Death Wobble Question after WJ Swap/ 1 Ton Steering.

So after swapping in new axles i ran into death wobble after running them for a few hundred miles, at first it was fine. I have no stabilizer or sway bars, and i just recently re torqued and cotter keyed everything up front to spec.

the front axle is a 96 D30HP pretty much all new everything... 4.56 gears, Detroit True trac, spicer 760 u joints brand new, trussed, outer c gussets, lower c gussets, lower control arm mini skids,wj knuckles with jks adapters, new timken unit bearings, all new brakes, new balljoints upper and lower spicer and moog lowers for the wj swap. 1.50x .250 1 ton OTK steering with chevy TRE's, JKS OTA bracket, IRO double shear trackbar shortened for OTA, good bushings. RC lower control arms with new bushings for 4.5 lift, stock uppers that were reinforced and new bushings. New tcase mount and browndog engine mounts. New 35 mtrs. durango box with a reinforced spacer that ties into my winch bumper drag link and track bar are pretty parallel also and im running a SYE.

The jeep feels a little shakey sometimes when i get up to speed around 50ish or so i believe like the beginning of death wobble and if i hit a bump at the right spot it will death wobble, specially if i hit a bumper in a slight turn. Being that literally almost everything on the front end steering and axle related is new i think it could only be a few things.

Im debating on getting adjustable uppers or just long arms if i can swing it because im curious if my caster is causing this, not sure how to measure caster correctly but with my angle finder against the flat spot on knuckle below balljoint it says like 9 Degrees which is probably wrong. I also want to find a way to mount a stabilizer most likely just to help some even though i know it shouldnt be needed. Im going to look over toe-in again also, i even swapped steering boxes and it didnt help. The steering itself just feels crappy to me kinda wonders a little if you dont keep on playing with the steering wheel while driving having to shimmy side to side alot with the wheel, also not used to no stabilizer, dont know if thats why it does it. Any input i need this thing for winter and trying to figure it out before weather gets crappy.

I also finished a wj swap recently had the same issue at first.Something is loose... I thought I had everything torqued properly double check everything.
As far as caster causing death wobble I doubt it.Were is it currently?I had adjustable uppers when I swapped and recently changed to drop brackets with adjustable lowers so I could dial caster better.Made a huge improvement also aired down to 20 psi drives very well now.Hope this helps.

i usually measure my caster by pulling the grease fitting off the upper balljoint and setting my angle finder on it.

in my experience, and others have probably experienced differently, death wobble has 100% always been trackbar related in some way.

Everything is tight i literally re torqued and cotter keyed everything up front, tie rod ends, track bar, drag link, steering box and pitman arm, control arms, unit bearings, ball joints, axles etc,Measuring at the flat spot on knuckle by upper ball joint it looked like 9 degrees. The mtrs were at 35 at first from tards at tire shop but i lowered to 27. The IRO trackbar and mount is pretty new and nice and tight. At this point not sure what to do but try adjustable uppers im sure it could use them anyways...kinda stumped for the time being.

Have someone you trust sit in the jeep, fire it up, and jerk the steering wheel left/right in a fast and somewhat violent but *consistent* manner (moving their hand like 5-6", not lock-to-lock).

Crawl under the front end and put your fingers on every joint. *BE CAREFUL*.

Something somewhere is moving. You may not be able to see it, but you will feel it. If you put one finger on the pitman and another on the draglink, you will feel any play there. Check both ends of trackbar. Trackbar mount. Draglink. Tie rod. Upper and lower balljoints. LCA and UCA mounts.

If indeed everythign is tight, which is unlikely if you have deathwobble, then rotate your tires and check out your shocks.. but that is a long shot.

Jam nuts tight on adjustable control arms & track bar?
Also - "new" doesn't mean "good". I've seen plenty (lots and lots) of chassis parts that were junk out of the box.
Do like Cal says and look / listen / feel for loose chassis parts while somebody moves the wheel. Couldn't hurt a thing to chock the rear wheels...

Also, have you had it aligned yet? If the toe is too far out of whack it can affect everything even if the rest is tight...

I don't have adjustable control arms, I'm wondering if I need them though since every thing else seems good. I jacked front removed wheels and did just that shimmy steering wheel around side to side and checked joints and pried on anything I could all looked good. Most of the parts came from ruffstuff. This is why I'm wondering if my caster could be causing it. My toe was about an 1/8 inch in but I'm gonna check again here in few hours.

Pics are always a help in diagnosing things. Having adjustable uppers or lowers is definitely helpful in dialing in the front suspension.

Doing the test with it on jacks and no tires is 100% invalid. You need stress on the parts to find bad parts - if you could see it without load, you would have deathwobble by 10mph.

Insane after replacing box with another durango Cardone box it still feels wobbly as hell I can feel the shaft wiggle around, when I shake the tire while jacked you can feel it and hear it. Swear I'm bout to take it back again and buy a different one. This shaking is definitely steering related and I'm not trusting these boxes

Some rebuilds are re-seals with a paint job.
Others are new bearings & seals.
Some rare few will align, bore & hone before mashing a new OEM quality bearing in there & selling you a box that's better than factory. You can guess which price category these processes fall into.

Yea I'm wanting to return this one. It says 3f on it fluid flush fill I think. 190 bucks Cardone box. Not sure where a better place to get one would be but I'm not comfortable with it.

Cardone parts are *CRAP*

I've only bought performance boxes (PSC, Howe) so I have no better budget suggestion for you.. but don't expect anything quality out of a parts store box.

Yea I don't trust it. The shaft wobbles when rocking wheel around and sounds like crap. Still not sure if caster could do it either. Everything else is tight with no movement. I had my dad shake the crap outta the tire by hand while I checked everything and the steering to pitman shaft was where all the wobble and noise seemed to come from. Anywhere sell quality built boxes besides cardone?

Call these guys and see what their most budget OEM steering box rebuild is. It will be more than your parts house box, but it will be a lot less than the $550 entry level performance box or the $1200 boxes a lot of us are running now.

Howe Performance
12476 Julian Ave
Lakeside, CA 92040
(619) 561-7764


PSC Motorsports
6715 Corporation Parkway Suite D
Fort Worth, TX 76126
817.270.0102

Lee Manufacturing Company
11661 Pendleton St.
Sun Valley, CA 91352
Phone: 818-768-0371

Alright sounds good, yea I don't know how but checking my caster by the top of the ball joint it's showing 15 degrees. Which sounds very bad not sure if that could be a big cause also.

is it sitting on the ground on the tire, or on jacks?

On the ground and I got the same both sides. Around 15

I know your leaning towards your steering box or castor.Are you sure everthing is tight?I did the same thing as you thinking it was ok.Turns out my drag link end at the pitman needed more tightening than spec.Did you ream your pitman or use a tapered insert?I chased my tail on this for two weeks.As a side note my castor was awful when I swapped also my steering box was wasted but when I got everything tight d/w went away.Just had to get everything else dialed with the swap now I freakin love it!