Hey all, so I've got this death wobble in my Jeep and I can't seem to figure it out.

Desc of problem:
When driving, as the Jeep reaches about 37MPH (and up to about 44MPH) I start to get a little shimmy in the steering wheel, and you can feel that it runs through the whole drive train. If I accellerate hard, I can pass through it, usually without it getting too much worse. If I'm not accellerating hard enough and I hit a bump, it can cause this violent shaking of the transmission and probably everything in the driveline. The stick will shake about 2 feet left and right quite violently and I have to take it out of gear and brake hard to make it stop. My buddy was following me down to the driveshaft place to pick up the new driveshaft when it happened and he said he could see the wheels bouncing like crazy. He said it looked like it smushed the tire as the opposite side of the axle would come up. I can feel it too, it feels like the axles are violently articulating, and possibly, when the front left comes up off the ground, the rear right is coming up off the ground, but I'm not 100% sure of that. He didn't give me a real good description of what was going on, cause he's not very observant lol, and I don't trust anyone to drive my Jeep, especially when it's having this problem, so I have never seen it from the outside.

Some things I have done to try and correct the problem:

1. Wheels and Tires Ballanced
2. Alignment
3. Replaced OEM rear driveshaft with a nice upgraded 3 U-Joint deal with SYE

Some specs on my Jeep (everything is in my profile as well):

1. 2 Door 2007 Jeep Wrangler X
2. 3" Full Traction Econo lift (not using the rear track bar bracket as it caused ESP problems)
3. 315/75 R16 Mickey Thompson Baja Claws

Does anyone have any ideas what could be the problem, or ideas on what I should check when I get home from work tonight? I need to square this away and I can't find anything wrong.

Thanks in advance for any help you could provide =)
Vinny

 

there is tons of info on this very subject here on the forum. it is a common problem. just type in death wobble in the search and try to figure out your scenario. here's a link to get ya started. https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/show...t=death+wobble hope that helps.

 

^^^^This. The Planman's thread is the Holy Grail of Death Wobble diagnosis. Just go through his checklist step by step, and you should be covered.

 

Believe me I have searched this forum about 200 times for this issue (as well as Google). I haven't found a similar case to mine yet.

 

Actually, I don't understand how I have not seen this post yet, I am certain I have never even seen that picture before. Apparently my search is inferior to yours lol. Thanks dude, this is a great place to start. I'll post again if I can't figure it out from this one.

 

I had to change my front track bar 3 times before I ended up with one stiff enough not to give me death wobble. The RK one is rock solid and solved my issues. Good luck!

 

rock krawler trackbars and a currie draglink flip solved my d/w

 

Was this Death wobble case ever fixed ??

 

I know how frustrating a death wobble can be! I recently had a death wobble. Fortunately, I seem to have fixed it. I did several things to fix it, but I believe installing an new drag link flip kit and pitman arm was the solution. But, for the benefit of full disclosure, I also did a tire balance, rotation and alignment and retorqued the suspension.

I am very pleased that my death wobble is fixed and my JK has never driven better! I believe the drag link flip, which raised the trackbar mounting 3" and restored my steering geometry close to factory design, was the key that fixed my death wobble problem. It really smoothed out everything and now my Jeep handles great!

I wonder if your problem is some how related to lifting your Jeep. When you lifted your Jeep, you changed your steering geometry. Others are much more knowledgable than I but, I wanted to share with you what my experience was and how I resolved it.

Good luck!

 

Yeah, it was my ball joints. Had them replaced, did another Rubicon Trail run, already need new ones again =/