You mention three things on this post that could cause death wobble: bad/ unevenly worn/unbalanced tires, alignment, and the track bar bushing.
You also say that the stabilizer is not the root cause of it, which is correct; and if your other thread hadn't been deleted I could show you where i said to just get the cheapest one from the parts house at the beginning of the thread, but you didn't want to listen then.
I do want to know how you were able to determine that the stabilizer was bad by looking under the jeep and checking.
Really? You don't know how to check one?
First clue was the fluid leaking and the cracked bushing.
So we pulled one end of it off, and extended and compressed it a few times. There was very little resistance.
Shock absorbers 101.
Furthermore, you didn't read the thread, or at least, you didn't retain what you read.
Twice, replacing the steering damper was part of a multi-pronged solution that resolved my death wobble.
The first time, it was new tires, an alignment, and a steering damper.
The second time, it was new wheels and tires, an alignment, and a new tubular trackbar with Rockwell 75d bushings, and a heavy duty steering damper.
This time, however, the tires have not yet been replaced, and a balance, rotation and alignment did not resolve the DW. Replacing the steering damper did. Yes, the trackbar and steering box were also replaced, but that was more than 1,000 miles after the steering damper was replaced. There was no deathwobble at the time the steering box was replaced, and we found out the trackbar was bad.
It's very clear. The third time, replacing the steering damper (and only the steering damper) resolved the DW.
By the way, the other two times I replaced the steering damper, they both failed the extension/compression test.
So, did replacing the steering damper FIX the death wobble? Probably not. Did it RESOLVE the death wobble; did it AMELIORATE the death wobble; did it STOP the death wobble? Absolutely.
The way I see it, as long as I can ride down the highway, hit a bump, and not have my fillings shaken out, I don't have a death wobble problem (at the moment).
If I was writing a sticky for how to resolve death wobble (why aren't there any stickies on that, by the way?), it would go something like this:
1) Check the condition of the tires
2) Check the air pressure in the tires
3) Check the balance on the tires
4) Check the alignment
5) Check everything in the front end carefully
6) Replace the steering damper with on that has a lifetime warranty
The bottom line is, the damper can be had for 30 bucks, and you'll never have to buy another one. According to Monroe, the factory ones should last around 50,000 miles; theirs are good for more.
Here's my question for you. Let's say someone has DW. They go through steps 1-5 above, but can't find anything wrong, so the replace the steering damper with a lifetime one. The DW is gone.
20,000 miles later, the DW starts to come back. They pull the steering damper off, go get a free replacement, put it on, and the DW is gone.
Every 20,000 miles, this repeats.
The new steering dampers cost them nothing. They replace them themselves in their driveway, so that costs them nothing.
How is that a bad thing?
