It's been a while since I've been on the Forum, but the Death Wobble brought me back! I'm at 50K miles with all factory parts (the ones that matter for this) and all-terrain wheels. I took a trip from my home (WI) to Philly and experienced DW for the first time, all alone. Man, it freaked me out. So it sounds like the first thing I should try is replacing the ball joints. But I also hear it might be worth replacing the knuckles too? Do you have a recommendation on those?
I never replaced my aluminum knuckles, even though I beat the crap out of them during the ball joint replacement process. The factory ball joints were seized so hard that it took me days to remove (long story). My Jeep ran without any issues since so I didn't have the need to swap them out. If you're looking into them, the most popular ones I've seen are either Reid or the steel ones from a JT Mojave. Here's a conversation comparing the two.
Thanks man - much appreciated!
I'm also in michigan and have a 2018 so it's seen some garbage weather and things are stuck. Did you have any issues getting the bolt out that holds the rotor on? I was trying to take mine off for a different issue and we could not get that off no matter what we tried. We sprayed it, used a torch, hammered the bit into it, and nothing would break it loose. In fact, at one point, the tip of the bit broke in the bolt head. I need to do my ball joints pretty bad (or at least I think it's the issue) because I have the same issue you had. I get a little steering wheel wobble between 45-55 mph. I've also had 37s on my jeep for 55k of the 60k miles it has now. I've been delaying doing the ball joints thinking I'm going to have to drill out that bolt.
Sorry to hear about the broken bit. Sounds like you had a really tough time too. I use anti-seize on a lot of stuff but I don't feel comfortable applying it to the drive components. Fortunately, I was able to get my axle shaft assemblies out without the "extra motivation" but the factory steel balljoints and aluminum knuckles were definitely not a combo designed for the rust belt. I used so much heat that I completely melted the boots and evaporated all the grease and of course, pounded the knuckles like crazy with no results. Ultimately what worked for me, after a half dozen trips to AutoZone, was this little guy. When the ball joint finally came out, it was so loud that my wife came downstairs to ask if I was okay.
