Death Wobble Starting

Bratch

TJ Enthusiast
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Jan 22, 2018
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OKC
Welp it happened, I started getting death wobble and need to get it figured out.

Last Friday (4/7) I was going to see my parents going southbound through a construction/resurfacing work zone at 55-60 MPH and started getting violent shaking. I slowed down and pulled to the shoulder thinking I had a blowout, checked everything out and saw no visible problems. Got off the highway and drove the side roads back home (40-60 mph) with no problems.

I drove it a little around town this week with no problems. Friday (4/14) I had tires rotated and balanced at Discount Tire and an alignment at a local shop. Saturday (4/15) I drove it about 50 miles on the highway (70-80 mph) and a mile or two of dirt roads with no problems.

Today (4/16) I was driving northbound through the same construction zone and it happened again. Pulled to the shoulder and it stopped. Got back on the highway and it started again about half mile out of the construction zone. Stopped again and got back on and no more problems in the 5 miles to get home.

Tires are about 6 year old 31” BFG KO2 with 35,000 miles on them, rotated and balanced every 5k. Shocks and springs (H&R/Bilstein 5100) are 4 years old with 20,000-25,000 miles on them. I replaced the front tie rods with ZJ rods about the same time.

No recent mods other than removing the transmission pan skid plate and crossmember after bending it (March 26).

I have new ball joints and U-joints for the front end but haven’t installed them yet.

What else do I need to start looking at and checking? The wife isn’t too excited about riding in it with this going on.
 
My first thing I always do is a small dry rub steering test. Have your wife turn the jeep on and turn the wheel just enough that it starts to move the wheels, left and right softly. Then go under the front and look and feel for any movement. Most often something is loose and you should be able to see what doesn’t move that should or something that does move that shouldn’t.
First I’d double check the track bar if the bolts are tight and bushings arnt showing any slop when turning. Next I’d look at all your tie rod ends on the tie rod and drag link. Lastly control arms. I like to touch the bracket with the tips of my finger and the relative bushing or tie rod with the bottom of my finger to feel if they move separately.
Look at everything bc I had a cousin who had deathwobble for close to 2 years taking it to shops and spent thousands till I came and did a that steering test and found that the track bar bracket was cracked and causing the slop within 2 min of watching the steering move.
 
This is what you're looking for — any joint which moves in a way it shouldn't. In the video, look at the lower end of the track bar, just below the bolt head in the center.
 
This is what you're looking for — any joint which moves in a way it shouldn't. In the video, look at the lower end of the track bar, just below the bolt head in the center.

Thanks.

The videos in your post aren’t playing for me. Do you have direct links? I’d love to see them.
 
Welp it happened, I started getting death wobble and need to get it figured out.

Last Friday (4/7) I was going to see my parents going southbound through a construction/resurfacing work zone at 55-60 MPH and started getting violent shaking. I slowed down and pulled to the shoulder thinking I had a blowout, checked everything out and saw no visible problems. Got off the highway and drove the side roads back home (40-60 mph) with no problems.

I drove it a little around town this week with no problems. Friday (4/14) I had tires rotated and balanced at Discount Tire and an alignment at a local shop. Saturday (4/15) I drove it about 50 miles on the highway (70-80 mph) and a mile or two of dirt roads with no problems.

Today (4/16) I was driving northbound through the same construction zone and it happened again. Pulled to the shoulder and it stopped. Got back on the highway and it started again about half mile out of the construction zone. Stopped again and got back on and no more problems in the 5 miles to get home.

Tires are about 6 year old 31” BFG KO2 with 35,000 miles on them, rotated and balanced every 5k. Shocks and springs (H&R/Bilstein 5100) are 4 years old with 20,000-25,000 miles on them. I replaced the front tie rods with ZJ rods about the same time.

No recent mods other than removing the transmission pan skid plate and crossmember after bending it (March 26).

I have new ball joints and U-joints for the front end but haven’t installed them yet.

What else do I need to start looking at and checking? The wife isn’t too excited about riding in it with this going on.

https://bleepinjeep.com/video/how-to-fix-death-wobble/
 
I don’t turn softly with the steering test. Inhave them out their hands on the wheel both sides and turn one motion decently hard left, then back one motion right, and keep that up. Just 10 to 2 kind of thing.

Jeep doing it and look for each joint.

6 year old tires are about time. And no, I’m not up for arguing this, on boat trailer tires, you don’t go by mileage, you go by age. 5 years is the change time usually. Discount Tire won’t touch them after 5 on a trailer.

Tire balance is the majority of the problem, but bad joints really let it show.
 
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6 year old tires are about time. And no, I’m not up for arguing this. 5 years is the change time usually. Discount Tire won’t touch them after 5 on a trailer.

Mine just turned 10 years old. Where's the fun in NOT arguing about this? Good thing I don't use Discount Tire or have a trailer. :cool:

tire wear (2).jpg
 
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Mine just turned 10 years old. Where's the fun in NOT arguing about this? ;)

View attachment 417191

Oh boy…..what’s that saying that I keep seeing from Blaine…..everything works fine…..until it doesn’t!

I’ve not had this issue, I put miles on, but I’m about to find out on my CJ in a few years and have this argument with myself.
 
