Early Onset Death Wobble Help

[spurly]

Well I'm reviving my old thread because I'm still facing the same issues I was a year ago. Maybe even worse now since I threw on beadlocks. With my new wheels coming in 44 pounds each, I'm sure that isn't helping my situation. Over the last year it was tolerable and I never experienced full on death wobble. Even after a handful of trips to Colorado and Moab it never seemed to get worse.

I've also noticed that I can feel every little bump and crack in the road through my steering wheel.

I think my next step is replacing the balljoints with Dynatrac HD Rebuildable ball joints. I've put it off for this long because I didn't want to spend the money.

I got to thinking too, is there any chance that my Synergy Track Bar could be bad?

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[spurly]

I should also mention that I get zero wobbling or oscillations in the steering wheel on the interstate. Expansion joints, cracks, 2x4s I don't feel any of it in the steering wheel. But around town at 35-45 mph I could run over a spider and feel it through the steering wheel.

 

[grandsrus]

I should also mention that I get zero wobbling or oscillations in the steering wheel on the interstate. Expansion joints, cracks, 2x4s I don't feel any of it in the steering wheel. But around town at 35-45 mph I could run over a spider and feel it through the steering wheel.

Ball Joints?

 

[SmoothJeepOperator]

I should also mention that I get zero wobbling or oscillations in the steering wheel on the interstate. Expansion joints, cracks, 2x4s I don't feel any of it in the steering wheel. But around town at 35-45 mph I could run over a spider and feel it through the steering wheel.

I had the same exact thing going on at lower speeds but was fine at high way speeds, only I was getting legit full on dw. My situation turned out to be badly worn tires. I went through adjusting my caster and alignments, replacing my drag link and tie rod and then just before putting on the dynatrac ball joints I got some new tires and presto, dw was gone. Still went through with the ball joint change and felt improvements after the too so it was definitely time after 50k miles.
New tires got out of balance slightly after just 3k miles. Got them rebalanced and rotated recently and felt huge improvements in steering again.

Seems like tires aren't your issue, I was shocked that tires was playing a major role in my dw.

 

[spurly]

Ball Joints?

That's my next step. I can't think of anything else that would cause it. If my balljoints are truly the problem, I'm disappointed that they went out so quickly.

 

[spurly]

I had the same exact thing going on at lower speeds but was fine at high way speeds, only I was getting legit full on dw. My situation turned out to be badly worn tires. I went through adjusting my caster and alignments, replacing my drag link and tie rod and then just before putting on the dynatrac ball joints I got some new tires and presto, dw was gone. Still went through with the ball joint change and felt improvements after the too so it was definitely time after 50k miles.
New tires got out of balance slightly after just 3k miles. Got them rebalanced and rotated recently and felt huge improvements in steering again.

Seems like tires aren't your issue, I was shocked that tires was playing a major role in my dw.

Unfortunately it happened the very day I lifted my Jeep. I ran my current 35x12.5 Ridge Grapplers for maybe 1000 miles on stock suspension with no wobble or oscillating in the Steer wheel. But the second I pulled out of my garage with the lift, boom it happened. I've rotated the tires every 5k miles and had them rebalanced a handful of times. And obviously they were rebalanced with the new wheels but the new heavier setup seems to be making it worse. Fingers crossed it's my ball joints. What ball joints did you go with?

 

[SmoothJeepOperator]

Unfortunately it happened the very day I lifted my Jeep. I ran my current 35x12.5 Ridge Grapplers for maybe 1000 miles on stock suspension with no wobble or oscillating in the Steer wheel. But the second I pulled out of my garage with the lift, boom it happened. I've rotated the tires every 5k miles and had them rebalanced a handful of times. And obviously they were rebalanced with the new wheels but the new heavier setup seems to be making it worse. Fingers crossed it's my ball joints. What ball joints did you go with?

Yea mine started right after I put on the mc lift. For some reason tires weren't a problem before the lift..
I went with the dynatrac hd ball joints. Solid as a rock. I'm amazed at how well it drives now.

 

[Jeep&dogs]

Had mine flare back up last week. Jacked it up, loosened all the front lug nuts and re torqued them without the weight on the Jeep. Seems to have curbed it again.

 

[spurly]

Well I started to disassemble the front axle to prepare for my new Dynatrac ball joints which should be here tomorrow. But this is turning out to be a bigger headache than I expected.

