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Death Wobble help

BigBarrett

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I am narrowing down my death wobble issues. Both the drag link and tie rod make noise when I twist them a little. Car has been aligned and its all within spec.

I don't think its normal. Let me know if you think I need a new tie rod and drag link.

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I am narrowing down my death wobble issues. Both the drag link and tie rod make noise when I twist them a little. Car has been aligned and its all within spec.

I don't think its normal. Let me know if you think I need a new tie rod and drag link.

That movement is normal.
 

limeade

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Death wobble can not originate with tie rod or drag link.

What I would do is have someone move the steering wheel slightly back and forth (without actually making the tires move) while you are under the front of the Jeep. This allows you to see and abnormal movement in the track bar joints/bushings and steering joints. I use this procedure to diagnose all front end issues.

Like I said, steering joints can not be the root cause of death wobble. They can be a contributing factor and allow it to happen more frequently, etc.

The front track bar (and it's bushings, joints, and mounts) is the number one cause of death wobble. The factory unit is barely adequate for stock tires. Once you add larger tires, lift, frequent off roading, etc., you quickly exceed the capabilities of the stock track bar. The track bar is hollow tube and can flex, which can cause death wobble in and of itself. Additionally the stock bushings quickly wear out and are unable to the control the lateral forces acting upon the axle. I have also seen the track bar axle mount wallow/elongate which will then allow the TB to move slightly and cause issues.

After the track bar, I would then look at the front control arms, especially if they're stock. Like with the TB, if you've added bigger tires, lift, off-road, etc., the stock clevite rubber bushings will wear out and/or tear due to articulation and can no longer control the up/down forces acting on the front axle.

Fix the suspension components causing DW first and then address tire balance, steering joints, etc. The longer you allow the DW to occur, it will accelerate the wear to these components.
 
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BigBarrett

BigBarrett

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Death wobble can not originate with tie rod or drag link.

What I would do is have someone move the steering wheel slightly back and forth (without actually making the tires move) while you are under the front of the Jeep. This allows you to see and abnormal movement in the track bar joints/bushings and steering joints. I use this procedure to diagnose all front end issues.

Like I said, steering joints can not be the root cause of death wobble. They can be a contributing factor and allow it to happen more frequently, etc.

The front track bar (and it's bushings, joints, and mounts) is the number one cause of death wobble. The factory unit is barely adequate for stock tires. Once you add larger tires, lift, frequent off roading, etc., you quickly exceed the capabilities of the stock track bar. The track bar is hollow tube and can flex, which can cause death wobble in and of itself. Additionally the stock bushings quickly wear out and are unable to the control the lateral forces acting upon the axle. I have also seen the track bar axle mount wallow/elongate which will then allow the TB to move slightly and cause issues.

After the track bar, I would then look at the front control arms, especially if they're stock. Like with the TB, if you've added bigger tires, lift, off-road, etc., the stock clevite rubber bushings will wear out and/or tear due to articulation and can no longer control the up/down forces acting on the front axle.

Fix the suspension components causing DW first and then address tire balance, steering joints, etc. The longer you allow the DW to occur, it will accelerate the wear to these components.
I have Rusty's Lower Control Arms, Metal Cloak dual rate 3.5 lift which includes their upgraded Front track bar. (Lift was just installed, had wobble before lift. )

Car drives straight, and its all grand until the wobble starts. Can tires cause a "Bad" wobble?
 

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I disagree and stand by my statement.
It's alright to only know what you know. You can't know what you don't know.

But it does.

Loose tie rod ends can wiggle one side which will start the whole process. I've fixed it enough times to know it is a thing.
 

limeade

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It's alright to only know what you know. You can't know what you don't know.

But it does.

Loose tie rod ends can wiggle one side which will start the whole process. I've fixed it enough times to know it is a thing.
I'll agree that a loose TRE can be a contributing factor and the vehicle may never have had DW prior to the bad TRE. But in the cases where I've fixed it enough times myself, there is always a front suspension component being the originator of DW. The only steering part which I can see as causing DW is when the steering box flexes against the frame rail, thereby allowing the TB to move/flex.

Unlike yourself, I won't be judgmental of someone I don't know and accuse you of what you may or may not know. I will just agree to disagree and leave it at that.
 

quietpeen

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I had death wobble shortly after getting 37's I had all four tires road force balanced and replaced my stock drag link and tie-rod with better aftermarket and have not had death wobble since.
 

TxJeepers

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From my experience.
Tires out of balance can initiate DW. Aren't the problem though, but can kick it off and high light that something aint right. My 37" KM3's have gotten harder and harder to keep balance and let me know I have DW issue.
Track bar is huge. Make sure its tight. I had to replace the original bushings that came with my SteerSmarts trackbar with their Pro poly bushings. This helped a lot! They should only sell their TB with these bushings. No idea why they don't.
Still have DW. Alignment came back that I was at 7 on caster. I've got 3" of Teraflex lift with their Sport fixed length 24 5/8" lower arms. I just swapped them out for some Alpine adjustable and dialed it back to 24 3/8". With my iPhone app it looks like this brought it down to 6. This has made a huge different too and at this point I believe it to be resolved.
Resolved meaning, it no longer acts like it wants to DW and hasn't since.
BUT, steering still aint what I would like and forsee Synergy drag link and tie rod in my future and maybe even TB reinforcement brackets.

PS - The last time I had DW, was on JK, replacing ball joints resolved it. JL ball joints, so far, appear to be much better design.
 

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EAKinID

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I appreciate the discussion on this thread. I have a 2018 JLUR purchased in early '18, 2+" MOPAR lift. Experienced DW occasionally until 3 weeks ago; tried to drive into town today and it went into full DW 10 times in 10 miles. Practically unusable. I contacted JEEP Customer Care and local dealer for help and will see what they have to say. I have ordered Synergy front track bar and it is on its way. I have read about TSB 08-074-20 (steering gear replacement) but the dealer "knows nothing"; it is not advertised to help shimmy but one person indicated it help him. I'll start with the TB.
Question: What are "correct" alignment numbers for this thing?
 

SmoothJeepOperator

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I have Rusty's Lower Control Arms, Metal Cloak dual rate 3.5 lift which includes their upgraded Front track bar. (Lift was just installed, had wobble before lift. )

Car drives straight, and its all grand until the wobble starts. Can tires cause a "Bad" wobble?
I recently went through a wobble period that presented itself right after I installed the mc dual rate 2.5 lift. I did several things to try to fix it. Had my lower control arms adjusted to add more caster, didn't work. Added yeti tie rod and drag link, seemed better but still got wobble. Then decided I would change my ball joints to the dynatrac hd ones. While waiting for those to come in I got new tires. A deal presented itself and I was waiting to go up to 35s. My 33s were with but looked still pretty good tread wise, but decided to get new tires anyways. That was the end of my wobble issues. I think the tires were either worn really bad from me not rotating then regularly or out of balance. For me tires seemed to be the issue. Once I got the new ball joints installed I felt even more improvement, but tires made a much bigger difference.

It's weird to me that it didn't present itself as a problem until I lifted the Jeep. Maybe there is a reason for that? Any time I read about death wobble tires always seems to be the last thing mentioned and even then it's sort of blown off as not really being something that causes death wobble, so it was low on my list of things to even consider. Lucky for me though that did the trick.

Not saying it's your tires! Just saying it's one more thing that should be considered in all the different things that can cause death wobble.
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