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Metal cloak 3.5 and death wobble

SmoothJeepOperator

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If I cant get Dynatrac ball joints quickly, would it even be worth entertaining putting in the factory ball joints? Or am i wasting my time with 35s?
 

Jeep&dogs

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If I cant get Dynatrac ball joints quickly, would it even be worth entertaining putting in the factory ball joints? Or am i wasting my time with 35s?
Dana makes a HD joint that does not have the plastic race on the socket like the OE joints. Dynatrac would 100% be my first choice and the HD Dana second. I would wait it out before I did the OE joints.
 

SmoothJeepOperator

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Dana makes a HD joint that does not have the plastic race on the socket like the OE joints. Dynatrac would 100% be my first choice and the HD Dana second. I would wait it out before I did the OE joints.
Northridge 4x4 says 30 days to ship on average for the Dynatrac ball joints. I gotta be able to get them quicker than that. If not, I may have to see if i can find the dana ball joints quicker. Any thoughts on the Synergy ball joints?
 

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Northridge 4x4 says 30 days to ship on average for the Dynatrac ball joints. I gotta be able to get them quicker than that. If not, I may have to see if i can find the dana ball joints quicker. Any thoughts on the Synergy ball joints?
I don’t think theirs are out yet. When I ordered the Dynatrac Northridge told me it would be at least 30 days, I called Dynatrac directly and they shipped the next day. Make sure you call them, if you do it on their website they charge an “online fee”. They are down at Easter Jeep this week, my bet is they probably saved a few sets to bring with down there so they probably did a production run recently, you might get lucky.
 

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Northridge 4x4 says 30 days to ship on average for the Dynatrac ball joints. I gotta be able to get them quicker than that. If not, I may have to see if i can find the dana ball joints quicker. Any thoughts on the Synergy ball joints?
If you can’t get them any quicker and your doing the install , then oem would be better than nothing depending on how bad your dw is. I definitely would not pay someone twice to change them out.
 

SmoothJeepOperator

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If you can’t get them any quicker and your doing the install , then oem would be better than nothing depending on how bad your dw is. I definitely would not pay someone twice to change them out.
Yea i'm definitely not doing that install! If I can get something that is going to last for a while that is definitely the route to go.
 

WontonJLUR

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Yea i'm definitely not doing that install! If I can get something that is going to last for a while that is definitely the route to go.
It's not that difficult with the right tools.

I'd call Dynatrac. The OEM balljoints cost almost as much as the Dynatracs, seems like a pretty bad waste of dinero.
 

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It's not that difficult with the right tools.

I'd call Dynatrac. The OEM balljoints cost almost as much as the Dynatracs, seems like a pretty bad waste of dinero.
yea at this point i dont even want the remote possibility that i can mess something up during the install, so i'll leave it to the pros for now. Yea i called and left them a voicemail, we'll see when i hear back. Got my new tires, definitely feels good, but no idea if it is going to help or hurt with my wobble problems, so definitely want to still get the ball joints.
 

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Went ahead and ordered the Dynatrac ball joints. Called and they said they are on back order like 2 or 3 weeks out from shipping. Figured i might as well wait. I'll still drive the jeep some but its really no fun when every bump has you wondering if death wobble will ensue. Hopefully the ball joints solve my problem. Being that i have 50k miles on the stock ones, i'm hoping its likely that that is my problem.
 

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WontonJLUR

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Went ahead and ordered the Dynatrac ball joints. Called and they said they are on back order like 2 or 3 weeks out from shipping. Figured i might as well wait. I'll still drive the jeep some but its really no fun when every bump has you wondering if death wobble will ensue. Hopefully the ball joints solve my problem. Being that i have 50k miles on the stock ones, i'm hoping its likely that that is my problem.
You might be able to adjust your toe setting to like 1/8th inch toe out, that masked my wobble for a while. Just not great long term for tire wear.
 

SmoothJeepOperator

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You might be able to adjust your toe setting to like 1/8th inch toe out, that masked my wobble for a while. Just not great long term for tire wear.
Yea I don't want to start having to play those games, I just want it fixed. Hopefully it's the ball joints, until then I'm just limiting how much driving I do with it. I think the new tires have made a difference because I haven't had woke since then, but I can still tell that is there.
I just really hope it's the ball joints. If it not, I'm lost on how to move forward.
 
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I hope you have your issue resolved. I wanted to follow up though with my experience over the past weekend. Installed a Metal cloak 3.5 gamechanger lift, and the HD steering kit. Buttoned everything up, and noticed that the vehicle would wobble when I hit bumps but it would recover. I finally hit a pretty decent pothole and the wobble didnt go away until I slowed down (death wobble). I went home tightened everything again, same issue. I called metalcloak and they asked me to go back to the stock steering stabilizer. I changed it back, and the wobble is gone. I called them back to let them know, and they are sending a new stabilizer to me.

I love the lift, and new steering. Their customer service is awesome as well. My hunch is that it may have something to do with the changes FCA has been making to the stock components, and software on the JL steering to fix the "wandering" issue (I had the TSB for the steering box completed on mine before installing the lift and steering kits.
I wasn’t aware that metal cloak sold steering stabilizer .. are you talking about the relocation kit? For me the wobble was a combination of two things.. the caster was set too low first time .. so i adjusted that to over 6 and also removing the steering stabilzer relocation kit as it was pretty flimsy .. ended up getting synergy one with my fox stabilzer and no more wobble. Hope this helps
 
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Paulocon

Paulocon

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I’d like to add when i went back to stock steering stabilzer kit .. the wobble def got much more controllable and was at a minimum .. but i wanted to adjust the stiffness of my steering so when i upgraded to the fox 2.0 ats with the synergy relocation kit, which was essentially just a pin if i remember correctly, i fixed the issue

Jeep Wrangler JL Metal cloak 3.5 and death wobble 1B4B91F9-8801-45EE-A8B0-08DABA70FFA4
 

K.Lola

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Bought my Jeep in Feb, the first one I've ever owned. It is a '19 JLUR that came with 20K miles on it and I think all highway miles. A couple weeks ago I had 37s and a 3.5" Metalcloak Game Changer installed. 3 days later, death wobble. A joint on the kit was defective and had blown out. After being replaced, a few days later and I either had weak wobble or strong bump steer, not as bad as the first time, but still pretty butt-clenchy. My wife, my oldest kid and I all share drive time in the jeep, and now I don't feel safe with them driving.

My own research, this thread and other places, seem to indicate that ball joints, sector shaft brace and HD steering kit (drag link, tie rod, stabilizer) are things to consider. My local shop, who so far hasn't given me a reason to not trust them, immediately suggested the PSC hydro assist steering kit (no mention of ball joints, drag link or tie rod). As I understand it, these work by removing strain from the gearbox by pushing/pulling the tie rod. I can see how this slows wear and tear on stuff, but if I currently have a problem, would this fix it or just mask it? Any guidance would be appreciated.
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