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The most common root cause for Death Wobble is imperfectly balanced front tires, even if they were recently balanced. That's because tire shops seldom give their guys enough time to balance the tires so they are perfect which is required for the type of front-end a TJ and most trucks have. Tire shops usually only get tires balanced to what they consider "good enough" which is seldom good enough to prevent Death Wobble. Something being loose like the track bar makes it easier for an imperfectly balanced front tire to cause DW.
 
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I had the same prob. Take it back to Discount and have them pull the wheels off and wire brush theback of the wheel and its mating surface on your Jeep. Took them less than 10 mins and prob solved. Good luck and I hope this wprks for you.
 
When you do the dry test you need to do it not running and with the engine running.

You can rotate your tires to the back and see if it is totally tire related by doing that sometimes.

Do not put any faith in tugging on things with your bare hands you can not come close to the forces at play when these things are going down the road.

Your track bar typically doesn’t need to have any unnecessary slop and pay close attention to your control arm mounts especially the upper right front passenger side.

In someway or the other bushings degrade overtime also.
 
Last edited:
Welp it happened, I started getting death wobble and need to get it figured out.

Last Friday (4/7) I was going to see my parents going southbound through a construction/resurfacing work zone at 55-60 MPH and started getting violent shaking. I slowed down and pulled to the shoulder thinking I had a blowout, checked everything out and saw no visible problems. Got off the highway and drove the side roads back home (40-60 mph) with no problems.

I drove it a little around town this week with no problems. Friday (4/14) I had tires rotated and balanced at Discount Tire and an alignment at a local shop. Saturday (4/15) I drove it about 50 miles on the highway (70-80 mph) and a mile or two of dirt roads with no problems.

Today (4/16) I was driving northbound through the same construction zone and it happened again. Pulled to the shoulder and it stopped. Got back on the highway and it started again about half mile out of the construction zone. Stopped again and got back on and no more problems in the 5 miles to get home.

Tires are about 6 year old 31” BFG KO2 with 35,000 miles on them, rotated and balanced every 5k. Shocks and springs (H&R/Bilstein 5100) are 4 years old with 20,000-25,000 miles on them. I replaced the front tie rods with ZJ rods about the same time.

No recent mods other than removing the transmission pan skid plate and crossmember after bending it (March 26).

I have new ball joints and U-joints for the front end but haven’t installed them yet.

What else do I need to start looking at and checking? The wife isn’t too excited about riding in it with this going on.

One thing I would urge you to check and replace is the track bar bushing. It is a cheap fix and the last thing I replaced after a few thousands spent on whack-a-mole replacement parts. Cannot recall off the top of my head, but there is a stiff one that a jeep guy makes, and it cleared my issue immediately.

Also be certain your wheels have some toe-in.
 
All right I got out after work and crawled around under her and had my wife help do the dry steering test.

None of the bolts I checked felt overly loose but I did add some torque to a few so they were off spec if my wrench is right. I didn’t check any of the nuts with cotter pins until I get replacement pins.

Looking at everything the rubber is in rough shape. I took some pictures to illustrate:
3B1E3A3C-D560-4F5B-89E2-922797EA4403.jpeg

Cracking bushing on LCA.

8DAD2E14-83BB-4DEA-808B-5D3228775854.jpeg

Cracking bushing on track bar.

3FAA54DF-E90C-4F34-AE34-11AC6A215548.jpeg

Control arm shifted to one side.

B1329C70-D7DB-4929-818C-9591A8AD3AB0.jpeg

Cracking bushing on LCA

09CD8FE8-09CA-4B1A-B59A-9294459706E7.jpeg

Shifted CA

D5F40623-CB89-4127-B7C7-B18DC5AE331C.jpeg

Cracked bushing on sway bar link.

My very untrained eye didn’t see anything obvious on the dry steer but took a couple videos where I saw some movement that looked normal but I wanted to verify.




Ball joint rolling on the track bar during rotation




Drag link and tie rod rotation at end of motion.

I didn’t think about it until tonight but very rarely (once or twice a year maybe) we get a loud pop at full lock out turning. Happened a few weeks ago backing out of the drive way.

Do the photos and videos help diagnose anything?

At this point I’m leaning towards all new control arms unless you guys tell me the bushings look fine. I already have new ball joints, u joints, wheel bearings and seals waiting on a chance to install. Figured I’d throw the control arms on at the same time.

I’m half tempted to just do a new track bar at the same time and try to nuke it from orbit.
 
I have not since the rotate and balance. I’ll do that tomorrow
 
Spin the tires and look for rim run out and out of round tires.that and a very slightly loose track bar gave me poo my pants death wobble frequently.

I hope that isn't a rod knock i hear from the motor? Vids can pick up odd sounds...
 
Do the photos and videos help diagnose anything?

You might want to try the test again with turning the wheel back & forth (10 to 2) more quickly.
Once it starts moving, you won't notice the play as it continues to move further in the same direction.
 
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Personally the track bar looks to move a lot there on both ends. Like longjp2 said do it in shorter turn since once it begins to move the movement in the bushings is already done and serves no point. That being said if the track bar enough to cause DW idk, hard to tell but I’ve never had a track bar move that much on either side. Being the track bar bushing looked as bad as the control arms I’d prob just replace all the bushings ( or the whole arms plus the bushings in the axle upper side since you can get stock arms with the bushings pressed in super cheap) and the track bar since bushings are cracking anyways.