Still chasing death wobble

[Paparock1]

I have read a lot on how to diagnose it, I go out and check things find what might be a cause then replace the problem. It seems to help for a little while. Then back to wobble. Now that the weather has finally gotten cold down here, the wobble is much worse. Leading me to look at rubber bushings even closer. On my way home last night I had like five episodes of full on death wobble where I had to come to a complete stop. Its a good thing I only have back roads to drive and they are rough. I would figure with that many occurrences something would be easily identified. I can not find much movement in my checks as I have replaced most everything.

I have a 6 month old rough country adjustable track bar. I did notice about a 1/4 inch movement in the bushing. Has anyone replace the bushings with a Johnny Joint?

I also noticed that my Lower control Arm,s bushings have a ring in the dirt where they appear to be moving. the dirt around the bushing is about 1/16 of an inch circular gap around the bushing. There is a perfect ring about the bushing in the dirt on both sides. I hope that makes since. So I replaced the bolts with some Currie greaseable bolts and torqued to spec but stil no joy.

with how violent the wobble gets I figured something would break. I have checked welds meticulously and everything is secure. I am going to do a full on slow disassembly and check each part. I do have one more question for anyone but I have read where Blaine has asked someone to adjust their toe in to 5/8 out and test drive it and see if the wobble goes away. If it does go away what does that indicate?

As always thank you for any input and advice. I am now getting frustrated with it as I am at a loss and tired of just buying replacement parts that dont fix my problem.

 

[Paparock1]

Here is what is new:
Adjustable Track bars front and rear. I removed the brackets and used the factory mounts front and rear. All 4 moog ball joints, moog tie rod ends, moog front axle upper control arm bushings. Rough country upper adjustable control arms with Their x flex joint, front and rear. stock oem pitman arm.

Here is what I have adjusted:
played with different tire air pressure from 25 psi to 32 psi, currently at 30psi. Adjusted Caster rear to match the same angle as transfer case, in the front If I remember right to 8°. rebalanced tires and rotated tires.

I have not rechecked the unit bearings since I did the ball joints about 6 months ago.

 

[jjvw]

Have you had the tires balanced? That is a good first step. Then make sure all bolts are seated and tight. All connections need to be tight and controlled to contain the harmonics that lead to death wobble.

Grease bolts on a bushing aren't doing anything that a regular hardware store bolt can't do.

 

[Jerry Bransford]

Have you had the tires balanced? That is a good first step.

X2!!! Imperfectly balanced or bad tires are one of the most common root causes of DW. Even if your tires were recently balanced that's no assurance they got them balanced well enough to not be causing DW. Not all (many?) tire shops are willing to take the time to get the tires balanced to any better than what they consider "good enough" which is seldom good enough for a vehicle with a solid front axle like the TJ has. Really.

 

[Paparock1]

Thank you both for your advice. I think I have it fixed finally.
I had the tires balanced about 3 weeks ago. I watched them pretty close from just outside the door of the shop and they checked and rechecked them a few times. Adding and removing weights. I feel they did good. I think that when they remounted the tires on the lugs they ran one lug in all the way not letting the wheel center on each lug. I had what seemed to be a small bounce on smooth roads. Today I rotated my tires, did a better alignment, now they are 1/8 toe in. rotated and remounted wheels and let them center. Then out for a test drive. I took a rough road and if I felt any bit of wobble it was just for a brief second and then went away. Perhaps my wheels that are now in the rear are bent but not sure. Just happy to drive the jeep for now. Thank you again!!!

The grease bolts were just sitting on my shelf from me ordering the wrong length previously. They fit perfectly in the frame so I went ahead and used them there.

 

[Goatman]

I have talked about hub-centric vs. lug-centric wheels before regarding the need to get tires re-re-re-balanced.
And while many here will politely disagree with me on this topic I have seen the switch to hub-centric rims cure this problem a lot.
You can almost always get an appropriate sized hub adapter for lug-centric rims.
And while on paper the lug-centric design would work, I have found that in the real world they can, or may, allow a vibe when mounted quickly.
I'm not looking to rehash this argument again. Just sometimes when you have a persistent vibe it may be a solution.

