• Welcome to the new NAXJA Forum! If your password does not work, please use "Forgot your password?" link on the log-in page. Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] if we can provide any assistance.

Bloody death wobble

M

menos

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Moore, OK
So I just replaced the ball joints and hubs last weekend. Front end felt tight and it tracked down the highway great.
Till this morning. I got the most severe case of death wobble I've ever had. It almost put me into the center divider in the middle of rush hour traffic. Thought I was gonna get plowed into for a second.

I'm starting to think I just need to junk this D30 and start over. I've been fighting DW with this axle for the better part of 3 years and two jeeps.

I've replaced:
Ball Joints
Hubs
Tie rod ends
Trackbar
LCA and UCA bushings

The alignment is good, it's sitting at 1/16" toe in. I'm thinking about bringing it out to 0".

This is starting to really tick me off.
 
How are your tires? I had a bad tire on the front that caused DW. Might try rotating your tires to see if it changes.

Also, new sway bar bushings can really help to firm things up.

Just thinking out loud.

Also, just for kicks and grins, could the axle be tweaked a bit?
 
I'll pull the spare and start with the front left then if that doesn't fix it I'll move it to the front right.

I don't think its the tires though but I could be wrong.
 
drag link ends? steering box tight? i had death wobble issues on my old lifted zj and i fixed it with a tie rod end... do you have an adjustable trackbar? dont waste your time with swaybar bushings, no offense silver60th but thats a dumb suggestion for trying to cure death wobble

i am running no swaybars, tnt long arms, 6.5" of lift, 35s, and mostly stock steering, i have zero death wobble
 
The drag link + the other 3 tie rod ends were all swapped about 1.5 years ago when I was tracking down another issue. DW existing before and after swapping all those. I am gonna swap them due to the fact they felt a tiny bit loose.

Steering box is tight. I'm running a C-ROK inner and outer.

I've got a RE adjustable trackbar. It's all tight and in good shape.
 
X2 on the caster angle. I had very very bad DW till I corrected the caster on my rig, but on my DD it was badly(non existent) wheel weights. So might be as simple as a good wheel balance.
 
I'll check the caster angle. I'm also gonna lose the airsoft pellets I'm using to balance and take the tires over and get them properly balanced.
 
When I had deathwobble, I took all the wheel weights off and did the airsoft thing, got rid of about %90 of it. Took it to the tire store and had them remove all the pellets, they looked at me like I was retarded and balanced them for me. Left the store, got up to 30mph and the DW was worse than ever! Got my money back from the tire store and then noticed strange bulges in two of the tires, so I went somewhere else and bought tires.
 
When I had DW I swapped the steering damper and that fixed the problem. It's been DW free for 2 years now. I think it's easy end cheap enough to give it a shot. Good luck!
 
x2 steering damper and balance. start with the outside and work your way in. Balance, then steering damper. i have an '88 with 30" swampers, 3" RC lift, and 0 dw... so I think its more of an individual basis for curing dw. I do not think there is a cure all for it. You have taken care of most of your front end, so we can possibly eliminate those items you have replaced. Just for kicks, have an alignment shop check your caster. How big is your lift? If you have gone up considerably, your caster could be way out. What did this D30 come out of? High pinion angle or low? The more I write the more I think it is your caster. Get that checked first then move on to an alignment and then the damper. That's my recommended course of action.
 
Theoretically, you dont need a steering stabilizer. If everything is working properly, you should be able to remove the steering stabilizer and the only difference be a "lighter feeling" steering wheel. If you change the steering stabilizer and it goes away, its masking a problem. Personally, I havent had a steering stabilizer for about 4 years.
 
OK

Took the beads out of the tires today and had them road force balanced. One of the tires is having a tread separation problem so they wouldn't even balance it. (yes it was on the front) The other four took a crap load of weight.

I tightened up the steering box since it was loose as hell. Got almost a full turn out of the adjustment screw before it bottomed out. I then backed it off about 1/4 turn.

Replaced the pitman arm to draglink tie rod end, since the boot was trashed and the joint felt like it had a tiny bit of slop in it.

As far as I can tell, the caster is right at 6deg. I followed goJeep's alignment specs.

Haven't really had a chance to drive it much yet since I just got back from firestone, but i'll post an update when I get a chance to drive it more.
 
That tread separation could be whole problem. that gave me the DW on my Freightliner. Hopefully, that tire was removed from the front end, and turned into the spare. I really hope your DW is cured buddy, let us know how she drives when you get a chance.
 
Exxon Valdez Jeep said:
Theoretically, you dont need a steering stabilizer. If everything is working properly, you should be able to remove the steering stabilizer and the only difference be a "lighter feeling" steering wheel. If you change the steering stabilizer and it goes away, its masking a problem. Personally, I havent had a steering stabilizer for about 4 years.
Click to expand...

Yes, theoretically you don't need the stabilizer. But depending on the condition of the roads you drive, the width of your tires, and the un-sprung weight of your front end, the lack of a stabilizer could make driving your vehicle on the streets a nightmare. The point of a stabilizer is to limit the feedback you get from minor, and major, bumps and blemishes in the road surface at high speed, or any speed really. Your stabilizer is actually fighting your steering system in order to keep those issues in the road surface from forcing your vehicle to turn. The larger the vehicle the more this becomes apparent. That's why dual stabilizers are used on some vehicles. Don't get me wrong, you are correct with the fact that you do not technically have to have one, but not having one could make things very difficult to handle, no pun intended.
 
No joy.... DW is still here and still as bad as ever.
I'm gonna try a ZJ tie rod to beef it up a little bit, but other than that I'm out of options.

Maybe I just need to junk this truck and start over....
 
It can be extremely frustrating finding and eliminating DW. Been there. Hang in there. Reread the suggestions. Check and recheck everything. It may be a simple thing you overlooked or a combination of things. Post up what you've checked and what you have tried.
 
Over the life of this axle I have replaced/fixed the following trying to nail down this DW or due to other maintenance.

Ball Joints
Hubs
U-Joints
Trackbar
All Tie rod ends
control arm bushings
Tires (I had DW both on my last set and this set)
Alignment (both driveway and shop) Currently siting at 1/16" toe in
 
How tal of a lift? Are you running some big tires? Wheelin it hard? Either can be extra hard on ball joints and tie rod ends, wearing them out prematurely. To steep angle from your pitman arm down? Are the shocks matched for your lift height and functioning properly? A blown front shock will give that axle a mind of it's own. Could the track bar be wallowed out? Just trying to cover some more possibilities.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

C
How bad was my toe?
2
Replies
21
Views
6K
Evan03
E
M
Steering wheel stuck after sitting outside a few days
Replies
2
Views
1K
maxbraketorque
M
B
Death wobble
Replies
9
Views
2K
maxbraketorque
M
9
88 Lower ball joint seems stiff
Replies
7
Views
2K
90xj06
9
T
Death Wobble Questions (I searched first)
Replies
11
Views
3K
Anak
Anak
Back
Top