Death Wobble (Losing My Mind!)

I ended up having to shim the joints to tighten them up.
this have anything to do with bracket thickness?
i did have thought about having much beefier brackets now, and how they don't bend and conform to the ends of the joints like thin factory metal.
i made mine super tight my joints have to be bopped in and out with a rubber mallet, cause i kinda worried the bracket wouldn't bend enough if it had to.
 
this have anything to do with bracket thickness?
i did have thought about having much beefier brackets now, and how they don't bend and conform to the ends of the joints like thin factory metal.
i made mine super tight my joints have to be bopped in and out with a rubber mallet, cause i kinda worried the bracket wouldn't bend enough if it had to.
No. I had to shim the actual JJ race. I'll edit my post above to clarify.
 
Just my experience. If you can explain it, I will take your word .Did you forget the JF thread "Need a softer ride with 3" springs" ?

p.s. Dr. Fauci should not post in Covid threads. I now have 2 vaccines and wear 4 masks just to sit home alone. I love experts. My doctor thought he was one, before someone else told me I have Cancer. I'm just saying that every expert doesn't actually know everything. I wish they did. (y)
We're all good, don't worry nary a single little hair on that head of yours. I was feeling a bit giddy this morning after enjoying a particularly yummy cup of coffee and misplaced my situational awareness for a bit. You brought it all back into perspective for me.
 
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is that not the most notorious tire to keep right? just about everyone that has them says how super critical the balance is and often needs changed for some odd reason.
That's also the same guys who will chase DW for thousands of dollars' worth of parts and not balance their shitass worn tires because they are going to replace them as soon as they get the DW fixed. They are not really notorious to keep balanced, they are just sensitive to not being rotated often to stop cupping. Once the cupping starts, how does that affect balance?
 
I'm sticking my neck out here a little...One of the reasons (a BIG one, actually) that I don't buy goodyear tires is that I've had FAR too many of them that are out of round. I've lost count on how many tires I've replaced because they were out round from new or have broken belts thousands of miles away from being worn out.

I'd check the tires VERY carefully.
 
I'm sticking my neck out here a little...One of the reasons (a BIG one, actually) that I don't buy goodyear tires is that I've had FAR too many of them that are out of round. I've lost count on how many tires I've replaced because they were out round from new or have broken belts thousands of miles away from being worn out.

I'd check the tires VERY carefully.
Thus my comment to watch them on the balancer because the tire monkeys simply don't give a shit.
 
That's also the same guys who will chase DW for thousands of dollars' worth of parts and not balance their shitass worn tires because they are going to replace them as soon as they get the DW fixed. They are not really notorious to keep balanced, they are just sensitive to not being rotated often to stop cupping. Once the cupping starts, how does that affect balance?
Exactly.
 
The upper control arms are not doing their job if that test works. Find out why. One thing we do as a test with double adjustables is crank one side longer to put the bushings in a bind as a test to see if that changes anything.
I saw Blaine mention the uppers once on a thread and I was chasing a similar deal , I did johnny joints on my front uppers and a new mount on the upper passenger front axle side (mine would not hold a stock bushing snugly) and it solved the problem and made it drive really well. For what it is worth.

He is really good with how the entire control arm/steering system comes into play and has seen some freaky stuff as well.
 
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As good Discount Tire can be with getting tires balanced properly they're not infallible. As I've mentioned in this forum many times it took three balance jobs there in one day before they finally got my 35's balanced well enough to not trigger DW.
Do broken or weak belts in tires show up when they balance tires every time?

Just curious if that can get missed as well since the tire is not under road force.
 
I am not now, nor have I ever been, nor will I ever be good enough to fix DW with a toe adjustment. I'll leave that to the experts.
What i remember maybe was a test toe out to isolate it then look at the upper front control arm bushings -that is what got me looking harder at mine.

If toe could fix it, we could probably also solve homelessness and the all middle east headaches pretty soon.

Even if you can’t fix you are still brilliantly good.
 
@pc1p I had a similar issue when I did an axle swap last year. Checked and rechecked and torqued and retorqued all fasteners. Never were any of them not torqued properly.. No worn joints except TRE on my drag link to Pitman arm connection (replacement did not fix DW). I did what Blaine recommended and set my toe out 5/8". No DW. Then I focused on my front upper control arms. JJs on frame side and axle side UCA. I ended up having to shim the joints to tighten them up. Have not had DW but once since and that was after I slipped and let someone else work on my shit (Hilift installed PSC Hydro Assist right before Moab this year). I've since redone all their shenanigans and no issues.

