As far as lock washers go, its not the right application. First off, a properly torqued bolt will hold better than a lock washer. Second, a properly used lock washer is never mashed flat, it is left with some space in it and the amount of torque required for these bolts will mash that sucker into a pancake.

Lock washers are generally used for applications where you have two very different materials, like a steel bolt into aluminum where you cannot torque to spec. Also in some very specific applications where you need to allow for some level of controlled movement in a mounted item and the lock washer then acts as a spring allowing for movement. Also there is something that has to do with rotating joints, but I can't seem to remember right now.

So the answer to using lock washers is don't bother since it will get crushed not serve its purpose. Also it is incapable of evenly distributing pressure, like a regular washer, so it will actually do more harm than good.

 

Thanks for the quick reply. I was thinking on the same lines but since we were talking engineer speak, I figured I would throw that out.

 

precisely my point

 

I don't know how I would explain death wobble on a bone stock JK with this theory. Perhaps the specs that DC uses are bad? Doubt it, but you never know. Maybe they had a run of bad bolts? It happens. I guess there could be a myriad of reasons where you relate the problem in a stock vehicle to this cause, though I understand I am grasping at straws here.

Anyway, I'm not saying it is the cause, just that it could be one of many causes and that I haven't seen it mentioned on here before. Either which way, bolts aren't that expensive, and IMO if you are having the problem, it could be a cheap fix. If not, well, you didn't throw away that much time and money trying it out. Furthermore, for those about to put on a lift, new bolts right from the start won't hurt anything.

 

I think you are on to something here, and it is not actually all that new an idea. A few years ago ford even stopped using lb/ft for there small engine torque settings and actually switched to bolt strech settings (harder to measure but much more aqurate). And as for DW on stock suspensions that is pretty easy, not all vehicles coming off the line will be perfectly aligned on the first shot so they simply lossen everything up, re-align and re-torque, which could explain too much plastic deformation in a "new" vehicle. Although I doubt that deformation is the sole cause, I can definitley see it being a large contributing factor.

 

As most of you know, the track bar is commonly discussed on this site as by far the #1 cause of death wobble. I bought brand new bolts and nuts for my factory track bar but it made no difference at all. Granted, I didn't do brand new bolts on the other suspension components, but just thought I would throw that out there.

 

As far as an unaltered Jeep I know that the factory didn't do the best job on the torqu specs on many items that are visible (hardtop bolts, some loose, and others cracking the top, tail light lens carcked from too much torque) so I wouldn't say that the factory is getting it right 100% of the time.

 

More likely the original factory ones are cheap crap, other vehicles don't have problems caused by reusing 10-20yo suspension bolts

 

True, but you cant say all JKs are the same off the assembly line. Some have missing parts, incomplete painting, etc. It really would not surprise me that they were f'ing things up during assembly. Quality control is questionable. I bet if you really investigated a good sample of JKs say around 250 or so, you would find some pretty shocking disparities between all of them

 

Ok, I do not think plastic deformation occurred in my case because when I replaced the hardware the wobbling is still there. It might be the case with some, but I doubt that it happens with such new factory hardware. Anyways the new hardware gives me a new piece of mind.

Thanks