ruckhard

I have been living with death wobble for atleast the past 7 months, here recently I installed rough country 2.5 coil/shock lift with adjustable track bar, synergy grease able ball joints, moog tie rod, and the death wobble went away except for when I would brake it seemed as if I was experiencing bump steer but with out the "bump". After about three days of driving it we were on the road going about 55mph on a not so bumpy road but it was severely windy when all of the sudden DEATH WOBBLE. As you can imagine it was. A huge blow thinking I had finally cured the problem. I will say about 2 months after I gotten my new to me JKU I hit some trails going pretty quick and they were very bumpy also I took it mudding but at the time I had no idea about jeeps all I knew was that I had bought the epitome of an off road vehicle so I thought I wasn't doing any harm by driving it like I was. A few days after that I was on the interstate speeding up towards the speed limit when bam all of the sudden around 40-45mph I experienced death wobble, and not knowing what it was I thought I had just blown a tire. I did some searches and that's when I found out that I wasn't alone. One thing that did fix it (or slapped a band-aid on the problem) was I had put 315s all around except for the front driver side wheel because the wheel company had sent me the wrong bolt pattern so I drove it like that about a week and my death wobble was complete gone by having two different size tires on the front I could drive 75mph without a problem. I can not figure out what could of been putting tensions on the suspension to fix my problem. Sorry for the long spill but I don't know where to turn, I've even taken it to a mechanic and they told
Me my rotors were warped. That's when I knew I had to fix this myself I just don't know where to begin. Another clue is the bolt on the pitman arm is scraping a peace of metal right above it. I am out of ideas, next thing I'll be checking is my gear box but I honestly don't know if I'm on the correct path.

planman

All your answers are in the first two posts of this thread.

Because you continue to drive the Jeep through multiple episodes of death wobble, you likely damaged multiple components in your front end and steering system.

Because you had death wobble since installing new components, they could be damaged already.

You need to go through the thorough written inspection checklist.

If it were your rotors, it would happen every single time you break, and immediately stop when you let off the brakes.

ruckhard

I knew it was not the rotors because it didn't happen every time I would break it would only happen when I would drive past 40-45mph. When I asked the mechanic if he had heard of death wobble he said "yeah when I'm going 120+mph on my bike", that's when I knew I had to diagnose this problem by reading online threads. We checked the track bar and the trackbar bolt holes and they were not ovaled out and there was no clunking noise during inspection of turning the steering wheel side to side. I did replace my tie rod end and my death wobble was gone for about a day. I never allowed to have a severe death wobble like
My first experience and thankfully the town I live in you really don't go over 35mph around town. Once I noticed death wobble would want to start I went ahead and replaced the track bar, ball joints and a new moog tie rod. This is what I noticed was rubbing even before my lift or the purchase of any suspension mods trying to fix death wobble



Could it be due to a damaged steering sector shaft?



Or just a messed up gear box?

I thank you for replying to my post, I know you don't have to and are doing so just to help another fellow jeep owner fix his vehicle. I appreciate your comments and I will go through the checklist again and comb through it with a fine tooth comb to see what I have missed....again thanks

planman

The fact that changing the tie rod end made a difference tells me that the inspection needs to be more thorough and aggressive.

When I get home tonight, I'll look a our JK steering box and pitman arm side drag link end clearance to see if ours is close to having a clearance problem like yours.

Jade_Monkey07

I bent my sector shaft hitting a embankment on the driver side at Christmas. Did the same as your pictures show, bent up and toward the drivers side.The shop didnt believe me"they dont bend they snap" When they finally got the steering box out you could clearly see the damage. New box went in and its 85% better. Iv still got a vague feeling in the steering wheel but its safe to drive again.

You should be able to fit your finger between the frame and the pitman arm/draglink bolt

I dont always drive where others cant. but when I do, its in my Jeep. Stay muddy my friends

ruckhard

Thank you for taking the time to check yours. I am off for the next few days so I will go through it again in hopes of finding the culprit ruining my suspension.

planman

You'll find them. Let us know.

AaronJK

I found a nice simple sector shaft brace from a company called Rock Solid Performance. I noticed a definite clunk in my steering and when I went through the list the clunking was coming from the steering box. I bought and installed that brace as a band aid till I get around to rebuilding the box. It took the clunk out and some of the wandering feeling as well.

Also, I recently noticed that the steering gear was limiting my steering, not the stops on the axle. I was at full lock with about 1/8" till the bolt would hit the stop on both sides. I fixed that now, so hopefully it'll take a little more of the stress off the steering gear.

WilKJ

I took mine into the dealer....
Replaced steering dampener.
I need to spend some time and do the diagnostic. I couldn't see any movement, im also changing the M14 bolts soon.

bantici

Ok so I haven't experienced a full on death wobble yet but I've got a problem and looking for some advice.. 25k miles on my jku 3.5 coil lift factory shocks and steering stabilizer 35" tires and everything else stock except springs and longer sway bar linkages... At low speeds hitting big bumps causes a few seconds of a slight/moderate wobble in the steering I don't think with this low of mileage anything should be worn enough to cause the wobble but the steering stabalizer.. Any advice? I don't want to prematurely replace the stabilizer and mask a more serious issue..