Hi group!

I have been chasing death wobble for about 2 months or more. I am providing a very detailed and lengthy description of my efforts and how this all began. First I'll give you my Jeep info and then the background.

2015 JKU, auto
4" lift (unknown company to me)
35x12.5x17 Radar Renegade RT tires, 28psi
CavFab 1 ton steering
RC double cardan front driveshaft
Bilstein 5100 series shocks front and rear

The journey:
North GA had significant snow in January and freezing/below freezing temps for almost 2wks at mountain elevation. The forest roads sustained a lot of damage and erosion from frequent abuse and things melting and refreezing multiple times. The roads were not smooth to begin with and existing potholes or other eroded areas got bigger and deeper. A normal 15" wide x 6" deep hole grew to cover most of the width of the road and depth increased to about 18". The erosion and growth of that hole was unknown and unexpected to me when I came thru at my normal speed of 25-30mph (I don't need to hear about my speed, thank you).

I noticed later that day on pavement that things felt off/a steering shimmy had developed, but nothing appeared damaged. That was 2/13/25.

Here is a timeline of my front end issues and efforts to fix them. As of today 5/18, I'm still chasing death wobble. So I'd like yall to read over, let me know if something was missed on inspections and testing, where to go from here etc. I'm going to include everything i think is relevant, including some service work prior to February 2025. I also have used my same 2 normal shops (a Jeep/offroad shop and a regular shop) for all of the work except for the last alignment done on 5/5/25.


11/2024 - front driver wheel hub replaced

NYE 2024 - tire rotation

2/13/25 - slammed front end into hole described above

3/5/25 - tire rotation, auto transmission fluid change, checked/torqued/marked all suspension and steering bolts, greased fittings/checked bushings. He said my drag link ends looked and sounded worn (stethoscope) and also that when doing steering shimmies that the track bar looks like it's flexing.

3/14/25 - full on DW on the freeway at 65mph

3/18/25 - auto transmission check, discovered bad ball joint, oil cooler checked for a nonpressurized coolant leak.

3/19/25- replaced radiator, topped off coolant/burped

3/24/25 - installed Trail Forged 1 ton (Apex) replacement drag link ends. Alignment by hand and not machine. Steering shimmy still very present.

4/14/25 - installed Teraflex HD ball joints, new brake rotors and pads all around (no alignment yet because other work scheduled a week later - Jeep was driven very minimally)

4/23/25 - installed Core 4x4 adjustable front LCAs

4/24/25 - alignment (screenshot of the measurements is at the bottom of this post), had DW at 35mph on way home in a slight curve. Discovered drag link jam nut was finger loose. Tightened it, dropped psi down from 28 to 26 and did another short drive and had DW at 40mph in another curve.

4/29/25 - returned to shop. All weights stripped from wheels, wheels checked for any damage/bent, rebalanced and rotated around and put back on. No adjustments/alignments done. DW about 40mph on way home.

4/30/25 - purchased 5 used 37" Mickey T Baja Boss. The wear is not even, but is not real bad.

5/2/25 - installed RC adjustable track bar, mount and balance the 37s

5/5/25 - alignment. Toed me out a little. Did not provide me the numbers. Said he did not touch my caster because it was in the right specs. Said he felt front driveline vibration and my pinion angle was probably off and that I should install front adjustable UCAs to really dial in the total caster. They drove it several times at high and low speeds and no wobble. Unfortunately, I had DW later that day.

5/7/25 - 5/14/25 - inspected, test drove, tried to duplicate DW. Felt play in steering box and swapped out from an existing JK. Advised to order a steering box (RedHead, non ported). Swapping the box there was still a bit of play but not as bad as the one they took out. Drove many miles in many different speeds and could not reproduce DW. I live 5 miles from shop and had DW twice on way home. New steering box has been ordered and will arrive next week.

I have since ordered the upgraded track bar and control arms grade 8 bolt kit with the 14mm additional bolt and those will be replaced on Wednesday while we're waiting for the steering box.

As you can see, I believe we've exhausted damn near everything on the death wobble checklist, with things being checked and/or retorqued to over 125 ft lbs upon each shop visit.

If these bolts and this steering box dont fix this, I'm honestly at a loss now.

I am seeking advice on other things to check, also what my alignment numbers should be, do I really need the front adjustable UCAs?

What else? Bad wheel hubs, weakened weld joints, bent axle tube(s), worn shocks? I've spent about $3K in parts and labor in the last 2 months and I'm genuinely afraid to drive my Jeep.



Alignment specs from April. The next alignment they toed-out some but gave me no numbers. Currently caster is what is set on this photo.

 

I would first, ignore everything you have done to this point and start from square one.

I don't care that they were replaced, i would jack up that front axle, support it on jack stands, put a shovel on the front tire and step on the handle....inspect for any movement where the knuckle meets the C by the upper ball joint. you should have no movement there. Flexing with the pressure is ok, but you should not see the knuckle moving up/down. I've personally had bad ball joints right out of the box before, and i'm not talking cheap OEM stuff.

Next I would have someone sit in the jeep and turn the steering wheel back and forth WITHOUT the jeep on. There will be enough pressure to observe any movement at the track bar frame side joint/bracket. You should not see that sucker moving much at all. If there is any movement at all you might pull the bolt out and observe the TB braket holes for any wallowing out from the previous wobbles.

