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Death Wobble Thread

What was the cause of your death wobble?

  • Track Bar worn or loose

    Votes: 75 29.9%
  • Bad Hubs

    Votes: 11 4.4%
  • Tie Rod ends warn or loose (either drag link or Tie Rod)

    Votes: 32 12.7%
  • Warn Steering Box

    Votes: 9 3.6%
  • Alignment issues

    Votes: 67 26.7%
  • Tire Ballance Problems or out of round tires.

    Votes: 70 27.9%
  • Control Arm Bushings.

    Votes: 35 13.9%
  • Steering stabilizer bad.

    Votes: 35 13.9%
  • Other problem. (please explain)

    Votes: 30 12.0%

  • Total voters
    251

DrMoab

NAXJA Forum User
Hey guys.
I am getting ready to write up an article on Deathwobble and its various causes.

After fighting with a buddies jeep for what seems like an eternity and seeing more threads here then I want to count I thought I would ask the question.

What caused YOUR death wobble?

Here is the rule. You can only reply to this if you know for certian what fixed your problem.
 
Mine was an alignment issue. toe was too far toe'd in.

warn steering box ....:dunno:
 
Went from 2 up to 6". and 30's to 33's.

Adj. Track bar first (still wobbled), then steering stabilizer, adj. lower control arms and an alignment. Fixed, each part did it's thing, if any one were missing, I'm sure it would still wobble.
 
First time, I had DW it went away when I lifted it. 2 years later it is just starting to come back. (worn trac bar bushing and unit bearings going bad)
 
I've has it on 2 xj's in the past. One from alignment/tires(stock CA's on DB's at 7" lift) and the other from Tire balance issues(at least that set it off).

I got it yesterday soo bad I had to come to a stop to stop it. A bad tire started it and it also had a loose connection on the driver side of the tie rod, a slightly worn TRE at the pitman and a loose spindle nut on the drivers side hub. I fixed all the hard parts and that got rid of the occilations. The replacement tire is coming. The tire shimmies after the smallest bumps. I don't run a stabilizer on this Jeep.(I wish I had one yesterday though)

If the alignment and tires are good, the frontend could be pretty loose and it won't death wobble.
 
The Heep had two badly out of round (new TSL bias) tires...a little dance with the truing machine and the balance machine fixed it.
 
When we first got ours (as the wife's daily driver), it was caused by too much toe-in. Other than that, the only thing that's caused it has been out-of-balance tires, once from mud caught in the wheel, and more recently from a severly bent rim and a tire probably 1/4 full of creek water. The guys at Discount Tire got quite a treat when they changed the rim, after a few weeks of fermenting :D

And I don't run a steering stabilizer.
 
Mine was purely alignment related to 3.5" short arm kit - switched to 6" long arm kit and not a single wobble since (5 yrs ago)
 
First time I got DW was from having mismatched tires. I got some used tires and the fronts had worn more than the rears by almost 1/2". I had brought it to a shop to get some work done and they didn't realize the difference in size so I ended up with the matching tires on opposite corners. Once I hit about 45-50 it kicked in. Managed to get back to the shop and had them swap the tires around and it took care of it.

When it came back again it was due to running a stock track bar and CA's with a 3" lift. All the bushings were pretty much shot and the track bar's axle end bolt had wallowed out the hole. One bump at any speed over 40 and it would start.

Last time was after installing the new lift and long arm set up. I forgot to double check the alignment after going from 3" to 7". Pulled out of the garage to test drive it and realized my mistake before I even got down the block.
 
LCA bushings and Alignment hae caused some of mine. I had a wobble between 55-58 MPH for a couple of months.

Alignment wasn't too bad. A tape measure alignment fixed it both times. Didn't need to get it done at a shop.
 
jeepngas said:
Mine was purely alignment related to 3.5" short arm kit - switched to 6" long arm kit and not a single wobble since (5 yrs ago)

:bs:

Probably your bushings were worn OR you had some bunk angles. Short arms or long arms are not the causes of death wobble. I have had short, long, and now on mid. Actually the WORST issue was because of the long arms and the leverage they had on the bushings.

But what do I know? I don't wheel :rolleyes:
 
BRIANHO13 said:
My uppers were too short.

So the good castor was a problem? Or the pinion angle was way off?

Could it have been the bushings in your UCAs?
 
cracker said:
So the good castor was a problem? Or the pinion angle was way off?

Could it have been the bushings in your UCAs?

I believe it was the castor, iirc the bussings were fine.
 
I bought a 97 with death wobble. The people that sold it to me gave me a rediculously good price. I drove it and yes it was super kano death wobble. It scared the bajanglies out of my friend. I laughed. I noticed right off the bat that it had a 2 inch shit lift. U know spacers and blocks. And i bet they didnt even allighn it.
So heres what i did.
I took the lift off, put all new bushings in the control arms. got it allighned and VWAP!!
No death wobble.
That was just to get rid of it so i could drive it around until i lifted it the right way.
About a year or 2 later i decided to put a 5.5 RE XD kit on with the drop brackets. got it allighned and everything ballanced. And BAM!! it was back again. Not super death but still there just waiting to go out of control. Since i replaced both axles and T-case and steering linkage i knew there was nothing else i could do really except check the steering box.
But i dont know the best way to check it if its ZANNOED!
scan112JEEP2.jpg

Your probably wondering whats that stuff on your rack bars?
That is foam tubing with tape and silicone. I put that on so i could keep the canoe from sliding all over the place. It was cheap and it works really good. Has not changed color or fallen apart in almost 5 years. And the one ones on my 92 hasnt fallen apart in like 14 years
 
BRIANHO13 said:
I believe it was the castor, iirc the bussings were fine.

Not that I am, trolling but........

If your UCA are on the short side, then your castor would be BETTER and if you took those off and then placed longer UCAs on it your castor would be WORSE.

How could getting WORSE castor solve a death wobble issue?
 
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