motha truckin death wobble

[Lawn Cher']

Stabilizers treat the symptoms without solving the problem. Be sure and get genuine Johnson & Johnson brand steering stabilizers.

 

[olivedrabcj7]

well the problem is clearly the tires. i dont want new tires, i like the swampers. so, to run them on the road without shimmying....i need stabilizers. no other fix for it with these tires.

 

[CRASH]

well the problem is clearly the tires. i dont want new tires, i like the swampers. so, to run them on the road without shimmying....i need stabilizers. no other fix for it with these tires.

You know, better than stabilizers would be a properly executed hydro-assist system. The ram really holds things steady.

How about addressing your track bar and drag link angles?

CRASH

 

[olivedrabcj7]

when i build my front 44 i plan on doing hydro assist. i dont get much bumpsteer with the trackbar and draglink where they are. occassionally ill hit a pothole and have to correct, but besides that...ive seen much worse.

 

[Lawn Cher']

i dont get much bumpsteer with the trackbar and draglink where they are. occassionally ill hit a pothole and have to correct, but besides that...ive seen much worse.

CRASH is asking about the operating angles, not their parallelism.

Another question for you Olive, is your shift key broken?

 

[CRASH]

CRASH is asking about the operating angles, not their parallelism.

'zactly.

What are the angles like? Are they in their stock positions? If so, see my long-winded post above.

CRASH

 

[olivedrabcj7]

Another question for you Olive, is your shift key broken?

matter of fact it is...

 

[MistWolf]

well ive spent about 100 bucks and the better part of a day fighting the never ending battle with death wobble. the new stabilizer did something. it keeps everything to a moderate shimmy going down the road and doesnt let it loose in to full on DW. it keeps everything under control, just with a wheel shimmy.

AMAZING!! Someone has posted proof that a steering stabilizer DOES NOT CURE THE DWs! Maybe now we'll stop getting "Change your steering stabilizer" advice to fix this problem.

When you got DWs something is loose, or flexing. Don't matter if you can see it or not- something is loose or flexing. Toe can be set to damp the oscillations- I know because I've done it- but I've never had a bad toe by itself cause DWs. Bad caster may do it, but I've not had caster problems so I can't say. The last case of bad DWs I had came from a bad lower control arm. I would have sworn everything was tight.

Something is loose, or it's flexing. Find it & fix it. Your DWs will go away

PS- Toe to damp oscillations to prevent DWs is a temporary fix at best- just enough of a band-aid to get you home to affect repairs

 

[MistWolf]

Hey, I'm a noobie,and I don't care what you think of me , or say to me.
I just put a 5" lift on my 91 and I'm getting a wobble after I hit some bumps on the road some of the time.
After hearing all the feedback from everybody, I'm starting
to think that I have DW, I'm ready to pony up the cash for
something other than the 31's that are on there now,(old and half bald) I want to put 33's on, does anyone think that is too much
height , am I still going to have problems?
Thank you for any and all input you may have for your humble NOOBIE.

Before spending cash on new tires, make sure nothing is loose or flexing. You can borrow some tires from a buddy for a test run.

With a bit of trimming & rims with the right back space, your ready for 35s

(Of course you'll need the right gearing....)

 

[DrMoab]

Stabilizers treat the symptoms without solving the problem. Be sure and get genuine Johnson & Johnson brand steering stabilizers.

Yup I agree with this one full heartedly. Alot of people are telling you your tires and you may be listening but you don't want to hear. I don't blame you.

So here is a cheap way to find out if this is the case. Find a buddy with another jeep with some tires that aren't crap. Bolt those on and see for yourself.

I don't even run a stabilizer on my jeep and don't have any problems. However when I had some crappy out of round x-terrians on it was really bad when I had a certian tire on the front. It only takes one bad tire.

 

[johnnyc]

Don't mean to hijack - but all the heavy hitters seem to be monitoring this thread. And it is related...

Could the flimsy stock tie rod be a contributing factor to wheel shimmy and DW? I can make the tie rod flex by just grabbing it with my hands. Just imagine what would happen when you add two heavy tires into the equation.

It seems like out-of-balance tires or hitting a bump (well-known triggers) could set off the tie rod quivering like a scared chihuahua.

I just got my Big Daddy tie rod and I'll be installing it this weekend. Hope it helps.

 

[DorkAlert]

Re: motha truckin wobble

Find a buddy with another jeep with some tires that aren't crap. Bolt those on and see for yourself.

That is sound advice....

 

[poomba]

Here's a pic:

Any other ideas as to what it could be?

It's a tangerine on steroids, I read about it in JU.

 

[devildog0]

Could the flimsy stock tie rod be a contributing factor to wheel shimmy and DW? I can make the tie rod flex by just grabbing it with my hands. Just imagine what would happen when you add two heavy tires into the equation.

It seems like out-of-balance tires or hitting a bump (well-known triggers) could set off the tie rod quivering like a scared chihuahua.

I just got my Big Daddy tie rod and I'll be installing it this weekend. Hope it helps.

I have also wondered about this. I have a case of shimmy around 45 that has turned into DW a few times (that crap scared the shiat out of me) and I've replace everything on the front end (hubs which were loose, all control arms, trac bar, ball joints are good and new tires) I have pretty much got rid of the DW but am now down to having a small shimmy. So now I'm down to my steering setup. the Draglink seems beefy enough but the wussy tie rod (like stated above I can flex the damn thing by hand) just looks like the tires could easily move it. I think that since I'm out of options now I"m just going to sleeve it and see ifthis helps.

 

[whw678]

Please, please, please, excuse my ignorance... But after wading through alot of the above posts, looking for some insight into DW, I still have to put my situation out there, I'll take the flame, just need to figure out what the blazes is going on under the XJ... If it helps, I'm a recent convert, and know very little about the XJ, or even solid axle front ends for that matter, money and time caused me to ditch the money pit pathfinder I was running. So, given I'm starting from scratch in the knowledge base, here's what I got... 99 XJ 4.0 with 3" of lift from Rusty's: new coils and shocks up front (way easier than a nissan), add-a-leaf and shocks out back (way harder than nissan)... Replace the hub/carrier bearings (they were SLIGHTLY loose), new rotors, calipers, pads, and tires (235/75 goodyears GSA's < won't make that mistake again but I got a tremendous deal on tires and wheels) and now any medium bump (railroad crossing) above 45 gives me the deadliest of death wobbles (discovery of wobble led to stop truck, clean out shorts, re-insert intestines). I know, I know, I regret saying this before I say it BUT everything seems tight, checked, double checked, buddy checked, shop checked. So know I'm looking into what else to try... all the drag link - control arm - tie rod stuff is stock, no signs of trouble before lift... given the three inches of lift, I was under the impression that factory should be sufficient, but the wobble never lies... so let the wild rumpus start... Thanks in advance, no golf balls going in my tires...