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Death Wobble/Good buy?

C

Chip32

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Bonaire GA
I'm looking for a new to me xj for daily driver/some trail use, I found a 91 XJ 4.0 with 235k, auto, 4x4, with tow package, small lift but owner doesn't know how much. The owner says it has a real bad shake at around 35-40 mph and so you could not daily drive it. he wants $800 worth buying and fixing? or are the miles too high? If its worth fixing what would be my first steps in fixing the death wobble? I really appreciate any advice or help i can get, If this isn't the correct place to post this would someone please move it for me?
 
Search around, there's lots of info about death wobble. Other than that, I wouldn't worry bout the mileage.
 
I have searched some and if i buy it i would start with alignment then probably a new track bar/tie rod. then ball joints i think would be next to check.
 
Thanks the only reason i was doing the alignment first was because i dont know if the previous owner did one after installing the lift. Would anyone consider the death wobble to be a no buy item?
 
Figure out what's causing the death wobble. You should be able to find the loose joints. Once you know the cause then you'll know if you want to fix it.
 
I wouldn't consider it a no buy reason, but then again I'm 100% comfortable with replacing my entire front suspension as a friday night project by now. If it has no rust and is in good shape other than the death wobble I would go for it and figure things out later.
 
Once you hit the natural frequency (where the wobbling will be the worst) it will get better as you go faster. A lot of people don't believe this, but I've done it... in fact flooring it would kill my death wobble @ ~70mph on 32s, by the time I got to 80 it would be smooth as silk. The problem is keeping the vehicle under control and in one piece long enough to make it through to where it's smooth again. I suggest braking.
 
Was just wondering if i could drive it home (bout 2hrs hiway) so if it smoothed out at like 50 i could do i think...although not the smartest idea im sure.
 
Death wobble will get much worse with speed. Typically with mine it will be driving fine, but a small bump in the road will set up a shimmy/oscillation that gets worse to the point you think the axle will fall off any second. The only option is to hit the brakes and try and bring it to a controlled skid down to about 20mmph or so where the vibes quit, then you can accelerate again. Not the safest thing to be doing on public roadways. Tires that are old, out of round, poorly balanced,bent wheel etc. can set off everything else in your system which is likely OEM and 19 years old.
But a HO for 800, If you can wrench and not have to pay someone else to do it, you will be good
 
kastein said:
Once you hit the natural frequency (where the wobbling will be the worst) it will get better as you go faster. A lot of people don't believe this, but I've done it... in fact flooring it would kill my death wobble @ ~70mph on 32s, by the time I got to 80 it would be smooth as silk. The problem is keeping the vehicle under control and in one piece long enough to make it through to where it's smooth again. I suggest braking.
Click to expand...
This made sense conceptually but was not possible with 3.07/33". Information saved to hopefully be never used w/4.10/33 combo:skull2:
 
I just bought a 91 with 228k on it, and it needed everything except the stinking horn!!!:laugh:

Honestly, even if it does need serious parts like mine, they are cheap for the most part.

I also suffered from the death wobble. Scared the crap out of me the first time!

My cause was a worn out steering box and beat down steering stabilizer. I replaced the stabilizer, and it made it so I could drive it, but my problem is still in the worn syeering gear, which the replacement is on the way.
 
Full info on that is - stock arms, stock 3.55 gearing, bagged out stock bushings from 96, OME934 springs, stock-equivalent shock absorbers, nearly bald BFG MTs in 32x11.5 on stock rims, track bar not fixed so the axle wasn't centered, about 1" of toe-in because I never bothered to adjust that till I replaced my tie rod. Got about 3.5" of lift. When I put the tires on with ~1/4" of tread left I had no death wobble, as the tires wore (due to the toe in) it got worse and worse... adjusting the tie rod and putting brand new TreadWright 285/75r16 ATs on 16x8 4" BS Cragar V5s completely killed the death wobble, probably because the heavier tires lowered the resonant frequency of the suspension and the toe-in being reset to a sane value likely also affected it.

I would *not* try to drive a vehicle with unknown equipment and possible DW home on the highway by trying to get past the speed DW is a problem at - not without trying it out for a few hours at a lot of speeds below the troublesome one, anyways.
 
There is a big difference between "Death Wobble" and "Vibes". If you have true death wobble - the ONLY thing you will think about is coming to a full stop before the Jeep breaks into pieces. Vibes are annoying, but you can usually drive through them.

There is a lot of overlap in the causes of both. Sometimes you can lay under the Jeep and easily spot the problem by wiggling steering parts around.

Other times its a combination of a whole bunch of small things that takes forever to identify.

Don't overlook tire pressure, balancing, and wear. That can easily cause vibes and sometimes wobble.

Fortunately things like TREs, shocks, allignments, track bars, bushings, control arms, and even rims are not all THAT expensive.
 
This was definitely death wobble. It did things like opening my sunglasses compartment in my OHC, knocking my CB mic out of its clip, and dumping all the change out of my cupholders. It also left side-to-side scrub marks on the tire tread. It got worse and worse gradually as the tires wore, so by the time it was really violent I had already gotten used to the idea (and how to fix it by braking), and after thinking about it for a while I was pretty sure it could also be killed by going faster, so the next time it happened I gave it a try and it worked.
 
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