Death Wobble / Bump Steer / Steering Issues / Drifting - RESOLVED

[RubiRob]

To the OP:

Not be abrasive but you don't have death wobble. Your steering issue is a shimmy which is exactly what I had. I have Mopar lift on 37s. The only way I fixed this was adding adjustable control arms and creating a caster of about 6.5. Metalcloak and Rusty's will even recommend this level of caster for improving steering. I believe your SS is just masking the lack of caster.

I say this as a Mopar lift owner:

Mopar lift is incomplete and no where near worth the money.


I have been slowly working towards replacing my components away from the Mopar lift.

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[Martindfletcher]

Glad to hear the OP got his steering issue "straightened" out, and maybe it's just me, but I don't think it is ever a good idea to be running a lifted Jeep over 75 MPH. Too many bad drivers out there.

Mine feels prefectly fine at 80/85 now I wouldn’t want to txt and drive or fall asleep at the wheel, but it steers fine.

 

[Mike21163]

One final effort in an attempt to clear up some confusion. My JLUR steering issues are completely resolved. As mentioned before, hopefully this helps other JL owners on a path forward to correct steering issues, especially death wobbles or shimmy's.

Mike
The trackbar was removed and reinstalled during the lift install. It was torqued to factory specs after the lift install on the ground (not in the air).

It did not come loose after 8k miles of use.

You definitely had death wobble. I drove the Jeep and can attest to that considering that I’ve driven over 100 Jeeps this year alone with 20% of those having death wobble.

The deflection is in the bushings and the bar about 50/50 for a lookametric value but I can’t put a solid number on it.

The OEM trackbar might weigh five pounds at most. It’s a POS.

I have no idea why the stabilizer was blown. I also don’t know for sure if it’s a defect or a result of the defective trackbar. The OEM trackbar is absolutely junk.

Best regards,
Joe

 

[RubiRob]

One final effort in an attempt to clear up some confusion. My JLUR steering issues are completely resolved. As mentioned before, hopefully this helps other JL owners on a path forward to correct steering issues, especially death wobbles or shimmy's.

Mike
The trackbar was removed and reinstalled during the lift install. It was torqued to factory specs after the lift install on the ground (not in the air).

It did not come loose after 8k miles of use.

You definitely had death wobble. I drove the Jeep and can attest to that considering that I’ve driven over 100 Jeeps this year alone with 20% of those having death wobble.

The deflection is in the bushings and the bar about 50/50 for a lookametric value but I can’t put a solid number on it.

The OEM trackbar might weigh five pounds at most. It’s a POS.

I have no idea why the stabilizer was blown. I also don’t know for sure if it’s a defect or a result of the defective trackbar. The OEM trackbar is absolutely junk.

Best regards,
Joe

I still had that wobble with a metalcloak track bar. The only way I fixed it was with adjustable control arms and increase caster. I could see myself calling is death wobble lite, but no where near what was going on when you google death wobble on youtube. Was your wobble THAT severe?

 

[Jeepsterfreak]

One final effort in an attempt to clear up some confusion. My JLUR steering issues are completely resolved. As mentioned before, hopefully this helps other JL owners on a path forward to correct steering issues, especially death wobbles or shimmy's.

Mike
The trackbar was removed and reinstalled during the lift install. It was torqued to factory specs after the lift install on the ground (not in the air).

It did not come loose after 8k miles of use.

You definitely had death wobble. I drove the Jeep and can attest to that considering that I’ve driven over 100 Jeeps this year alone with 20% of those having death wobble.

The deflection is in the bushings and the bar about 50/50 for a lookametric value but I can’t put a solid number on it.

The OEM trackbar might weigh five pounds at most. It’s a POS.

I have no idea why the stabilizer was blown. I also don’t know for sure if it’s a defect or a result of the defective trackbar. The OEM trackbar is absolutely junk.

Best regards,
Joe

Voice of reason. Thank you!

 

[wbee]

To the OP:

Not be abrasive but you don't have death wobble. Your steering issue is a shimmy which is exactly what I had. I have Mopar lift on 37s. The only way I fixed this was adding adjustable control arms and creating a caster of about 6.5. Metalcloak and Rusty's will even recommend this level of caster for improving steering. I believe your SS is just masking the lack of caster.

I say this as a Mopar lift owner:

Mopar lift is incomplete and no where near worth the money.


I have been slowly working towards replacing my components away from the Mopar lift.

I have to say I agree with RubiRob. I was saying this exact thing to my wife last night. I shouldn’t have gone with the Mopar lift. I paid 1300 for the lift off Amazon I had to add adjustable track bars and I’m adding adjustable lower control arms to get rid of the steering wobble by adding caster. I’m into my Mopar lift $1,800 or more. I should have started with a better lift. I also added the RK correction pads, they are needed.

Hopefully some can learn from my mistake. On a positive note, the suspension rides great when I don’t get the wobble.

 

[RubiRob]

I have to say I agree with RubiRob. I was saying this exact thing to my wife last night. I shouldn’t have gone with the Mopar lift. I paid 1300 for the lift off Amazon I had to add adjustable track bars and I’m adding adjustable lower control arms to get rid of the steering wobble by adding caster. I’m into my Mopar lift $1,800 or more dollars. I should have started with a better lift. I also added the RK correction pads, they are needed.

