death wobble

[erick]

i'm running a 3inch black diamond lift with 265/75s so nothing big. had this set up for over a year with no issues until a couple of weeks ago. now at 50mph or highway speeds the whole jeep will shake. if i hit a bump on the highway its so bad i have to pull over. wheels are balanced and the alignment is good so whats next? any ideas?

[Jeeper4life]

when you had the alignment done did they do a Toe and go or did they do a full alignment. it sounds like the problem I had on my old XJ the caster was off so I got a REAL bad Death wobble from the front end. try looking into that. If you have a stearing stablizer that could be the problem as well. but the likelyhood of that is slim.

[belltom]

Check the track bar for any play at both ends. Caster can contribute too, but with a 3" lift it won't be off much.

[erick]

i had a full alignment done to include a caster adjustment.

[keg2881]

Unit Bearings maybe!!!

[erick]

unit bearings???

[erick]

is it possible my shocks are bad?

[red rubicon]

Good luck same set up except I have a 3 inch full traction and I have been chasen DW for two years now. same thing worked great for about 6 months and ever since then :eek:

[erick]

wow red that isn't really want i want to hear. do you have the oem track bars? i'm wondering if thats the direction i'm headed, new parts.

[jkrubi]

make sure track bar is properly torqued.

check joints on control arm ends to make sure they aren't falling apart.

jack up the front wheels one at a time and grab the top of the tire and try to rock it back and forth to see if there is any play in the ball joints.
l
ay under the jeep and have someone turn the steering wheel while you watch the tie rod and draglink to make sure they are moving in unison and one doesn't move before the other does - could show bad ball joints.

[red rubicon]

wow red that isn't really want i want to hear. do you have the oem track bars? i'm wondering if thats the direction i'm headed, new parts.

Yes but it is in good shape. I have had several people look at it also we are at a lost as to what is causing mine. If you do a DW search you should find a forum i started on mine a few years back. It is very lenghty with tons oof ideas and suggestions. It could be a .02 washer all the way up to remounting the LCA brackets on the axle. Good luck if you find out what it is on yours let me know maybe it will fix mine.

Plus I have paid several for several front end alignments thinking maybe the guy before did not know what he was doing.

[Don]

i'm running a 3inch black diamond lift with 265/75s so nothing big. had this set up for over a year with no issues until a couple of weeks ago. now at 50mph or highway speeds the whole jeep will shake. if i hit a bump on the highway its so bad i have to pull over. wheels are balanced and the alignment is good so whats next? any ideas?

I assume we are talking about a JK?

Air pressure good in all tires, no tread problems.

Track bars........ check both front and rear.... check bushings at both ends...... if there is wobble room, you will have a problem.

[swampdonkey]

Erick, I had a problem with DW after having my lift on for a couple of years. I just solved it with a new front adjustable track bar over the weekend. It was about $175 but worth it rather than killing myself on the highway. I went with the RE track bar, but there are many others out there to choose from. I tried all the fixes listed above with no avail., I talked with someone at a local 4x4 shop and he suggested trying the track bar right off the bat when I described what was taking place. Hope this helps!!!

Oh!! I had already installed a Teraflex front track bar but the tierod end on it wore out and is not replacable, that is why I went with the RE one, it has a replacable heim joint.

[YJason]

Have you checked your steering stabilizer?

[belltom]

With Denise's 4 1/2 inch lift plus 1" body lift, it took an alignment, adjustable track bar, and adustable lower control arms. The lowers were needed because the standard caster adjustment by rotating the cam-bolts did not offer enough adjustment to push the front axle forward enough.

[erick]

yep its a JK. some really good ideas here. the track bar i have is adjustable, came with the kit. i was thinking i would need upper and lower control arms. steering stabilizer is brand new that was my first suspect since i bent the oem one.

[jkrubi]

Have you checked your steering stabilizer?

a bad steering stabilizer is NEVER the cause, NOR the solution to death wobble.

if replacing your stabilizer gets rid of DW, then the cause of the DW is still there. you didn't address the actual cause. you just covered it up with a band-aid.

[erick]

yeah i think i'm going with control arms. everything else seems to checck out.

[belltom]

yeah i think i'm going with control arms. everything else seems to checck out.

I would start with front lowers and work from there. It solved Denise's problem.

[BrianM]

This thread works for me too, mine just started doing the DW last week so this helps me out too.

[baracuda]

a bad steering stabilizer is NEVER the cause, NOR the solution to death wobble.

if replacing your stabilizer gets rid of DW, then the cause of the DW is still there. you didn't address the actual cause. you just covered it up with a band-aid.

that could be why DW is just now showing up.