I thought I had my Death Wobble tracked down to a worn-out steering shaft joint (not the u-joint, but rather the pin+isolator that joins the upper and lower halves). I finally got my new PSC XD box in the mail and I installed it this weekend, alongside a brand-new Mopar steering shaft, with no difference at all 
I am still getting the typical road-induced DW about ~48 MPH.
I'm officially stumped at this point - I'm looking for some feedback and a sanity check for something I may be missing and hoping you guys can help!
Background: When I parted out my 98 TJ, I transferred my steering (Currie), axles (D30HP/44), and suspension over to my 06 LJ. On the TJ, I never had any issues - no DW, no wander, no quirky steering - smooth as butter. I even took a video of it to show Dale how smooth it was at highway speeds:
When I bought this rig back in April, I drove it about 40 miles to my house and promptly began working on it. There was no DW experienced in that time, but there was some clunking and general looseness consistent with a rig that has been wheeled with but not much maintenance.
Current State: the axles had all new Spicer balljoints, brand new SKF unitbearings, and control arm bushings (at the top of the housing) when I built it last year. All have been rechecked and appear fine. I am running RE control arms with their "Super-Flex" joints which I rebuilt originally when I installed these in my TJ and then checked + regreased when I transferred them to the LJ (after a few thousand miles, there were in perfect condition - even with a handful of wheeling trips under my belt). Previously on my TJ, I had a used-set of 35" Grabbers on a set of steelies. Currently running brand-new set of 35" MT/Rs on a new set of ProComp 069 alloys. The lift springs were a set of 3.5" "triple rate" RK's and are now a set of 4" ProComps.
Before moving to PA, I took the Jeep down to @starkey480 at least 2 times, taking the Loop 202 and driving 70-75 MPH without any issue. I also took it to Scottsdale without a single issue with DW. The DW appears to start out of nowhere taking the Jeep for a quick spin around the block (literally getting DW for the first time about 300 yards from my house).
What I've checked/confirmed up to this point trying to track this down:
- "Dry Test" - after performing this a handful of times, I was able to track down the joint at the above-mentioned steering shaft. Nothing else can or has been noted.
- Track bar: seems tight and both the joint and bushing appears to be solid (it's a Rubicon Express RE1600 trackbar). I installed the original TB frame mount bolt with a washer (since that's how it came on my TJ) but removed it and retorqued the bolt properly after double-checking the RE instructions that I found online. Currently torqued to 55 ft-lbs at the axle and 115 ft-lbs at the mount per RE instructions.
- Alignment: I have not yet taken the Jeep to an alignment rack. I adjusted the toe when I installed it on the TJ but have not yet checked toe on the LJ (I originally set the toe between 1/16" and 1/8" toe-in). Swapping the 3.5" RK springs to the 4" ProComps would had some toe-in, but that seems like a VERY thin margin of error if 1/2" of suspension lift would significantly change the DW characteristics of the rig.
The wheel is perfectly straight (I did slightly straighten the drag-link to center the wheel after swapping steering over to LJ). Tracking down the road is straight and the wheel remains perfectly centered.
For caster, I checked both sides under the axle "C" and got the following:
To my eyes, it shows what I would expect (~4.5º on the driver side and ~5.5º on the passenger side, which is consistent with what most people target with 35" tires). No major disparity that would suggest a damaged axle housing or twisted tube.
- Wheels/Tires: these were balanced at my local Discount Tire back in Arizona. I've had nothing but good luck with this location - they're notorious for nailing balance and won't typically just add a slab of stick-on weights to get you out the door. The tech's will remove and remount tires to get the best balance possible - I know this b/c I've seen them do it on at least 2 occasions (peeking at them through the lobby glass). If the road is super smooth and I can get past 50 MPH, the tires are very smooth and drive nicely at 70 MPH. IMO, there does not appear to be a tire balance issue.
- Steering components: the Currie Currectlync is in good condition, with all parts tight and double-checked. I am currently not running a steering stabilizer and don't intend to (I will be adding my PSC hydro-assist as soon as I get this DW issue under control).
- Suspension components: control arms have been checked and double-checked. Torque at the frame and axle mounts is to spec and the jamb nuts are tight. I even unbolted all the joints and re-torqued them down just to confirm there wasn't something binding, causing an issue.
