04 LJ death wobble help

[thawk21]

I just picked up a 04 LJ with a 2.5 inch tereflex lift. The test drive was fine but then on the 5hr drive home I hit a pretty nice pot hole and experienced death wobble for the first time. Pretty scary stuff. The I got it about 4 more times on the drive home when driving over the section of road that meets with bridges.

I watched a lot of videos and tried to diagnose it myself. The track bar looks like it's in rough shape and the ball joints have a little play. If I replace the track bar with a JKs track bar and get Spicer ball joints would I be in good shape or is there something else I should look at? My local Offroad mechanic can't get me in for 3 weeks. Here are some pictures I took.

 

[Jerry Bransford]

If you see any sideways play at any of the steering system's joints/rod-ends or connection points when the steering wheel is rapidly turned left-right-left in quick short motions that's too much. Rotational play about the long axis is normal for the tie rod and drag link because they're mounted on ball joints. Sounds like you already figured out the ball joints are bad, replace them with two of the Spicer ball joints at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007N6OHI0/?tag=wranglerorg-20

Imperfect tire balance can also contribute to DW, and sometimes a bad tire/bad tire balance can be the root cause of the DW. But usually it's an imperfectly balanced or bad front tire together with something that is loose. When installing replacements make sure to properly torque them to the correct ft-lbs. which we can provide to you if you don't have the Jeep factory service manual for your model year TJ. You can also download that to your computer from this site.

 

[06lj]

From the looks of it your steering can use a refresh. Since your going to be there I'd go with your plan of a new track bar and ball joints. I'd add in a new tie rod and drag link. From the looks of your control arms it appears you have solid bushings. If your going to stick with a 2 inch lift I'd replace them with some factory arms which are a far better design than solid bars with no flex. If you plan on building this Jeep then some adjustable with flex joints would be a great addition.

 

[TheBoogieman]

Pic #1 doesn't have any grease in the boot. Pic #2 has a worn out bushing.

 

[thawk21]

Wanted to add some videos of tie rod, drag link, and ball joints.