First the brake rotor wouldn't come off. Second, the unibearing didn't want to budge either. Now I'm fighting the knuckle and it's being a bitch. PB blaster and heat didn't work. A dead blow hammer about 10,000 times hasn't worked. Now I'm going to try an air hammer with a blunt tip. My only concern is using an air hammer on aluminum knuckles.

Anyone here any other suggestions?

 

[Jeep&dogs]

This will sound odd but hit it on the C in the area I circled with a 3lb sledge.

 

[Jeep’n Jay]

Well I started to disassemble the front axle to prepare for my new Dynatrac ball joints which should be here tomorrow. But this is turning out to be a bigger headache than I expected.

First the brake rotor wouldn't come off. Second, the unibearing didn't want to budge either. Now I'm fighting the knuckle and it's being a bitch. PB blaster and heat didn't work. A dead blow hammer about 10,000 times hasn't worked. Now I'm going to try an air hammer with a blunt tip. My only concern is using an air hammer on aluminum knuckles.

Anyone here any other suggestions?

Pickle fork?

 

[spurly]

After a few more cuss words, and some threats to trade in my Jeep for a new Ford Bronco, the knuckle came off. The driver side came apart a lot easier and only took me maybe 20/30 minutes to have it all apart.

I'll have to take some videos of my old ball joints but there is no vertical movement in them, however they do move extremely easy side to side. If it wasn't for the rubber boot recentering the stud, at least 2 of them would flop all over the place.

The new Dynatrac ball joints are STIFF. They DO NOT move at all. As stiff as they are, I think they even helped tighten up the steering some, although I didn't have any loose steering before there is some improvement.

But.... in the end the Dynatrac ball joints appear to have done the trick. Everytime I make a change on the Jeep, I drive the same 5-6 mile route around town so I can assess if the changes made a difference. Besides a tiny bit of bump steer, the wobble/shimmy that I've been experiencing for the last 12k miles seems to be gone. Which means my ball joints were bad with only 10k miles on the Jeep in 2020 when I installed the lift and tires.

 

[SmoothJeepOperator]

After a few more cuss words, and some threats to trade in my Jeep for a new Ford Bronco, the knuckle came off. The driver side came apart a lot easier and only took me maybe 20/30 minutes to have it all apart.

I'll have to take some videos of my old ball joints but there is no vertical movement in them, however they do move extremely easy side to side. If it wasn't for the rubber boot recentering the stud, at least 2 of them would flop all over the place.

The new Dynatrac ball joints are STIFF. They DO NOT move at all. As stiff as they are, I think they even helped tighten up the steering some, although I didn't have any loose steering before there is some improvement.

But.... in the end the Dynatrac ball joints appear to have done the trick. Everytime I make a change on the Jeep, I drive the same 5-6 mile route around town so I can assess if the changes made a difference. Besides a tiny bit of bump steer, the wobble/shimmy that I've been experiencing for the last 12k miles seems to be gone. Which means my ball joints were bad with only 10k miles on the Jeep in 2020 when I installed the lift and tires.

Its funny I got like 48k out of my ball joint. Half of that was on 33s and a 2.5 spacer lift. Once i put the MC 2.5 lift on, those ball joints couldnt handle it anymore.

 

[Terminex]

Per our discussion Monday, measure the rise on the drag link, measure the rise on the track bar, and compare them.

if the rise is greater on the track bar, then the front track bar bracket will help dramatically with the bump steer like it did on my ‘19.

i have the bracket on the shelf if you decide you want to give it a try, you are more than welcome to try it.

 

[spurly]

Its funny I got like 48k out of my ball joint. Half of that was on 33s and a 2.5 spacer lift. Once i put the MC 2.5 lift on, those ball joints couldnt handle it anymore.

My Jeep drove great on stock suspension and 35's for a 1000 miles before I put the lift on. But as soon as the lift went on, it went to shit instantly. It was tolerable, but very annoying. Must have been something with the new angles of everything that just set it off.

Per our discussion Monday, measure the rise on the drag link, measure the rise on the track bar, and compare them.

if the rise is greater on the track bar, then the front track bar bracket will help dramatically with the bump steer like it did on my ‘19.

i have the bracket on the shelf if you decide you want to give it a try, you are more than welcome to try it.

I will definitely let you know. We're going to Des Moines this weekend and hopefully we'll be able to take the Jeep so that should give me a better idea how it drives. I'll

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