How To: Fix Death Wobble

[Roxtar]

If theres something I missed add it.

Brian

VooDoo

Only serious mojo can truly cure DW.

 

[Root Moose]

stock inverted-Y is another oddity - toe-in changes a little as the suspension cycles.

I've often wondered if it was an intentional thing from the factory engineers given the climate of litigation for "tippy" vehicles like the CJ5 and such when the XJ/YJ was originally designed.

In theory, with power application the rods move such that the toe increases which causes a stabilizing affect on the suspension.

 

[MaXJohnson]

Really? Where?

I said the 1/4" is dependent on tire size, whereas the factory recommended value is given in degrees. Kubtastic's last post shows the relation between the two, and in fact shows that 1/4" of toe-in at most tire sizes gives you values within factory spec. Where's the conflict?

'Slack' involves more than just worn rod ends. It's also the effect of road force on steering links and geometry, both in terms of tensile forces and tolerance in even brand new joints. The 'fix' as you put it, is to run higher-tolerance steering gear, such as higher-thickness DOM links and heim joints, which you can see gives a smaller toe-in value anyway.

Looks like you need to read a little closer.

"In fact, it's probably even more important to keep it true than it is with stock tires, because there's a lot more stress on the steering and axle location pieces with larger tires."

keeping true to factory specs in my view would be to shoot for the preferred .25° (~1/8") toe-in rather than to settle for the the maximum allowable. The less play in the steering, the better.

 

[IdahoEagle]

I have an AMC Eagle wagon on MJ axles that had DW pretty bad a couple of times. It's on leaf springs. I adjusted the steering box and it completely eliminated the DW until the steering box started to wear again. After another adjustment I was good for a while again. It had a stock MJ tie-rod setup on it, I put a YJ one-piece tie-rod assembly on it and the DW is completely gone! I think the factory XJ/MJ/TJ/ZJ/WJ tie-rod design can't handle a few miles and bigger tires. I think it has something to do with the angles of deflection with the multiple joints that as a slight amount of wear is involved, it just starts to deteriorate extremely rapidly whereas the traditional YJ style doesn't have such dramatic change in joint tolerances as the joints wear.

 

[ZachMan]

Just lifted my 99 XJ with RE 4.5" and 33s and have no DW (thank you) even with bad alighnment and worn tires that are uneven. I just got the control arms setup perfect.