waterboy222

I'm having some DW issues with my 2013 JKU 10A. I have 35's with a 4" lift and followed all the youtube guides and replaced almost everything.

First time I started this I discovered the hole for the frame side trackbar mount was oval shaped and loose. I drilled the hole out and replaced with appropriate size bushing, sleeve and hardware and torqued properly. That only seemed to make the issue worse. I got back under the jeep and found the axle end of the track bar had slack in it as well. I pulled it and replaced the heim joint at the end and retorqued everything. It got a little better and I thought I had it fixed, hit a manhole cover with the front right tire on the way home a couple days later and got a wicked death wobble out of it and it went right back to being as bad as it was in the beginning. I went the rookie route and replaced the steering stabilizer and changed all the hardware to the grade 8 in the recommended sizes and still didn't cure it (even though I only half believed it would fix it in the first place). Finally took the jeep in for new balljoints and that made a huge difference. I was convinced that was where the issue was coming from and replacements had cured it. I drove the jeep on a 2200 mile trip to do the Alpine Loop two weeks ago and had zero issues. Steering felt heavier after the balljoints and not even a hint of death wobble the entire trip. I let the old girl sit for about 8 days while I got the Thanksgiving stuff behind us. Drove it this morning and had a severe DW incident at only 15-20 mph. I was slowing down for a red light and decided to change lanes at the last second and when I crossed the little ruts at the intersection, that's when it happened. Brought it back to the office and checked the torque on all my bolts and cycled the steering. I can't find anything loose anywhere. Every item I touch cycles smoothly with no bumps. What am I missing?
So Far:
Replaced all 4 tires
Balanced and rebalanced wheels
rebuilt trackbar
repaired frame side trackbar mount
swapped hardware
New balljoints
New stabilizer
4 wheel alignment
rebuilt X-flex joints on control arms
replaced axle side bushings on control arms

The only slack I can feel is the rotation in the tie bar, but it seems to match every other jeep I've seen. The only difference between the DW initially and now is that it happened under braking, or at least it starting during braking. I had to come to a complete stop to get it to stop. Any suggestions? Will flipping the steering be a cure for this? I have 35,000 miles on the jeep and it's had the lift since day one. It does have a drop pitman arm but I'm not sure if thats contributing to the issue or not.

Ajkaz

Check both your drag link ends and tie rod ends for play. Something in the front suspension still has play in it which is causing your DW. Check for play in your front wheel bearings, they could also be adding to the cause.

A draglink flip will not cure the DW unless its your draglink that has a bad end on it. That being said, if you have proper bump stops a DL flip will definitely improve your handling at 4" of lift.

resharp001

When you say you repaired the frame side track bar bracket, what did you do exactly? I would have looked at a quality track bar bracket like what Synergy makes. It goes over the cheap factory bracket and reinforces that bolt hole, and even if the factory hole is wallowed out, you'd have a nice fresh hole in the 3/16" bracket. I'm going to put my $5 on you having continued issues with the TB bracket causing your DW. I subscribe to the theory that worn joints can TRIGGER DW, but it is loose bolts that CAUSE DW, and it is more often than not comes back to the track bar. I will qualify that by saying a tight TB bolt in a wallowed out hole is essentially the same as a loose bolt. Also, once you have a good case of DW, it can reek havoc on your other joints. I wouldn't be surprised if the original DW caused the ball joints to crap out.....although you might have had a loose bolt and bad ball joints triggered the wobble before.....then the bolt goes crazy and wallows out that hole during the shake.

I would walk through Planman's videos can check all your joints. Have someone sit in the jeep and steer back and forth as you inspect all the steering components. Again, my bet is on issues with the track bar frame side bracket still unless I've just totally misunderstood your original post.