Hopefully some can learn from my mistake. On a positive note, the suspension rides great when I don’t get the wobble.

If it helps, my control arms are set to 25" pass, and 1/16th less on drivers side. Wobble is gone in 99% of the drive, only showing up in VERY minor amounts on crappy roads at certain speeds. That could just be the extremely minor difference in parallel from the drag link and track bar though.

I would love to swap out my Fox Mopar shocks for a set of Falcon 3.3s and maybe a decent set of 2.5" progressive springs.

 

[wbee]

If it helps, my control arms are set to 25" pass, and 1/16th less on drivers side. Wobble is gone in 99% of the drive, only showing up in VERY minor amounts on crappy roads at certain speeds. That could just be the extremely minor difference in parallel from the drag link and track bar though.

I would love to swap out my Fox Mopar shocks for a set of Falcon 3.3s and maybe a decent set of 2.5" progressive springs.

Thank you for the length of the control arms. My should be delivered tomorrow and I was wondering how much longer I should make them. Did you replace your steering stabilizer?

 

[RubiRob]

Thank you for the length of the control arms. My should be delivered tomorrow and I was wondering how much longer I should make them. Did you replace your steering stabilizer?

I did but it made no difference other than the new parts placebo.

 

[FrankieFJL]

To the OP:

Not be abrasive but you don't have death wobble. Your steering issue is a shimmy which is exactly what I had. I have Mopar lift on 37s. The only way I fixed this was adding adjustable control arms and creating a caster of about 6.5. Metalcloak and Rusty's will even recommend this level of caster for improving steering. I believe your SS is just masking the lack of caster.

I say this as a Mopar lift owner:

Mopar lift is incomplete and no where near worth the money.


I have been slowly working towards replacing my components away from the Mopar lift.

So I take it the Mopar extended LCAs that came with the lift were not long enough for your application? That sucks.

 

[RubiRob]

So I take it the Mopar extended LCAs that came with the lift were not long enough for your application? That sucks.

Nope .It was ok on the most perfectly smooth roads but anything else and I got that shimmy .No longer with the extended adjustable lca

 

[FrankieFJL]

Nope .It was ok on the most perfectly smooth roads but anything else and I got that shimmy .No longer with the extended adjustable lca

Did you get adjustable track bars?

 

[JLUSoCal]

To the OP:

Not be abrasive but you don't have death wobble. Your steering issue is a shimmy which is exactly what I had. I have Mopar lift on 37s. The only way I fixed this was adding adjustable control arms and creating a caster of about 6.5. Metalcloak and Rusty's will even recommend this level of caster for improving steering. I believe your SS is just masking the lack of caster.

I say this as a Mopar lift owner:

Mopar lift is incomplete and no where near worth the money.


I have been slowly working towards replacing my components away from the Mopar lift.

Is there a thing as too much caster? My caster after RC spacer lift if within specs at 4.2 and you're beyond the 5.8. I'm not asking because you're not right I just don't know how it affects drive shaft angles? I was thinking of getting Mopar arms (they're cheap) to get likely above 5 but I stopped after having the alignment checked and seeing my stock arms are keeping it in spec. I don't have steering issues (can drive with one hand still) and not noticeable wobble. I have 33's but debating on 35 vs 37s and think once I go up in tire size I might have to jump to the higher caster angles like you noted.

Thanks for the info thus far. I'm also looking at 2.1 vs 3.1 vs. 3.3 falcon shocks. I like the 3.x longer extension (more droop) but I need to make sure i don't go too far and unseat the springs on the trail . I'm looking for a bit better ride from the shock side.

 

[RubiRob]

Is there a thing as too much caster? My caster after RC spacer lift if within specs at 4.2 and you're beyond the 5.8. I'm not asking because you're not right I just don't know how it affects drive shaft angles? I was thinking of getting Mopar arms (they're cheap) to get likely above 5 but I stopped after having the alignment checked and seeing my stock arms are keeping it in spec. I don't have steering issues (can drive with one hand still) and not noticeable wobble. I have 33's but debating on 35 vs 37s and think once I go up in tire size I might have to jump to the higher caster angles like you noted.

Thanks for the info thus far. I'm also looking at 2.1 vs 3.1 vs. 3.3 falcon shocks. I like the 3.x longer extension (more droop) but I need to make sure i don't go too far and unseat the springs on the trail . I'm looking for a bit better ride from the shock side.

So the specs for the mopar lift is 4.8 degrees plus or minus one. So 5.8 you're still ok .I went that high from the recommendation from metalcloak and Rusty's off-road. I haven't noticed any ill affects from running 6.5ish. Rusty from Rusty's off-road even told me they run 7 degrees.

Yes I got a track bar from metalcloak as well.

Edit: just to add to this, I didn't notice this wobble either when running 315/70/17s either, but with 37s it certainly started.

 

[JeepCares]

What IS the cause?

cc @JeepCares

Hey Skipswift,

Thanks for looping us into this. It looks like most of the individuals mentioning this issue have had it resolved, but if any one else is still having concerns, feel free to DM us!

Jennifer
Jeep Social Care Specialist

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