75" in front, 4" in rear. 29" tires.

I've had DW for over a year...485 days to be exact.
Shimmy shimmy around 45-50 MPH, and extreme DW upon any road irregularity that unsettled the suspension 45+ MPH.
After several attempts at diagnosing, and after eventually replacing the whole front suspension set-up (drag link, RE track bar, RE track bar frame mount, RE track bar mount brace, KOR 9/16" bolt on TB axle mount, RE tie rod and new TRE's, RE coils, shocks, all ball joints) I still encountered the inevitable.

The track bar frame mount helped alleviate the shimmy shimmy feeling at 45-50MPH.
After rotating tires (it was long overdue :eek:) & re-setting toe, it improved some more.
But any irregularity in the road still led to DW, time in and time out without fail.

Finally, knowing my caster was off a tad given 3.75" lift with stock CA's, I caved and bought RE adjustable LCA's.
Installed & re-set caster to optimum setting and VOILA - NO MORE DEATH WOBBLE.
Before the adjustable LCA install, I was at 4deg positive caster.
After install, I was at ~7-8deg.

My pinion angle is now off, and causes intense driveline vibes. So I've removed the front D/S for now until I can purchase a pair of adjustable UCA's.
But I couldn't believe such a small, or to myself what seemed small, difference in caster deg would have that great of an impact to driveability!

Just to be sure I was cured of my woes, I cruised over a pair of RR tracks at 65 MPH :laugh:


Moral of the story, your suspension geometry (camber, toe, caster) plays a very significant role in keeping a live front axle vehicle driveable at high speeds.
So don't forego the recommended settings at the idea of saving a few bucks!
 
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