*Note that I adjusted my steering caster and toe all over the place trying to track the DW down. Never once did ANY variation/degree/measurement of caster or toe fix or even make a perceptible improvement/reduction on/in the DW.

Edit: in my case my tires did not change. I simply bolted my existing ones to my new axles. Never had DW with the old axles and tires in 2 years.

To clarify, I had to take my JJ apart and shim the race, essentially increase the washer thickness.
Thanks for the input and experience here...

I'm going to add some toe-out this afternoon and see where that takes me.

Regarding my UCA joints, the "flex joints" (or whatever RE calls them) have a screw on the outside of the barrel that compresses the ball and races together. I haven't seen a JJ torn apart but I believe they do things slightly different. That said, the concept is the same so I may pull these apart again and make sure nothing got fubared during the install or axle swap.
 
just peeked a RE flex joint and hell ya i'd be possibly suspecting and checking the threaded bung BS.
 
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If toe could fix it, we could probably also solve homelessness and the all middle east headaches pretty soon.
Many years ago this was a constant argument by some that setting it toed out fixed their DW so everyone ought to be running toed out. I did a lot of experimenting and knew that far too many run toed in for toe out to be correct. The next time I got one in and since then with a DW issue that wasn't related to the normal stuff, I'd toe it out 3/4" or so and go drive it where it would go into DW. I learned that it was a great diagnostic for deficient uppers which the other folks had, but never diagnosed. They just went with the band-aid and then tried to convince others they had the same problem and toe out would fix it. It never has and never will actually fix it, it just moves the forces around so they don't show up as DW. If folks understood why we run toe in, they would never say to toe it out.
 
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I ended up having to run a few errands, so I ran out of time yesterday evening. However, I did get a chance to check the UCAs. The arms themselves and the Super-Flex joints still seem tight with no play (with no bushing distortion or loose end cap).

gap.JPG


I was prying around with my 48" Snap-On pry bar and didn't see anything move out of the ordinary - BUT - I did see a small gap between the inside shoulder of the clevite bushing and the passenger-side UCA bracket. I removed the bolt from the arm and got a smaller pry-bar between the shoulder and the bracket and was able to "pop" the bushing out of the bracket relatively easily. I was also able to pry the bushing back into the housing with somewhat relative ease. The picture above shows the gap I am talking about (note that this is AFTER I pryed the bushing out some). Prying it back in, I can get it almost 100% flush with the bracket itself. I suspect I'll need to remove the control arm completely to get it 100% seated (if that's indeed how it is supposed to be).

@mrblaine is there a better way to ensure this bushing stays where it is supposed to be? The FSM doesn't note any special processes or tips. My original thought is to add some Loctite and press it back into the bracket, then use a sharp chisel on the back side to stake it in place some. I get worried about that since the bracket on the axle is nothing but thin sheet material.
 
I ended up having to run a few errands, so I ran out of time yesterday evening. However, I did get a chance to check the UCAs. The arms themselves and the Super-Flex joints still seem tight with no play (with no bushing distortion or loose end cap).

View attachment 268827

I was prying around with my 48" Snap-On pry bar and didn't see anything move out of the ordinary - BUT - I did see a small gap between the inside shoulder of the clevite bushing and the passenger-side UCA bracket. I removed the bolt from the arm and got a smaller pry-bar between the shoulder and the bracket and was able to "pop" the bushing out of the bracket relatively easily. I was also able to pry the bushing back into the housing with somewhat relative ease. The picture above shows the gap I am talking about (note that this is AFTER I pryed the bushing out some). Prying it back in, I can get it almost 100% flush with the bracket itself. I suspect I'll need to remove the control arm completely to get it 100% seated (if that's indeed how it is supposed to be).

@mrblaine is there a better way to ensure this bushing stays where it is supposed to be? The FSM doesn't note any special processes or tips. My original thought is to add some Loctite and press it back into the bracket, then use a sharp chisel on the back side to stake it in place some. I get worried about that since the bracket on the axle is nothing but thin sheet material.
In stock form, there is pretty high interference for that press fit. You need to restore that somehow. Are you working on the hydro assist?
 
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