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Another death wobble thread

And every one of those manufacturers had to worry about replacing worn parts under warranty as well................


All cars use to be sold with a spare tire too....but not any more.............


A steering stabilizer just masks when the parts start to wear......but it can't mask when they are severely worn...so all it does is buy time.............wonder why ??

Very true.

All vehicle manufacturers install parts to mask worn out parts that will wear out over time.

Shocks are only there to mask a poor suspension design which if they were not present will allow the wheels to oscillate to the point the vehicle will become unusable. I just replaced the front shocks a third time in 18 years ( first time with el cheapo which were replace with 5150's and now with 5165's).

The vibration damper on the front of the engine is only there to smooth/minimize the irregularities/imperfections in crank shaft design in addition to the slight imbalance of other internal engine parts.
 
I think that i found my issue. I just crawled under my jeep and found movement in my rubicon express hd track bar. It seems that the issue is with the threading. Where the end link threads onto the track bar on the driver side. I just looked up their warranty and it's lifetime so i'll remove it and walk into 4 wheel parts during the week.

Any updates on your DW? And did the steering stabilizer help?
 
A steering stabilizer will never solve DW problems, it may mask it until your in a very bad situation!
 
I know that is true, but if it enables me to drive over 30mph for the time being and until I can afford to start replacing other parts, I'd be pretty happy.

the stabilizer brackets were supposed to arrive yesterday but they didn't show. I found my trackbar to be loose so i tightened the jam nut and i was able to now go 50 before I got deathwobble. I then had a friend turn the wheel while i looked under and the trackbar brace was loose on the passenger side. I tightened that down as well and deathwobble is almost completely gone. It's not so violent but it does move around a bit if i hit a bump at 55 or so. This weekend I plan to rotate my tires and see how it does. I plan on running the stabilizer anyway but i want to ensure that i fix the issue before installing it. I'm also going to replace my balljoints in the near future since that is practically the only part in my front end that i haven't replaced.

I'm just amazed that my trackbar brace was loose and my trackbar adjustment jam nut was loose all this time and my stock steering with stabilizer was hiding the issue.
 
the stabilizer brackets were supposed to arrive yesterday but they didn't show. I found my trackbar to be loose so i tightened the jam nut and i was able to now go 50 before I got deathwobble. I then had a friend turn the wheel while i looked under and the trackbar brace was loose on the passenger side. I tightened that down as well and deathwobble is almost completely gone. It's not so violent but it does move around a bit if i hit a bump at 55 or so. This weekend I plan to rotate my tires and see how it does. I plan on running the stabilizer anyway but i want to ensure that i fix the issue before installing it. I'm also going to replace my balljoints in the near future since that is practically the only part in my front end that i haven't replaced.

I'm just amazed that my trackbar brace was loose and my trackbar adjustment jam nut was loose all this time and my stock steering with stabilizer was hiding the issue.

Who's trackbar do you have?
 
That's the same set-up I've been running for almost 20yrs w/o a issue. Are you getting the joint centered before tightening?
 
That's the same set-up I've been running for almost 20yrs w/o a issue. Are you getting the joint centered before tightening?

I didn't pay attention to the joint so probably not. I'll loosen it and make sure that it's centered tonight.

thanks.
 
That's the same set-up I've been running for almost 20yrs w/o a issue. Are you getting the joint centered before tightening?

I had to turn it out a full turn to get the joint centered. I just centered it and installed my stabilizer but I’ve been drinking and it’s late. I’ll test drive it tomorrow.
 
????? , I wasn't talking about "centering" the axle. I was referring to keeping the joint square in the frame bracket.
 
After checking things out again I noticed about 1/4" side to side play in my rough country track bar bushing. Rubicon express TB is on the way. Hopefully that will cure my problem.
 
I hope you bought the HD unit and bracket.
 
I drove mine roughly 40 miles and it did ok on the freeway. Didn't feel great but no deathwobble. I then decided to rotate my tires since i hadn't done so in a while and i don't get death wobble but i have a constant vibration at over 45. I'm going to a tire shop tomorrow to have my front tires re balanced.
 
I drove mine roughly 40 miles and it did ok on the freeway. Didn't feel great but no deathwobble. I then decided to rotate my tires since i hadn't done so in a while and i don't get death wobble but i have a constant vibration at over 45. I'm going to a tire shop tomorrow to have my front tires re balanced.

Rad. good stuff to be driving highway speed.

My TB came and I received the wrong part so I'll be another few days until I know if this solved my issue. Pretty confident it will though. I took my old TB off and aside from the bushing being worn out, the axle bracket hole was wallowed out which gave around 1/8" play. If the DW continues after all this I might lose it :roll:
 
For the people that don't know, which is a lot, caster angle is at which angle the farthest point of the tires are when turning. If that makes sense. So if you should your lower control arms forward, it would make the tires turn more towards the top, thus lowering the chance of the tires wanting to bounce back and forth=deathwobble. I had bad deathwobble at about 65, especially when i had absolutely nothing in my jeep. Shoved my lower fixed arms as far forward as i could and put some weight in it and it was completely gone. This may not be your problem, but as some other people said, diffidently worth looking at a good bit.
 
For the people that don't know, which is a lot, caster angle is at which angle the farthest point of the tires are when turning. If that makes sense. So if you should your lower control arms forward, it would make the tires turn more towards the top, thus lowering the chance of the tires wanting to bounce back and forth=deathwobble. I had bad deathwobble at about 65, especially when i had absolutely nothing in my jeep. Shoved my lower fixed arms as far forward as i could and put some weight in it and it was completely gone. This may not be your problem, but as some other people said, diffidently worth looking at a good bit.

More than likely your DW will be back. If you didn't find the cause and repair it then you only masked it for right now. Castor alone(unless grossly out of adjustment) rarely causes DW.
 
I had bad deathwobble at about 65, especially when i had absolutely nothing in my jeep. Shoved my lower fixed arms as far forward as i could and put some weight in it and it was completely gone. This may not be your problem, but as some other people said, diffidently worth looking at a good bit.

Adjusting the LCAs to be longer, without checking the caster or the front driveshaft's u-joint pinion angle, is recipe for failure.
The added caster helps stabilize the suspension, but as pointed out, it's a band-aid, there is something(s) loose.
Too much front pinion angle can lead to vibs and pinion bearing damage, it's supposed to set at between 1/2 and 1 degree.
 
For the people that don't know, which is a lot, caster angle is at which angle the farthest point of the tires are when turning. If that makes sense. So if you should your lower control arms forward, it would make the tires turn more towards the top, thus lowering the chance of the tires wanting to bounce back and forth=deathwobble. I had bad deathwobble at about 65, especially when i had absolutely nothing in my jeep. Shoved my lower fixed arms as far forward as i could and put some weight in it and it was completely gone. This may not be your problem, but as some other people said, diffidently worth looking at a good bit.

Caster cures wandering, lazy and overly light steering. It also helps handling by increasing camber curve assuming scrub radius isn't too great.

Death wobble is something loose allowing the axle or wheels to oscillate under an otherwise stable and straight vehicle. More caster will just make it easier to control, but if something is loose and causing DW, the caster will just mask the problem until you've really wallered something out.
 
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