 

[Jcraig]

I have read a lot on how to diagnose it, I go out and check things find what might be a cause then replace the problem. It seems to help for a little while. Then back to wobble. Now that the weather has finally gotten cold down here, the wobble is much worse. Leading me to look at rubber bushings even closer. On my way home last night I had like five episodes of full on death wobble where I had to come to a complete stop. Its a good thing I only have back roads to drive and they are rough. I would figure with that many occurrences something would be easily identified. I can not find much movement in my checks as I have replaced most everything.

I have a 6 month old rough country adjustable track bar. I did notice about a 1/4 inch movement in the bushing. Has anyone replace the bushings with a Johnny Joint?

I also noticed that my Lower control Arm,s bushings have a ring in the dirt where they appear to be moving. the dirt around the bushing is about 1/16 of an inch circular gap around the bushing. There is a perfect ring about the bushing in the dirt on both sides. I hope that makes since. So I replaced the bolts with some Currie greaseable bolts and torqued to spec but stil no joy.

with how violent the wobble gets I figured something would break. I have checked welds meticulously and everything is secure. I am going to do a full on slow disassembly and check each part. I do have one more question for anyone but I have read where Blaine has asked someone to adjust their toe in to 5/8 out and test drive it and see if the wobble goes away. If it does go away what does that indicate?

As always thank you for any input and advice. I am now getting frustrated with it as I am at a loss and tired of just buying replacement parts that dont fix my problem.

"I have a 6 month old rough country adjustable track bar. I did notice about a 1/4 inch movement in the bushing."
Does this allow your track bar to move a 1/4 inch? Seems this could be a major contributor to the wobble.

 

[Paparock1]

"I have a 6 month old rough country adjustable track bar. I did notice about a 1/4 inch movement in the bushing."
Does this allow your track bar to move a 1/4 inch? Seems this could be a major contributor to the wobble.

Well I thought that. Then after searching, I found a video from a member on here asking about his movement of his track bar bushing and bolt, The response from the TJ Guru's was that it was normal. I never really thought about it but the bushing is there to allow movement, I was just unaware of how much it does move.

I am very happy to say that my death wobble is gone and I didn't do anything to the track bar bushing and bolt besides check torque and it was torqued properly. The centering of my wheels on the studs and the hour that I took to study my alignment and make adjustments was the fix (of coarse after all the other stuff has been replaced). It drives and rides awesome now.

Thank you for the question.

 

[andy29847]

I'm with Goatman on the hub centric vs lug centric issue. I ordered aluminum rings to match my 71.5mm hub and 83mm wheel centers. I removed and replaced all four wheels as I installed the rings. Rootie Rubicon is riding and driving perfect after. I believe wheels mounted off center made my tire go out of round too. The out of round condition would show up around 15k miles. I'm hoping for a trouble free existence now.

 

[Jeepn_Texas]

I have read a lot on how to diagnose it, I go out and check things find what might be a cause then replace the problem. It seems to help for a little while. Then back to wobble. Now that the weather has finally gotten cold down here, the wobble is much worse. Leading me to look at rubber bushings even closer. On my way home last night I had like five episodes of full on death wobble where I had to come to a complete stop. Its a good thing I only have back roads to drive and they are rough. I would figure with that many occurrences something would be easily identified. I can not find much movement in my checks as I have replaced most everything.

I have a 6 month old rough country adjustable track bar. I did notice about a 1/4 inch movement in the bushing. Has anyone replace the bushings with a Johnny Joint?

I also noticed that my Lower control Arm,s bushings have a ring in the dirt where they appear to be moving. the dirt around the bushing is about 1/16 of an inch circular gap around the bushing. There is a perfect ring about the bushing in the dirt on both sides. I hope that makes since. So I replaced the bolts with some Currie greaseable bolts and torqued to spec but stil no joy.

with how violent the wobble gets I figured something would break. I have checked welds meticulously and everything is secure. I am going to do a full on slow disassembly and check each part. I do have one more question for anyone but I have read where Blaine has asked someone to adjust their toe in to 5/8 out and test drive it and see if the wobble goes away. If it does go away what does that indicate?

As always thank you for any input and advice. I am now getting frustrated with it as I am at a loss and tired of just buying replacement parts that dont fix my problem.

Um... have you checked the play on your steering sector yet?