"And Here We Go" Build

Steve Hoffman

Steve Hoffman

Member
Joined
Jun 11, 2017
Messages
42
Location
Westerville, OH, United States
Hello forum. Hope summer going well for all.

I joined this forum after buying my 2006 LJ first weekend in June, 2017. By watching and participating in this forum, asking questions and observing responses I have learned a lot. but there is so much more to learn as I will explain. As I've mentioned in previous posts. This is my first ever Jeep but after 2 years of looking, I settled on my LJ. I have zero mechanical abilities, but have a mechanic at my place of work who is helping me along this build road. I've been silent on this forum for a a week or two as I settle in on my overall plan. This LJ will mostly be a DD during ohio summer months only. But plan to travel off road occasionally.

Stay tuned as we start this build. It will be a couple of posts to get all up to speed on my journey to date.

And Here we Go....

These pics, some posted previously is what I bought. In Raleigh NC. Flew down from central ohio and drove it home. Awesome ride home. Zero rust , clean. 120k miles. Pretty stock.


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That looks like a clean, solid LJ there Steve! I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with it.
 
Awesome LJ! I'm excited to see how your build goes!


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My first mod was simple and easing my way into my build (lol). Shortly after getting my jeep. I got caught with my pants (I mean top) Down on a bright sunny day in Columbus OH. Was in business meeting and pop up storm dump a lot of water in short period of time. Luckily I was able to leave meeting to find cover for Jeep in our factory.

Needless to say.... wet Jeep and starting wipers for first time after purchaserralized I have crappy old worthless wiper blades. So first mod was on way home at local meijer to get replacement.

A shout out to my PO though for having floors lined throughout entire floor front and back.

Here a few pics

Next post will be of lift process and new tires. Probably tomorrow once I get my jeep back from shop.

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Lift....

I spent my first few weeks of ownership observing this forum, speaking to Jeep specialists in Columbus, talking to my mechanic etc. considering everyones thoughts and that majority of time this LJ will be summer only DD with some experimenting with off-road I settled on a 3 inch lift kit from Zone and chose BFG 32 x 11.5 tires on my inherited 15 inch rims. I was initially thinking of only a 2 inch or 2.5 inch lift but chose the 3 inch in the event I wanted to move to 33 inch tires down the road.

Attached are the results of the lift still with the old tires.

New tires are on but no pics yet. We've had a few issues that are being addressed. Next post will explain.

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Ok, well as I shared I'm not a mechanic and a novice at this Jeep stuff. Either I'm an idiot or wasn't paying attention to my mechanic. Mechanic installed the lift over 4th of July holiday at place of work with little issue. The kit purchased required drilling holes to use the legacy track bar. He sent me a text with the pics in previous post. Awesome. I spoke with him and reminded me it needs a front end alignment when I get my tires on. "Yep, got it". Weds after the 4th, I get in my jeep and get on highway to driving to a meeting before going to tire place. When I got Jeep to 55 MPH I though Jeep was crumbling beneath me. I pull off highway and cancel meeting slowly driving to tire store with hazard lights on. Once there, I share my experience and he laughs and says " Sounds like the death wobble". Shit. DEATH WOBBLE is the most appropriate term for what I experienced. I get back to office, find my mechanic. WTF... he starts laughing and says. "I told you u need an alignment".

After further discussion with local experts, we needed front adjustable track-bar and a steering stabilizer. (Got on line immediately and ordered from From Rough country). Inexpensive with decent reviews. They will be at my office Monday and get installed with that front end allignmnent. The I get and my jeep back With NO DEATH WOBBLE. (Hopefully) Don't wish that in worst enemy. Don't like that feeling.

Sorry long post. I will let u know how things turn out.
 
If an "expert" is saying that a steering dampener will fix the DW, then they are not an expert. Make sure that the new tires were perfectly balanced as well.

That's a damn fine looking LJ that you bought!!
 
