Rob 12B1P

So I could have re-torqued my bad ball joints and it would have fixed my death wobble? You sure know how to muddy up a thread. If you had comprehended the death wobble write up you would understand that checking torque is a part of the procedure. If it solves it great, but its not always the answer. And how exactly is replacing poorly engineered parts (bolts) a bad thing?

robsjeep9

x2 On ALL your points...... Don't know why some guys come out here with their somewhat rude comments.
I know lots of guys who had death wobble and still had it after they went and re- torqued their bolts("quote" being smart and saving their money LOL).

OverlanderJK

Well if you check your torque on your bolts you wont have the issues with the bolts being too small. You can buy into planman's BS if you want but I would rather save myself the money of new bolts.

Anyone that buys new bolts let me know because I will gladly take your stock bolts.

Alaska-HWY JK

I thought I may have replied to your post to soon but now after seeing this post realize you are challenged. Sorry about your luck.

JohnnyQuik

Once the trackbar bolt hole gets wallowed out a little, you need to weld a washer on it and use the slightly larger sized bolt. No amount of torquing the stock bolt will help. A lot of these guys who are replacing ball joints and other crap never had death wobble. They just had really bad shimmies and speed dependent wobbles. True death wobble is almost always a track bar issue and is what the OP describes. It's a violent back and forth shaking that happens after you hit a bump that about rips the steering wheel out of your hands until you stand on the brakes, stop the Jeep, and clean out your pants.

OverlanderJK

Exactly. Its not going to wallow out if its torqued properly. That's what I am getting at.


As I said in my first post if you want to upgrade all your stock bolts feel free but I will take the stockers before you throw them away.

OC-JK

Even if it's torqued to spec if the bolt is smaller than the correct size there is play. Having play in there causes the hole to wallow out. a wallowed out hole causes it to move while driving when it shouldn't.

xerofall

I don't think Planman's suggestions are BS, replacing the bolts is JUST ONE SUGGESTION he makes, and he makes it for those who haven't been checking the torque on the bolts. He has many, many other checks to perform. You almost act like he's getting a kick-back from the bolt companies or something.

My track bar is fine, torqued to spec, doesn't move. I needed all new tie rod ends, a new tie rod, drag link ends and an alignment. If I still have death wobble, I will check the track bar, buy new 9/16" bolts, hell even buy a new bar... JUST TO RULE THAT OUT.

Planman has answered every question I've asked him, he's taken the time to explain things... so it's far from BS. I even met him once at a Jeep show, parked next to him in fact...

Mike Davis

Eshoo, Waxman Urge Automaker to Undertake Customer Satisfaction Campaign for "Jeep Death Wobble" Problem
See this link. My JK is in the shop. I replaced the stabilizer just to avoid the dealer telling me it was the problem. The passenger side drag link has play and clunk. I did Planman's checks from his video. I now do believe that a few issues in combination may lead to the problem. My track bar bolts are new and at 125 ft lbs. I do very little off road and am totally stock with 45k on everything. It is truly a frightening experience. Even more unnerving will be to go for an interstate drive after they say it's "fixed" next steps, align, tires, new undies

BuckLisa

I had continuous death wobble problems DESPITE continuous checking of properly torqued bolts. After replacing the crap drag link and tie rod ends that have teflon aka plastic as the "lubricating" method with Moog greasable parts couple with correct sized standard shouldered not metric slightly smaller non shouldered (smooth) bolts; death wobble has vanished. Just on the bolt issue, the stock bolts are smaller and the weight of the chassis tests on the grooves not a shouldered bolt. Over time theses grooves wear down making the "looseness" of the smaller bolt worse. That is why you have to torque the crap out of of the track bar to "prevent" the weight from resting on the bolt that is bullcrap! It is designed to rest on the bolt not the bracket. The Jeepa were drilled from the factory with 9/16 bolt holes but obviously it was within "specs" to buy the cheaper metric bolts.