Sudden onset death wobble

R49

R49

Forum odd guy
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Nov 11, 2019
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South of Billings MT
So the other day I was taking my TJ to the car wash.
As I hit 45 mph, the steering wheel started shaking and I’m all over the road. Immediately turned around and went back home.
Did some checking and found that the steering gearbox had one broken bolt and the other 2 were loose.

The broken bolt defied all attempts at extraction, so I had to drill it out and helicoil. New hardware installed and wobble disappeared.

Oh well it’s one more thing check after a wheeling trip.
 
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Check your tire balance too. An imperfectly balanced front tire is the usual root cause of DW with something loose like you had allowing the DW to develop more easily.
 
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I bet you needed to slow way down to stop that DW but this is the first I've heard that a steering box being loose from the frame caused it.

Now I plan on checking the bolts holding mine in place. < not really but I may glance that way and kick a tire or two.
 
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JEEPCJTJ said:
< not really but I may glance that way and kick a tire or two.
Click to expand...
Usually how most plans go! First you're motivated and say you're definitely going to do something. Maybe you do once or twice, then it just falls away and you don't think about it until it's a problem!

But if things never broke we wouldn't get to fix them, right?
 
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