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the real deal with the infamous Death Wobble

H

housemaster0630

NAXJA Forum User
Location
farmington hills
now we all sort of know what the death wobble is

atleast some of us have been in a jeep and had a DW scare us to death

but what exactly is happening during a death wobble



i have had my jeep for some time now and recently i have had a death wobble about once a week for the past 2 months

i know that it makes the entire car and the steering wheel shake, but what is causing it


is the wheel really wobbling or is the tire bouncing

and what exactly is causing the tire to wobble like that



if anyone knows feel free to reply
because i would like to get this fixed as soon as possible
 
I'm going to go out on a limb and use my brain a little teeny tiny bit. I doubt the wheels themselves are wobbling, but instead the entire axle may be moving side to side rapidly-maybe only in my case.

My trackbar bolt was loose, tightened it and added a new stabalizer (old one had NO compression whatsoever)

yay its gone.

fast forward 200 miles.

aw its back. Anyway, the hole for the trackbar to frame bracket was worn out (maybe from the death wobble in itself)

I had a friend replace the bracket, and its been gone for months now..
 
magimerlin said:
I just laugh and shake my head every time I see that clip.
Click to expand...

Laugh it up, until it happens to you at 60MPH. Its not very amusing then.
Lose trackbar caused mine.
 
Ray H said:
Laugh it up, until it happens to you at 60MPH. Its not very amusing then.
Click to expand...

You forgot to warn him to have a change of shorts ready for once you get the Jeep stopped after the first hit of death wobble
 
my DW had a number of causes on a number of different occasions- first time was a worn out TRE on my track bar, second was wallowed out bolt hole on the track bar bracket, and third was wallowed out bolt holes in the LCA mounts on the frame side and on the axle.
 
UNCC_99XJ said:
You forgot to warn him to have a change of shorts ready for once you get the Jeep stopped after the first hit of death wobble
Click to expand...

Very true.
The very first time it happened to me I was on I-81 and hit an expansion joint on a bridge. I didnt even have a place to pull over. I had to ride it out over the bridge then I hit the shoulder as soon as I could.
 
Ray H said:
Very true.
The very first time it happened to me I was on I-81 and hit an expansion joint on a bridge. I didnt even have a place to pull over. I had to ride it out over the bridge then I hit the shoulder as soon as I could.
Click to expand...

Mine was on a state highway with a 18-wheeler behind me. Lift had been on for a grand total of 10 minutes, and I was on my way back to my house from my dad's shop, thinking everything was fine.....first minor bump in the road I hit doing about 60-65 and it all went to hell. Some how I managed to get it off the road safely with out getting sandwhiched by the big rig.

Drove the normally 50 minute drive from my house to his shop a couple of times before I could finally get it straightened out....and thats a long trip at 40mph.
 
UNCC_99XJ said:
http://www.emotoman.com/videos/dw.mpg

Watch the front wheels.....
Click to expand...

Yeah that ain't nothing, I like it when mine does that, when I get mine you have to stopp the damn jeep, highyway or not you lock up the brakes and slightly turn the steering wheel to one side untill she stops, then check your pants and keep going telling your jeep you fix her right up if you get home.
 
it feels like its just the right side? mine did too. had it inspected and the bushings were shot, bought a whole new trac-bar, for $40 and havnt had a problem since.

Its only gonna happen again unless you get an Adjustable Trac-bar tho!

the problem is, when you lift an XJ with stock Arms, the axles gets moved back a bit and it stretches the bushings in the trac-bar, so you need an adjustable trac bar, and/or new Control arms IIRC
 
Ray H said:
Laugh it up, until it happens to you at 60MPH. Its not very amusing then.
Lose trackbar caused mine.
Click to expand...

It has happened to me. I had my tre nut on my track rar almost come all the way off. I wasn't fun. I am not laughing at the severity of that instance but of how it looks going down the rode and I can imaging the peoples faces when they say mine do that. And I know its not fun at all.
 
Mine doesn't do it until EXACTLY 80km/hr and then it isn't nearly as bad as that vid though I know at what speed it starts so I drive 5km/hr slower. I also have some squeeking coming from the passenger side when I turn the wheel so I'm assuming my cause could be bad ball joints. Gotta get the front end up off the ground and start wiggling things to see what's loose I guess.
 
Ouch, that vid is awful!!

I just spent the last few days fighting mine. I replaced the track bar, two TRE's (inners), had it aligned, and had the wheels balanced...in that order. I ended up putting a new damper on it and that cured it. What a friggin' nightmare!!
 
what ive heard about replacing the dampener is that only puts a band-aid on it. what ive done to every xj that ive built is have a friend sit in the drivers seat and wiggle the steering wheel or/and turn it right to left. the times that i have had it though have always been the trac bar being loose. i put loctite on mine that way it will never wiggle loose again. hope you find out whats going on and hope this helped.
 
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