03 Rubicon death wobble

[BlackPearl]

hi all,

new here because my dads jeep has some death wobble going on. I'm an xj guy and have some wrench time on that rig, but I'm less familiar with the TJ.

The jeep is stock other than a 2.5" lift with OMEmu springs, jks discos, and billys. we crawled under it a week ago to check all the usual, Tie rod ends, ball joints, drag link, trac bar. wheels are like a metric 31 and very good condition, I don't see balance being an issue.

Everything seems in very solid condition still. So I'm here to see what the more knowledgeable recommend on checking, I know this topic gets beat to death, but usually I read of bigger lifts, tires..... before folks hit this issue.


Im all ears guys,

Thank you kindly for your help

 

[Chris]

Check out this thread:
Is Your Jeep Wrangler TJ Experiencing Vibrations or Death Wobble? READ THIS!

There's a good chance it's not death wobble. True death wobble is violent... very, very violent, and also scary as hell. If it's not true death wobble, it's almost always improperly balanced tires, which consequently is the last thing most people check.

 

[BlackPearl]

I'll review the thread. I've experienced death wobble to the extreme, NO FUN!
Hid is happening 40+ mph and it's becoming more common. Last outing he swerved twice on the highway who h i leaned was him trying to gain control, it looked freaky haha.

We are about to look through things in just a bit again.

 

[Chris]

In my experience if it is true death wobble, it's usually the track bar bolts not being torqued down properly. I'd perform the dry steering test and see if you notice anything (outlined in that thread).

 

[MaloStapalo]

In my experience if it is true death wobble, it's usually the track bar bolts not being torqued down properly. I'd perform the dry steering test and see if you notice anything (outlined in that thread).

Yup, I had some wobble and it was my axle side track bar bolt, even though it felt tight it wasn't torqued enough.

 

[Chris]

Yup, I had some wobble and it was my axle side track bar bolt, even though it felt tight it wasn't torqued enough.

That was the case with mine as well!

 

[derekmac]

Try swapping the tires front to back as that can help rule out a balancing issue.

 

[BlackPearl]

Try swapping the tires front to back as that can help rule out a balancing issue.

We torqued the Trac bar axle sized to 55ft lbs and checked it again today, good. Tires were rotated a month ago, the wobble was present before rotation.

 

[BlackPearl]

So we pulled the Trac bar off today. The body side mount seems loose to me, like wiggles easier than it maybe should. Left to right is smooth but easy, it also moves forward and back which has a noticeable give area, almost a notch feeling. My dad's taking it in for an alignment tomorrow, my only other guess for dw is the caster being off. We also flipped some OME springs around today, those were flipped pass/driver in both front and rear, however dw has normally occurred with two people in the car. I don't believe springs were an issue.

We will see what the shop does.

 

[Chris]

Keep us posted. The caster should have no effect over the death wobble though. Perhaps though the shop will notice something you overlooked. Always nice to have a shops opinion.

 

[Jerry Bransford]

Something loose like the track bar can only allow the DW being triggered by something else to occur more easily. A passive device like a track bar can't in and of itself generate DW, even with its mounts loose. It's an inanimate object. Being loose just lets the DW happen more quickly and more easily. The usual actual trigger that provides the power to shake the Jeep so violently is a tire that is out of balance. If everything is tight that imbalanced tire just causes a shimmy. But if something like the trackbar is loose too, then DW can easily fully develop into full-blown DW.

Get your tires PERFECTLY balanced. I don't care if they were recently balanced, get them balanced again and tell the guy performing the balance that you're experiencing Death Wobble and that he needs to spend enough time to get the tires perfectly balanced or tell you that there's a problem with a tire that is preventing perfect balance. And of course fully tighten the tie rod bolts and trackbar bolts, those are often too loose to be able to keep things under control when there's a tire that is wobbling and trying to get the front-end oscillating in synch with the out of balance tire.

 

[Chris]

Jerry is dead on accurate. It's almost always a tire balance issue, which happens more than you think with the big tires we tend to run. It's also the one thing that everyone tends to overlook the most.

 

[BlackPearl]

Jerry is dead on accurate. It's almost always a tire balance issue, which happens more than you think with the big tires we tend to run. It's also the one thing that everyone tends to overlook the most.

His tires are 31 or smaller, it seems good bumps are what triggers it. I will suggest balancing as you've recommended.

 

[AndyG]

Keep us posted..threads like this are educational.

 

[k-huevo]

I'll piggy back on this thread. I had death wobble on high speed sweepers today. Had the tires (31X10.5x15) balanced after the first incident; drove away from the shop, happened again, returned to the shop and tires were zero balanced this time, drove away and scary time reoccurred. By now there must be major damage to steering and suspension parts. I have my work cut out for me in the days ahead.

 

[BlackPearl]

I'll piggy back on this thread. I had death wobble on high speed sweepers today. Had the tires (31X10.5x15) balanced after the first incident; drove away from the shop, happened again, returned to the shop and tires were zero balanced this time, drove away and scary time reoccurred. By now there must be major damage to steering and suspension parts. I have my work cut out for me in the days ahead.

I would loose sleep over it until you know for sure anything is damaged. Jeeps are fairly resilient. I would be getting your money back if they really didn't balance them!

 

[BlackPearl]

Thus far the jeep has undergone, alignment, balanced tires, and a new stabilizer.
Time will tell if this cures it!

 

[k-huevo]

...I had death wobble on high speed sweepers today...I have my work cut out for me in the days ahead.

Except for the outer ball joints, everything that could have been broken was broken. The death wobble has been fixed.

 

[Chris]

Except for the outer ball joints, everything that could have been broken was broken. The death wobble has been fixed.
View attachment 59745

Looks good as new too!