techd00d

So I have had a hell of a time lately with death wobble. I've been through it before so am pretty familiar with the diagnosis and fix options. Read Planman's excellent thread and still it persists!

I got it captured on the gopro today and would love to hear some opinions.

http://youtu.be/cfeGCr5ZFew Done so far within the last 2 weeks:

• Replaced all 4 ball joints with Synergy units. Already had Dynatrac balljoints for about a year but the lowers got torn up from the wobble. For the price of rebuilding the dynatrac's I opted to replace the entire ball joints.
• Replaced all applicable bolts to grade 8 9/16 shouldered bolts as appose to the factory 14mm fully threaded units. Control arms, track bar, and a couple others.
• Re-torqued every single bolt under the jeep, front and rear to specs and a little beyond if anything.
• Replaced Currie tie rod end cartridges.
• replaced upper and lower drag link ends (it is a synergy drag link)
• checked both ends of track bar (JKS) and they are solid as can be.
• Bold holes in track bar and all control arms are solid and not wallowed out.
• Replaced both knuckles out of fear a hole was wallowed out with Reid racing knuckles
• Aligned everything both at home and at a shop. 1/4" toe in, 6.5deg caster. Tried caster all the way down to 2.5deg with no change. Drives better with higher caster. I don't have driveline issues with high caster as the axle was re-tubed and pinion angle was addressed allowing for higher caster. Professional laser alignment only confirmed my numbers, nothing was out of place.
• Adjusted front and rear track bars so both axles are within 1/8" of center.
• Tried different tire pressures, from 20-40psi
• Tires are about 1 month old and were balanced twice since then to be sure it didn't throw a weight.
• Checked wheel hubs for play, none found. Only about 1 year old anyway. Previously replaced.
• Has JKS sector shaft brace and upper track bar re-enforcement kit. Solid, and no wallowed holes.
• Has Artec lower track bar bracket which ties into the Artec truss. Very solid, no wallowed holes.
• Fox steering stabilizer that appears very solid, tough to move by hand when off the jeep.

There may be a few other things I have done but can't think of them now.

An obvious oddity would appear to be the motor mounts. I can't imagine there should be that much play there. But can that really CAUSE death wobble or is that a result of the wobble caused somewhere else? Either way needs to be addressed but cause? Will also sure up the axle side steering stabilizer mount, seems to move a little in the video but cant imagine that's enough to cause the issue either. Stabilizer is more of a band-aid anyway.

Any thoughts anyone else has are welcome! I am considering going with the PSC ram assist kit that includes their new steering box in case the steering box is any part of the issue. I do feel play in the box but not THAT much. The wife would kill me if I Dropped a couple thousand on that setup and the problem still occurred though. So I am trying to eliminate as much as I can before that point.

Monte417

wow sounds like you have a very well built front end. The one time I had wobble it was loose front lower control bolts arm and axle side trackbar bolts. After i tightened up everything it came back a few weeks later. The reason being that the previous episode of dw toasted my bushings on one of the control arms and trackbar. check your bushings even if they are torqued to spec and relatively new. Same thing with your tie rod and draglink ends just one episode of dw can toast those to. my buddy had to replace his tie rod entirely because his loose trackbar bolt which caused his dw toasted his tie rod ends. good luck

Blade

Have you replaced your trackbar yet, or just the bolts? The axle is bouncing side to side like that is the problem. Steering and ball joints look solid throughout the video, but the trackbar looks bad.

Donttread

How new are your tires? I had a road force balance done and both tires were bad with 80% tread left. Replaced tires and no more wobble.

FlexyJK

Have you checked the unit bearings? I know when i had this problem mine were shot. I cant say it was the problem, but i replaced them along with ball joints and new trac bar.

Killfoot1775

I feel you dude, death wobble blows!!!

Sent from my free Obama iPhone using JK-Forum

backwoodjk

I am thinking track bar. There are some threads on the jks track bars flexing. I think jks has three or more redesigns of the track bar. See if you can borrow a stock one and test it out.

tltony

Good job with the Jeep and the video, that helps a lot. If you look at the slow speed, you can see the coilovers swinging side to side, meaning the axle's moving side to side that much also. The placement of the go pro blocks a clear view of the track rod though. Move the camera so that you get a better view, and try to figure out if the bar is bending, or the brackets are flexing, or a hiem is loose or a combination of all those things. If it were me I would concentrate on that first. It might take a custom set of fabbed chrom- moly track rod brackets holding some 1 1/4" heims and 2" chromo tubing, or the like. Off road race car stuff.
Also, how many miles on the steering gear box? A fresh box will probably help temporarily, since you said it has some play in it but you'll just pound out the box pretty quickly again until things are stabilized better. Might need to put in a "Howe Power Steering" box, pump and external ram to tighten things up on the steering for the long term.
Tony

Sahara Lee

I haven't seen an engine move that much since I tore-up the motor mounts in my 1995 XJ.

Jeepstin12

A few things cause it. Wheel balance, bent wheel, loose connections, bad alignment. Follow the line and correct.