Hey everyone, I got my 2012 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited in January. It was pretty decked out when I got it but there are a few thing I want to do to make it mine.

 

Welcome to JKF. Good looking Rig.Looking ready for most any off road action. Good family focused members here with much knowledge and ready to reply to questions and ideas.. Post the planned upgrades you have planned.

 

Thanks 😊 so glad to hear that. The first thing I definitely have to do is get someone to look at it because it has a mean death wobble when I hit certain areas 😟 and replace one of the grommets that is stripped. But as for things I can handle, thinking about painting the grill and maybe (big maybe) the fenders.

 

Welcome! You can be the "black jeep" of your family now....

 

🤣🤣🤣🤣 touche 🤣🤣🤣

 

Welcome to the forum. There's a lot of good info and people here. There's quite a few discussion threads regarding death wobble and how to diagnose and fix.

 

Welcome to JKF. In regard to DW, I highly suggest you familiarize yourself with your steering components on this solid-axle vehicle. If you have factory ball joints that is likely the issue. Track bar joints and under torqued TB bolts are the most common issues besides ball joints. There are other things that come into play like worn steering boxes, bad drag link or tie rod ends, unit bearings, even seen control arm bushings that were shot, but it is ball joints or track bar things 90% of the time I'd say. Do not let anyone tell you it is steering stabilizer related.

**also, don't expect to just roll in somewhere and get great DW service. Every now and then you find a shop that is decent, but most don't want to really spend the time to diagnose things like that. This is where you often hear "oh, your steering stabilizer is shot".

 

Welcome from GA!

 

@resharp001 Thanks for the info about the DW. I am definitely interested at looking into it myself before I take it somewhere. I'm no mechanic but wouldn't mind knowing what's going on under there instead of having someone tell me one thing just to keep going back because it's not fixed.

 

You can look up Planman's vids on YouTube, but here are 2 really easy things that even non-mechanically folks can do at home (not suggesting you're not mechanically inclined, but some folks are).

1. sit in front of the jeep and have a helper sit in the jeep. With jeep turned off have them rotate try to turn the steering wheel back and forth. They won't be able to move it much with no power steering obviously, but it is enough pressure on the system that you can see play or not play in the TB joint at the frame mount. You should not see hardly any movement there. You will likely see the joint move a little as the joint itself either flexes a tad or rotates (depending on the type of joint you have) but you should not see that bar itself move horizontally back and forth.

2. An easy way to test ball joints is to jack up a tire a few inches, put a shovel under the tire and step on the shovel handle, using the leverage to force upward pressure. I typically jack up the whole axle and support it on jack stands just so it’s more stable and easier to spot movement of a shot joint vs. general movement in the whole suspension when stepping on the shovel. It’s the lower BJs that crap out but it’s easiest to look for movement where the knuckle meets the C at the upper BJ. You certainly shouldn’t hear any clunk and if you see any up/down movement other than kind of a flexing then the ball joints likely need to be replaced. Ball joints in these D30/44 axles are a very common issue.

I would suggest that myself and many others will always be happy to help explain how to do things or things to look for when folks want to learn or understand things about their jeeps. Even if someone can't perform the work themselves, the more educated an owner can be about their vehicle the better. A lot of folks would like to think they can just roll into any 4WD shop and those "professionals" are going to steer them the right direction and that they know everything. Unfortunately, this often isn't the case. You find good folks from time to time but often those guys are simply pushing product, getting things in and out, collecting revenue and on to the next.