My next steps:
1) confirm toe-in adjustment
2) rotate wheels/tires (with my spare tire in the mix) to see if there is any noticeable changes
3) Sell the LJ and go put a deposit down on a new Sasquatch 6-speed
Any advice is greatly appreciated...
I am still getting the typical road-induced DW about ~48 MPH.I'm officially stumped at this point - I'm looking for some feedback and a sanity check for something I may be missing and hoping you guys can help!
Background: When I parted out my 98 TJ, I transferred my steering (Currie), axles (D30HP/44), and suspension over to my 06 LJ. On the TJ, I never had any issues - no DW, no wander, no quirky steering - smooth as butter. I even took a video of it to show Dale how smooth it was at highway speeds:
When I bought this rig back in April, I drove it about 40 miles to my house and promptly began working on it. There was no DW experienced in that time, but there was some clunking and general looseness consistent with a rig that has been wheeled with but not much maintenance.
Current State: the axles had all new Spicer balljoints, brand new SKF unitbearings, and control arm bushings (at the top of the housing) when I built it last year. All have been rechecked and appear fine. I am running RE control arms with their "Super-Flex" joints which I rebuilt originally when I installed these in my TJ and then checked + regreased when I transferred them to the LJ (after a few thousand miles, there were in perfect condition - even with a handful of wheeling trips under my belt). Previously on my TJ, I had a used-set of 35" Grabbers on a set of steelies. Currently running brand-new set of 35" MT/Rs on a new set of ProComp 069 alloys. The lift springs were a set of 3.5" "triple rate" RK's and are now a set of 4" ProComps.
Before moving to PA, I took the Jeep down to @starkey480 at least 2 times, taking the Loop 202 and driving 70-75 MPH without any issue. I also took it to Scottsdale without a single issue with DW. The DW appears to start out of nowhere taking the Jeep for a quick spin around the block (literally getting DW for the first time about 300 yards from my house).
What I've checked/confirmed up to this point trying to track this down:
- "Dry Test" - after performing this a handful of times, I was able to track down the joint at the above-mentioned steering shaft. Nothing else can or has been noted.
- Track bar: seems tight and both the joint and bushing appears to be solid (it's a Rubicon Express RE1600 trackbar). I installed the original TB frame mount bolt with a washer (since that's how it came on my TJ) but removed it and retorqued the bolt properly after double-checking the RE instructions that I found online. Currently torqued to 55 ft-lbs at the axle and 115 ft-lbs at the mount per RE instructions.
- Alignment: I have not yet taken the Jeep to an alignment rack. I adjusted the toe when I installed it on the TJ but have not yet checked toe on the LJ (I originally set the toe between 1/16" and 1/8" toe-in). Swapping the 3.5" RK springs to the 4" ProComps would had some toe-in, but that seems like a VERY thin margin of error if 1/2" of suspension lift would significantly change the DW characteristics of the rig.
The wheel is perfectly straight (I did slightly straighten the drag-link to center the wheel after swapping steering over to LJ). Tracking down the road is straight and the wheel remains perfectly centered.
For caster, I checked both sides under the axle "C" and got the following:
To my eyes, it shows what I would expect (~4.5º on the driver side and ~5.5º on the passenger side, which is consistent with what most people target with 35" tires). No major disparity that would suggest a damaged axle housing or twisted tube.
- Wheels/Tires: these were balanced at my local Discount Tire back in Arizona. I've had nothing but good luck with this location - they're notorious for nailing balance and won't typically just add a slab of stick-on weights to get you out the door. The tech's will remove and remount tires to get the best balance possible - I know this b/c I've seen them do it on at least 2 occasions (peeking at them through the lobby glass). If the road is super smooth and I can get past 50 MPH, the tires are very smooth and drive nicely at 70 MPH. IMO, there does not appear to be a tire balance issue.
- Steering components: the Currie Currectlync is in good condition, with all parts tight and double-checked. I am currently not running a steering stabilizer and don't intend to (I will be adding my PSC hydro-assist as soon as I get this DW issue under control).
- Suspension components: control arms have been checked and double-checked. Torque at the frame and axle mounts is to spec and the jamb nuts are tight. I even unbolted all the joints and re-torqued them down just to confirm there wasn't something binding, causing an issue.
My next steps:
1) confirm toe-in adjustment
2) rotate wheels/tires (with my spare tire in the mix) to see if there is any noticeable changes
3) Sell the LJ and go put a deposit down on a new Sasquatch 6-speed
Any advice is greatly appreciated...
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