It takes such little slop in a TB joint or bracket, or an undertorqued TB bolt to create a wobble. In my experience, and I've got plenty of it, it often takes TWO bad things to create true DW. the system can typically recover from 1 bad joint/bolt with simple bump steer or other feedback, but when you have 2 things wrong in the system (2 bad BJs, bad BJ + TB issue, etc) that is when that simple feedback hits the other bad gremlin and all hell breaks loose. Also, I'd say about 90% of the time, at least, DW issues will boil back down to BJs or TB. If it is really DW, you should be able to pretty much recreate it at will by intentionally hitting potholes or bumps in the road, even at lower speeds.

The real issue is a good case of DW really wears those other components out and you can set down the goosechase. i think in this situation it might be best to forget what you've done previously and set forward with fresh mind and logical thinking. i've been in that situation myself before and have to force myself to take a step back and think. The one thing that is harder to determine is the steering box itself, and i find it harder to believe you might have had a crap box that you swapped out with another crap box.....the odds of that are slimmer at least. also, the bigger heavier tires only accentuated the issue. 37s are pretty hard on ball joints.

 

I am pretty sure you can do what I advised my son to do about 500 times before he listened. His tires (and probably yours) are the main cause and what had happened was a tire store was doing checks with everything almost like new with joints, connections etc. They balanced one tire and it did balance but advised never to put it on the front and that was because the tire had cord shift in it. That would create side to side forces which could start DW. He had 35"x15x 12.5" tires from Mickey Thompson MTs. Anyway on the 499th time I advised him to get rid of the tires he said they were good a year ago and would keep them. That shift in cords is what the tire guy said is caused by air downs and impacts on the trail. Tires were not designed to be aired down even though we all do it. On the 500th time he finally snagged a set of 2018 Willys wheels and stock 255/17/70 tires and guess what? No DW. Backspacing is also a contributor as you are moving the centerline of the wheel away from the steering pivots aka the ball joints centerline. This is why the best solution is 3/4 or 1 ton diffs that are wider for clearance in order to run stock offset wheels with wider tires. Try the 255 tires and stock wheels and see if that makes a difference. Son had a couple of places that guaranteed him DW with the MT tires and now nothing with not a single other component changed. Note: on my worn UCAs, worn ball joints and 250,000km sloppy steering on stock wheels, stock offset with 34" high Toyos on it no death wobble. Gotta ask why others are chasing their tails with DW - I always blame tires (not necessarily balancing) and offset.

 

any further progress on this issue?

 

Hi, my update is that I purchased new Spicer front wheel hubs and my RedHead steering box has been here a week. My appointment at my 4x4 shop is Monday 6/2. Gonna try the hubs first. Test drive. Replace steering box if necessary. Burn it to the ground and file a claim if all else fails. (Kidding)

 

I am not sold on the tires being the issue. Tires are "new". I was getting crap on Facebook groups for my 35 inch "junk" tires from Radar, that gave me no wobble issues for 35K miles. I had ZERO issues until I slammed into that deep pothole on the forest road going so fast. I've tried everything - almost. I do agree increasing to 37" has made it very much more pronounced.

Trying front wheel hubs on Monday 6/2. There is a noise when doing a tire check on jack stands, and moving wheels from front to back did not make the noise go away or the wobble.

 

Hi, it's been a week since I had final repairs done on this issue.



Happy to say, I haven't updated because I've been busy driving my Jeep!!! ✌️✌️ Have done almost 900 miles since 6/2.



We tried the hubs first. Did not make a difference. We then added more caster, did not make a difference. In the end, we did install the RedHead non-ported gear box and I guess that was the ultimate fix. I still have a shimmy or uneven ride, but zero wobble. The used tires I bought off Facebook have great life left in them but are a little cupped, so I'm almost positive that's my shimmy. I'm gonna run these down and rotate more frequently and then invest in brand new tires.

Thanks for the replies!

 

Sorry to be so blunt but Mickey Thompson tires are crap at speed on the highway. Son's were good for about a year then it happened. They are great offroad tires though but that does not get you home from wheeling. Try a set of stockers if someone can lend you some. We proved it with the son's jeep and it took about 500 times before he listened to me and his Tire Store Manager friend. No harm in that instead of throwing money at it.

 

Or... try balance beads. Yes, Mickey's has a reputation for getting out of balance. But balance beads (a good quality set, not airsoft ones) take a bit of getting used to. After the Jeep has been sitting for a while, they start out a bit, um... "out of balance", but once you get them spun around, they're good for the day. No matter how much mud, wheel slippage, or whatever you throw at them, they'll be smooth as silk on the highway. This assumes, of course, that you use enough beads to counteract (also the name of the beads I use) the wheel/tire balance issues. Never been a fan of balance beads until I tried them with my Mickey's.

 

Good point AZ but in my son's case the tires would balance perfectly but they had side to side runoff which his tire shop friend said could cause and explain why DW at that time. He had absolute guranteed spots to cause DW and now with a set of stock Willy's wheels he hits the same spots and no DW with no other mods or alterations other than MT tire removal.