"death wobble"

i just put a 3" lift on my xj and now if i go more then 40 it goes into a "death wobble" and shakes uncontrolably. i jsut had it aligned, is there anything else that could be wrong or bad? possibly steering stabilizer? i don't know i need some help..

Who's kit did you use?

i used a rough country lift i contacted them and i did waht they told me to do and it still does it. i even went and had the tires rebalanced

I don't know about the rough country lift much but did they make you re-position your track bar by drilling a hole or using an adapter?

not that i am aware of i will have to go back through and read the instructions again or would it be any easier to purchase a new trac bar?

We're gonna need more info. You mention death wobble, but say it shakes. Is it in the seat or in the steering wheel? What Year? Mileage? Did you change LCA's as part of the lift? Did the alignment include looking at the Caster Angle? Is it associated with braking action at all?

If it's D/W, there are a lot of posts concerning the subject here and on the web in general. Basic theme is to chase D/W one component at a time till it goes away. But with it coming in conjunction with a new lift, I'd point to Caster angle, TRE's on the drag link, and basic steering geometry first.

Steering stabilizer is there to dampen the oscillations that occur in any front end. With lifting it, it would seem you have increased the susceptability of the front end going into resonance above what the dampener can handle. Need to find the contributing factors before just replacing the stabilizer.

I chased D/W on my 00 TJ for 4 months before I got it fixed.

XJFireFighter62 said:

not that i am aware of i will have to go back through and read the instructions again or would it be any easier to purchase a new trac bar?

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I would guess that the track bar is not aligning the vehicle properly since the lift. The stock track bar is too short for a 3" lift. Pro Comp offers an adapter (Track bar drop bracket) for a 3" lift that will allow you to use the stock track bar OR measure perfectly and re-drill the bracket on the axle and re-locate the track bar. Good Luck.

There is a half a million posts about this on the forums.

DaffyXJ said:

We're gonna need more info. You mention death wobble, but say it shakes. Is it in the seat or in the steering wheel? What Year? Mileage? Did you change LCA's as part of the lift? Did the alignment include looking at the Caster Angle? Is it associated with braking action at all?

If it's D/W, there are a lot of posts concerning the subject here and on the web in general. Basic theme is to chase D/W one component at a time till it goes away. But with it coming in conjunction with a new lift, I'd point to Caster angle, TRE's on the drag link, and basic steering geometry first.

Steering stabilizer is there to dampen the oscillations that occur in any front end. With lifting it, it would seem you have increased the susceptability of the front end going into resonance above what the dampener can handle. Need to find the contributing factors before just replacing the stabilizer.

I chased D/W on my 00 TJ for 4 months before I got it fixed.

Click to expand...

What was your fix?

This was on a 00 TJ, 23k miles, 2 inch BB, runing 33's.

Both brake rotors were shot. and both Tie rod ends had excessive play. Changed TREs, (tie rod, since one end is integral) and Rotors (twice). Highly recommend TRW power stop drilled rotors.
After I had it settled down, then I changed the stabilizer.

All this was after at least 2 alignments, 2 sets of rotors (as mentioned) and the usual tire swaps and balancing. It's a B*tch.

make sure your shit is tight! like to torque spec!

LCA's
UCA's
TRACKBAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :hasta
all TRE's (and DRE's)

savvy?

I run a stock trackbar, in the stock mounting hole, on a 3.5" lift. It pulls the axle a hair to one side but I have not seen any wobble with this setup.

We need info on what parts were included with the lift, specifically did you install new upper and/or lower control arms, or are you still using the stock arms? Also, what are the specifications for the alignment? More than likely they did NOT correct the caster angle, only checked it for toe-in.

Also, just because you paid money to have the tires balanced does not mean that the tires were balanced correctly. However, tire balance problems usually show up at around 50 MPH, so in this instance I think you need to look at other factors.

Try a search. There have been other discussions about death wobble -- recently.

are you sure that your problem isn't death bounce? If your shocks are shot than that could be the problem causer. I have had similar problems.

what about your drive shaft, do you have a slip yoke eliminator?
Or transfer case drop?
Do you have the rear shimed correctly?
What about the front axle is the pinion at the correct angle?

I have dealt with this problem pretty exstensively. having been the owner of 6 cherokees. I have seen the same death wobble on 4 of my own and had quite a few come into my shop. Here are some of the corrections I have encountered.
- 86 stock cherokee. death wobble at 35mph when hitting a bump. bad ds tierod end
-87 3.5" lift. death wobble at 35mph when hitting a bump. worn out pitman arm bushing. replaced all tierod ends and finally steering box.
-92 stock cherokee. death wobble consistently at all speeds. replaced rotors and redid alignment.
-91 3" lifted two door. death wobble at 35mph+ when hitting a bump. cracked unibody behind ds upper arm. welded and replaced mount.
-96 6.5" longarm custom suspension. death wobble at 35-50mph when hitting a bump on left side. worn out lower tracking bar bolt hole on axle housing. drilled out hole and replace with bigger bolt
-96 4.5" rubiconexpress suspension. death wobble consistant at 35+mph. upper control arm damamged. replaced upper control arm.
-74 ford bronco death wobble consistant at all speed. broken upper tracking bar mount.
- 78 chevy pickup. not really a death wobble but close. worn out sway bar bushings.

don't know if any of these examples help you out but it will give you some idea to start with. as you can see it can be alot of different things. I would pull the entire suspension apart before i replaced any thing to see if it is worn or broken some where. the tie rods cannot be inspected without removal unless they are totally shot. that is the first place to start they are usually worn out before lift install then the lift just compounds the problem. email [email protected] if you need more advice

i had the same problem after installing a 3" skyjacker kit. Scared the crap out of me one day. The cause was the bolts to the new track bar bracket had loosened. I added a lock washer and thread sealer to te bolts, tightened it up. no more problems.

I was at the shop the other day and this boy came in and got new wheels and one of them was bad, it took going throgh all of them just to find the bad one. Maybe this could be the problem, did you change your wheels and tires if not it is probably worth checkin in to. JOE

dustybronco said:

87 3.5" lift. death wobble at 35mph when hitting a bump. worn out pitman arm bushing. replaced all tierod ends and finally steering box.

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What's a pitman arm bushing?

Eagle said:

We need info on what parts were included with the lift, specifically did you install new upper and/or lower control arms, or are you still using the stock arms? Also, what are the specifications for the alignment? More than likely they did NOT correct the caster angle, only checked it for toe-in.

Also, just because you paid money to have the tires balanced does not mean that the tires were balanced correctly. However, tire balance problems usually show up at around 50 MPH, so in this instance I think you need to look at other factors.

Try a search. There have been other discussions about death wobble -- recently.

Click to expand...

The tires may be balanced, but also they may be separating. I had a set of 31x1050 Kirkland AT's, plenty of thread, balanced many times. The wobble didn't go away until I reaplaced the tires.

To the origianl poster, this thread sucks. There are many more threads on that cover DW very well. This one has some bad info and advise. Especially regarding the trackbar advise.

IMO, get a decent adjustable trackbar and some decent Lower Control Arms. I know these don't come with the 3" RC kit.