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derekmac said:
If an "expert" is saying that a steering dampener will fix the DW, then they are not an expert. Make sure that the new tires were perfectly balanced as well.

That's a damn fine looking LJ that you bought!!
Click to expand...

The steering damper was a thrown by me since I was online ordering the adj track-bar. The mechanic that inspected car before I bought suggested a new one so I thought Not going to hurt getting a new one. Hopefully the alignment to new specs along with Adj track-bar will fix this issue. If not, will be seeking suggestions.
 
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Did you drive it with the old tires on after the lift was put on? If not, for shits and giggles I'd try them and see if you still get DW. @Jerry Bransford is extremely knowledgeable and might have suggestions you could follow.
 
This is something I wrote elsewhere earlier today that may be helpful...

Death Wobble is NEVER (!) caused by a bad steering stabilizer. Never ever.

Some might believe installing a new steering stabilizer cured their DW after it stopped the symptoms but all it really did was just temporarily suppress the symptoms. As soon as the new stabilizer ages a bit, the DW will return since it wasn't a cure, it was just a temporary band-aid that only served to temporarily suppress the symptoms.

When the tires are properly/perfectly balanced and the steering system is in good condition, you can drive without a steering stabilizer and not have DW or notice any difference. The main purpose of a steering stabilizer is to isolate and protect the steering system from bumps and impacts while driving. That it seems to also 'stabilize' the steering a bit is strictly a secondary benefit.

In my personal opinion, the most common trigger and cause of DW is a bad or imperfectly balanced tire. Get something as big as a Jeep tire spinning and if it's not perfectly balanced, it will cause a shimmy. And if the tire balance is bad enough, that shimmy can develop into full-blown DW.

Even if the front-end is 'tight' or even brand-new, a bad enough tire balance can trigger DW on the type of front-end a TJ and many trucks have. And if the front-end isn't tight, it doesn't take the tire being much out of balance to cause DW. The worst case of DW I ever experienced was with my then 1.5 year old '97 TJ, when nothing was worn yet, and a front tire had lost its largest balancing weight.

A big problem with DW is that a Jeep owner may have just had his tires "balanced" without curing the DW so he then starts looking for other issues. The problem with that is the bigger the tire, the more it must be PERFECTLY balanced and not many tire shops allow their guys enough time to perfectly balance tires. They often only get them balanced to what they consider to be a "good enough" balance which is never good enough for big tire on a Wrangler. What may be a "good enough" balance for a small tire on a Kia won't be good enough for a big tire on a Wrangler.

So forget the steering stabilizer as a cause of or a cure for Death Wobble. It is neither and it never will be.

Make sure your tires are PERFECTLY balanced. Not all tire shops will take the time to do that, especially on big Jeep size tires. I have had to return to my Discount Tire shop three times in one day before they finally figured out they needed to spend more time to get them perfect.

Also perform what is known as a "dry steering test". With the tires on the ground, have a helper repeatedly turn the steering wheel back & forth while you watch the steering system and front suspension for any unwanted movement. Any unwanted movement, coupled with an imperfectly balanced tire (which provides the 'energy' for the DW oscillations), is a recipe for DW.

My personal opinion is that an imperfectly balanced tire is the most common root cause of DW. The second most common cause of DW, again in my personal opinion, is an imperfectly balanced tire coupled with a loose or worn component somewhere in the front end.
 
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Jerry Bransford said:
This is something I wrote elsewhere earlier today that may be helpful...

Death Wobble is NEVER (!) caused by a bad steering stabilizer. Never ever.

Some might believe installing a new steering stabilizer cured their DW after it stopped the symptoms but all it really did was just temporarily suppress the symptoms. As soon as the new stabilizer ages a bit, the DW will return since it wasn't a cure, it was just a temporary band-aid that only served to temporarily suppress the symptoms.

