...Death Wobble......Again....

[wayoflife]

I've had DW off an on for about 3-4 years now. I've had tires balanced & rebalanced. I've replaced ball joints , hub assemblies, track bar, and drag link & control arms. I just ordered a high clearance steering setup that will replace the drag link and trac bar again, but upgraded.
In my experience DW happens more when my tires are cold and at a specific speed. For me it's between 45-55 mph. One thing that has helped is monitoring my tire pressure. Anything over 28 psi and the DW gets bad. Every little bump or turn can cause it.
Check all your control arms, drag link etc. Make sure nothing is loose.

I could be wrong but I've never heard of anyone having death wobble "on and off" for years on end. For me, it's always been you either have it or you don't and when you do have it, it doesn't matter if it warm or cold or whatever. But then, that's just been my experience.

 

[Deathmask]

140k on the same ball joints?

how did you check them?

here's how I check mine, place the front axle on jack stands just high enough to get the tire off the ground with enough space to slide a pry bar or shovel under the tire.

lift on the tire with the pry bar or shovel - you may need a helper with this so you can look at the ball joint.

I like to use a short handled shovel so I can press down on the handle and watch the ball joint at the same time

if you see any up/down movement in the ball joint, they need replacing.

I don't know if it matters, but I lifted one side at a time and pried under the tire with a jack handle and looked for play at the wheel by shaking the tire at 12 and 6 then at 9 and 3. I'm going to check them again because I was kind of in a hurry when I checked and maybe I missed something. But if I did it right, I didn't see any movement at all.


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[VeruGE*144]

I don't know if it matters, but I lifted one side at a time and pried under the tire with a jack handle and looked for play at the wheel by shaking the tire at 12 and 6 then at 9 and 3. I'm going to check them again because I was kind of in a hurry when I checked and maybe I missed something. But if I did it right, I didn't see any movement at all.


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First time I checked my ball joints I didn't see any play either. The second time I checked I was able to find play in both upper and lower on my driver side. It might be as little as 1/8" of play, that might be hard to spot at first. Mine also had this annoying squeak that was on and off.




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MY BUILT/REBUILD: http://wayalife.com/showthread.php?44123-Rebuilt-of-a-Billet-Silver-mall-crawler&p=859931#post859931

 

[madstiles]

Think your talking about bump steer not death wobble anyways when you replaced the factory joints did you use factory replacements? They are made of plastic and prone to going bad. Also your track bar and drag link need to be as parallel as possible or you get bump steer.

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[jeeeep]

I don't know if it matters, but I lifted one side at a time and pried under the tire with a jack handle and looked for play at the wheel by shaking the tire at 12 and 6 then at 9 and 3. I'm going to check them again because I was kind of in a hurry when I checked and maybe I missed something. But if I did it right, I didn't see any movement at all.


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Put your finger on the ball joint rubber boot and then lift up and down on the tire with the pry bar. if you feel any play they need to be replaced.
check the lower ball joints first, they are usually the first to go but replace upper and lower as a set.

 

[RockinAZJK]

I'll start off by saying, I was reluctant to make another death wobble thread, but I'm desperate to fix this.

When I first got my JK i had a problem with death wobble. After re-torquing all the bolts and replacing the track bar with a beefy adjustable track bar, the death wobble went away. 3 years later I decided to install a 2" lift (lift coils, shock extenders, front sway bar end links, and the adjustable front track bar I had) with 1" coil spacers up front, to make up for the weight of my bumper, and 1.5" spidertrax wheel spacers.

After installing the lift, the steering felt like crap and I was getting death wobble. So I went through and loosened all the suspension arms, installed some geo brackets, and re-tourqued everything. The brackets got my pinion angle back to 0* and the steering felt like stock again and I wasn't getting death wobble as easily. I still get death wobble above 45mph, but it's more random. Sometimes I'll hit bumps and feel the front axle shifting but no death wobble, other times I'll get it.

After the lift I re-centered the axle the best I could and straightened the steering wheel. I did not adjust the toe at all and the inside for the front drivers tire was cupping to I know the toe is out.

That's everything I can think of that's I've done. Any help would be greatly appreciated, this is making me scared to drive my Jeep.....

One thing that I didn't see anyone address (maybe I missed it??) is you said your pinion angle is 0. On the front axle you want to be looking at caster rather than pinion. And you should be at -4 to -6 degrees caster. Somebody feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.


Build Thread - "Jenny"
http://wayalife.com/showthread.php?41740-The-build-of-Jenny&highlight=build jenny

 

[Deathmask]

One thing that I didn't see anyone address (maybe I missed it??) is you said your pinion angle is 0. On the front axle you want to be looking at caster rather than pinion. And you should be at -4 to -6 degrees caster. Somebody feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.


Build Thread - "Jenny"
http://wayalife.com/showthread.php?41740-The-build-of-Jenny&highlight=build jenny

From what I understand, pinion angle and caster are directly correlated. 0* pinion angle is 4* caster.


I rechecked the balljoints and it looks like we have a winner, or looser depending on how you look at it. They have play and I'm hearing a clicking noise that I can feel when I place my hand on the individual balljoints. I'm going to try to replace them tomorrow and see if that helps. Thanks to everyone that helped.


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[WJCO]

One thing that I didn't see anyone address (maybe I missed it??) is you said your pinion angle is 0. On the front axle you want to be looking at caster rather than pinion. And you should be at -4 to -6 degrees caster. Somebody feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.


Build Thread - "Jenny"
http://wayalife.com/showthread.php?41740-The-build-of-Jenny&highlight=build jenny

Correct that you want to look at caster, and not pinion angle on the front axle. And it should be at +4.2 . +4.2 is the factory setting which gives a good balance of caster and pinion angle. If you go higher on the caster, your steering will improve but you risk driveline vibrations.

 

[Deathmask]

A quick update. I replaced the ball joints with HD ball joints and re-torqued everything again. The play was gone when I checked again. When I went for a test drive everything felt tight again, and I didn't feel the axle shifting when I hit bumps. Unfortunately.... when I got back home from my test drive I had a steady of coolant coming down the drivers side of the radiator.... Hopefully this will fix everything, at least for a while.

Thank you again for everyone's help.


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[WJCO]

Hope your steering issues are fixed for good. Sorry to hear about the radiator.