For your convenience if you have not been through these -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uQwlmlhiF4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii81V7XYr-k

waterboy222

Those are the videos I followed when looking for the issues. I can't find the write-up on it now but basically you drill out the wallowed out hole to a 1/2" and order matching replacement bushings and sleeve for the trackbar and use the larger size bolt . I think poly performance was the brand name of the bushing I used. I can't find any movement in the TB mounts at all now, not even in the least.. I've even put the tire up against a wall and steered into it while watching the mounts and can't find any play.

After getting some time at lunch to look again using a massive pair of channel locks, I think I can see a tad bit of play in the tie rod end on the drag link.. I guess that is where I will go next..

resharp001

For your DL, TR, and ball joints, you're going to look for up/down movement. I recently had a bad DL joint. with someone in the jeep steering back and forth, it should be easy to spot a bad joint with some up/down movement. You didn't mention which ball joints you had installed. I'd even jack that front up and test those using a shovel or the like as leverage underneath the tire.

I also don't see you mention which track bar you have. So the bushing you put in the TB was an older poly style bushing with a sleeve through it? Everyone seems to be moving away from those as they just seem to have too much play for that particular joint. Synergy is now using a new DDM bushing there instead of the old poly joint, and RK is using their anti wobble joint. For all the force that the TB takes, I just don't trust that factory 1/8" bracket. For me, reinforcing that bracket was peace of mind. If you've sat and watched that frame side TB joint and it's not moving back and forth then I'll take your word for it......but I've driven with bad ball joints and bad DL joints before, and you get a wiggle/shimmy hitting bumps, but not DW. More like solid bump steer instead. Just my 2c.

Mark Doiron

I agree with this. Assuming your mods are using typical bolt sizes, you probably have 9/16" bolts for the drag link and trackbar (OEM is 14 mm, IIRC). If you pull one of those bolts and take it to a hardware store, you should be able to find 1/2" washers that fit tightly over those bolts (my experience is that about nine out of ten washers will fit all the way and tight--the rest won't fit quite all of the way). Take those washers and weld them over the bolt holes. That will eliminate the play, and fix any hogging out of the holes from past DW incidents.

Cooljay12

I had a similar issue with my 2013 JKU-35's w/3.5 RE lift. Although I replaced the complete tie rod, steering stabilizer (FOX 2.0), and drag link, it wasn't until I switched over to Rough Country duel stabilizer that the DW went away.

Now, I realize RC doesn't exactly have the most impressive products, but for $129 the problem disappeared and she's driving like new again. I had one of the shocks fail a few months into use, and to my surprise I made a warranty call and a new one was shipped and at my door before the weeks' end. If you're not satisfied with the quality of the stabilizer shock, it has the same compressed and extended size as the Fox 2.0, so you can switch it out down the road.

Ajkaz

You are only masking an underlying suspension issue by doing this. Being that running with no stabilizer doesn't cause DW adding a dual or upgraded single stabilizer cannot fix it. You still have unaddressed play in your suspension that caused the DW, your dual stabilizer is only a Band-Aid for this.

Smudgeontheglass

What is your castor angle at? I'm assuming with a 4" lift you have control arms, and if you're running 35s you should have at least 5-6 degrees of castor. I used a geometry correction bracket on my 2.5" lift to correct a lot of wobble I was experiencing on mine.

resharp001

+1,000,000

If you have a bad DL joint, you should see up/down movement in that while someone is turning the steering wheel back and forth.....and when you're driving and you hit a solid bump or pothole, you should get a decent bump steer (steering wheel jerks in your hand) once or so. A bad DL joint should't carry out full DW by itself, but it could surely trigger/set it off. I've had bad DL joints before. The symptom seems to be big bump steer and then return to normal after a moment.

I agree with this as well as the cheap and you're extremely handy method. It accomplishes the same thing as a reinforced TB bracket. I'm just very skeptical of addressing the wallowed hole by addressing the bushing in the TB rather than just addressing the bracket itself. All my first/second hand experiences with DW have at some point led back to that TB. They've been TRIGGERED by various things, but always come back to that TB. I STILL think this could be the source of your issue, but I'm going to just shut up and watch.