When the tires are properly/perfectly balanced and the steering system is in good condition, you can drive without a steering stabilizer and not have DW or notice any difference. The main purpose of a steering stabilizer is to isolate and protect the steering system from bumps and impacts while driving. That it seems to also 'stabilize' the steering a bit is strictly a secondary benefit.

In my personal opinion, the most common trigger and cause of DW is a bad or imperfectly balanced tire. Get something as big as a Jeep tire spinning and if it's not perfectly balanced, it will cause a shimmy. And if the tire balance is bad enough, that shimmy can develop into full-blown DW.

Even if the front-end is 'tight' or even brand-new, a bad enough tire balance can trigger DW on the type of front-end a TJ and many trucks have. And if the front-end isn't tight, it doesn't take the tire being much out of balance to cause DW. The worst case of DW I ever experienced was with my 1.5 year old TJ, when nothing was worn yet, and a front tire had lost its largest balancing weight.

A big problem with DW is that a Jeep owner may have just had his tires "balanced" without curing the DW so he then starts looking for other issues. The problem with that is the bigger the tire, the more it must be PERFECTLY balanced and not many tire shops allow their guys enough time to perfectly balance tires. They often only get them balanced to what they consider to be a "good enough" balance which is never good enough for big tire on a Wrangler. What may be a "good enough" balance for a small tire on a Kia won't be good enough for a big tire on a Wrangler.

So forget the steering stabilizer as a cause or a cure for Death Wobble. It is neither and it never will be.

Make sure your tires are PERFECTLY balanced. Not all tire shops will take the time to do that, especially on big Jeep size tires. I have had to return to my Discount Tire shop three times in one day before they finally figured out they needed to spend more time to get them perfect.

Also perform what is known as a "dry steering test". With the tires on the ground, have a helper repeatedly turn the steering wheel back & forth while you watch the steering system and front suspension for any unwanted movement. Any unwanted movement, coupled with an imperfectly balanced tire (which provides the 'energy' for the DW oscillations), is a recipe for DW.

My personal opinion is that an imperfectly balanced tire is the most common root cause of DW. The second most common cause of DW, again in my personal opinion, is an imperfectly balanced tire coupled with a loose or worn component somewhere in the front end.
Click to expand...


Thanks for ur insights a lot. I will certainly be Taking this knowledge to the tire shop Grismer Tire to have them recheck the tires to make sure they are perfectly balanced. And make sure everything is tight.
 
Happy Sunday boys and girls. Lots of rain this week in CBUS this past week. Plus work getting in the way of fun and waiting on alignment and installment of adj track bar rebalance of wheels and front end alignment. So I haven't updated the after pics.

Place I got my tires installed when I called back about alignment and installing track bar hesitated on wanting to do it but said they would. I said nope. Forget it. I called one of the local experts focusing on jeeps and the actually referred me to a few places for alignment and install if RC adj track bar.

Good thing I did. The place was knowledgeable on lifted vehicles and the death wobble. Thanks to knowledge here from @tjguru I told place to rebalance what tire company done just two days prior. Sure enough, they had to rebalance the wheels.

Anyway. Recap.

New 3 inch suspension lift from Zone $540. Installed by my mechanic at work
5 new BFG 32x11.5. $1,026
New adj track bar - RC. $139
New Steering dampener - $60
Install of trackbar/ dampener and alignment and rebalance of wheels $250

Death wobble experience- Check (hopefully never again)
Death wobble fixed - check
My first major mod- Happy LJ owner

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Ok. Now that this done. I do have a few issues with this mod. I have a new nick name umingst friends. Squeaky. Although I I Lj her experience the DW, people I know I'm coming from a mike away. After getting g it back from place the eliminated the DB. It squeaks at every turn. I can even push on the Lj when it's parked and crest the squeak. Mechanic said the alignment place didn't grease the joints/ bearings or some ting (remember I have little m kwowlwdge underneath this thing). I though my mechanic fixed it , but this weekend. It's sure is squeaking. Any thoughts.
 
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