boon4376

I bent my tie rod off roading a bit and now I'm getting some death wobble at highway speeds typically between 55 and 75 miles per hour when I hit a good sized bump. I'm wondering if I took out my tie rod ends with the tie rod when it got hit.

should I attempt to get an alignment?
do I need a new Tie rod or can on alignment and possibly new tie rod ends take care of it?
any advice or suggestions are welcome!
Thanks



update: see tie rod end video below

JKBud

You can check if there's play in your tie rod ends by using a pair of channel locks and if there is they need to be replaced.

meep97

Check your toe. With the rod being that bent your toe will probably be off. If it is off, just adjust your toe. A bent tie rod won't necessary effect anything as long as the toe is set to spec.

Invest2m4

Well, your tie rod determines toe. If you bent it, your toe is off (hence the death wobble). I guess you could see if you could get it adjusted to get the toe back in spec. If you don't want to spend the money right now, the cheap approach is to adjust it to the correct toe in your driveway. About an 1/8" toe-in is a good target. Jack it up and measure away.

boon4376

Are these things really that sensitive to wobble that toe in would cause it?

meep97

Too much toe in can cause DW, excessive tire wear, and even change your chamber. The max toe in for a JK is an 1/8 inch. With your tie rod being that bent I'm willing to bet your toe in is well beyond the max spec.

D_engel

death wobble wont occur at speeds that high. Its essentially just your tires binding and hopping due to excessive toe in. Like the others said, adjust your toe and go for a cruise.

boon4376

This is a video of channel locks on my tie rod ends. The passengers side does have more play than the drivers side. The drivers side took a bit more force to make budge the little that it did. I'm not sure if this is considered "normal" or not.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBhLBGT87qc I'll do a self-alignment check tomorrow in the driveway and see how it looks. I bought a couple 2"x2"x8' lumber pieces that I can lay across the front and rear of the tires and use a level and the tire lugs to ensure I'm measuring from the same spot

boon4376

Now I have just read that this is a really inaccurate way of testing tie rod ends.
See thread: https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/stoc...-ends-77299/#b

Any thoughts?

boon4376

I think you were right, I adjusted it to 1/16th an inch and I couldn't make it come back driving around back roads at 60 mph and some highway driving at 75mph.

There was one big bump where it started to shimmy, but it went away after a couple seconds - previously it would have deteriorated into a full on wobble.

Looks like I'm good!

This was my setup for the alignment.