DEATH WOBBLE : What it is, What it isn't and What You Can Do to Fix it

crowrb29 said:
So I had some wobble/shimmy Pop up last week Sunday. Been attacking different things all week. Tightened every Susp. Checked my ball joints and Unit bearings. It has gotten better but it still pops up around 40-50 mph. I've rotated and rebalanced the tires and done my own alignment and an alignment at a shop. Driven it with and without the steering stabilizer.... I can't think of anything else to try to tweak. Ball and U joints are good. Kind of at a loss right now. It's semi drivable but I don't want my wife or anyone other than me to be driving and have them feel like the whole jeep is falling apart(this only happened the first day I noticed it).
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So, when you say it pops up at about 40-50 MPH, what pops up? Are you saying that your Jeep starts to shake so violently that you have to come to a near stop to make it stop? Or, are you saying that you just have a bad shimmy in the steering wheel at that speed? When you say that you checked your ball joints and unit bearings, did you use a dial indicator?
 
wayoflife said:
So, when you say it pops up at about 40-50 MPH, what pops up? Are you saying that your Jeep starts to shake so violently that you have to come to a near stop to make it stop? Or, are you saying that you just have a bad shimmy in the steering wheel at that speed? When you say that you checked your ball joints and unit bearings, did you use a dial indicator?
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Last week it was like the jeep was doing the Harlem Shake down the highway. Ripped the steering wheel from my hand and had to stop and limp back home. The frame side track bar bolt was a tiny bit loose as well as the drivers side LCA on both ends. I tightened both and checked everything else to TQ spec and everything is good now. Still shimmying. Sometimes just bump steer sometimes it feels like the beginnings of DW but now I can either, usually, slow down or speed through it. I haven't used a micrometer or dial indicator, but I will be if I can't nail this thing down before the end of the week.I'd go earlier but the place I can borrow one at doesn't open back up until Wednesday. I did check the tie rod ends with a pair of channel locks and there was some up/down play.
 
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crowrb29 said:
Last week it was like the jeep was doing the Harlem Shake down the highway. Ripped the steering wheel from my hand and had to stop and limp back home. The frame side track bar bolt was a tiny bit loose as well as the drivers side LCA on both ends. I tightened both and checked everything else to TQ spec and everything is good now. Still shimmying. Sometimes just bump steer sometimes it feels like the beginnings of DW but now I can either, usually, slow down or speed through it. I haven't used a micrometer or dial indicator, but I will be if I can't nail this thing down before the end of the week.I'd go earlier but the place I can borrow one at doesn't open back up until Wednesday. I did check the tie rod ends with a pair of channel locks and there was some up/down play.
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Regarding your ball joints, here's what you do:
1. From the axle, use a good floor jack to lift one of your tire off the ground. If you don't have a good floor jack, set your axle on a jack stand to hold it up securely in place.
2. From the side, place a long pry bar under the tire and have someone lift it up and down while you watch the lower ball joint for axial (up and down) movement. Any movement more than 0.050" is too much and would indicate that your ball joint is bad. Of course, if you can see this movement with your eyes, it's definitely bad.
3. Next, grab the tire at the 12 and 6 o'clock position and try to rock it back and forth while you have someone watch the upper joint for any movement. Any radial (side-to-side) movement more than 0.060" is too much. Again, if you can see the movement with your eyes and without any dial indicator, it's probably bad as well.

It doesn't take much for a ball joint to be bad. Same is true of your unit bearings.
 
Thanks!!! I should be able to get my hands on a dial indicator later this week. All the write ups on the forum are always so helpful. Saved me a lot of $$$ and helped me get a whole lot more intimate with the inner workings of my jeep.
 
I also am chasing DW on my '13 JKR with 3.5 AEV lift on 35 KM2 and 14,000 miles. How much up and down movement in the upper ball joint is acceptable?
 
onebuilder said:
I also am chasing DW on my '13 JKR with 3.5 AEV lift on 35 KM2 and 14,000 miles. How much up and down movement in the upper ball joint is acceptable?
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Looks like more than 0.060" in the uppers is too much..

wayoflife said:
Regarding your ball joints, here's what you do:
1. From the axle, use a good floor jack to lift one of your tire off the ground. If you don't have a good floor jack, set your axle on a jack stand to hold it up securely in place.
2. From the side, place a long pry bar under the tire and have someone lift it up and down while you watch the lower ball joint for axial (up and down) movement. Any movement more than 0.050" is too much and would indicate that your ball joint is bad. Of course, if you can see this movement with your eyes, it's definitely bad.
3. Next, grab the tire at the 12 and 6 o'clock position and try to rock it back and forth while you have someone watch the upper joint for any movement. Any radial (side-to-side) movement more than 0.060" is too much. Again, if you can see the movement with your eyes and without any dial indicator, it's probably bad as well.

It doesn't take much for a ball joint to be bad. Same is true of your unit bearings.
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So if I have a slight clicking in the Steering box or even a little play in the sector shaft this will not cause a shimmy in the steering wheel. I want to clarify and hopefully save some $$$$. I have a shimmy (Shimmy defined as: at 50-55mph on smooth roads it is fine. Any irregularities will cause the steering wheel to get a vibration and if I hit RR tracks it will rock back and forth sometimes 3-4x and settle back down, Rocking from 1 to 11 oclock)

I was ready to buy a new steering box today but not sure anymore from this comment below. I have a 3.5X factor RK kit with steering correction. I have torqued everything down, Tie rod ends have a little up and down play when I squeeze them with channel locks. When sitting there is very little up and down motion when I turn the steering wheel when parked. (Tie rods ends and drag link) 35 inch BFG tires are balanced and running 25PSI. Replaced ball joints with new metal on metal NOT oem

Any thoughts? Never had this before and want to get rid of it without just throwing parts at it ie Sector shaft new Tie rod with ends ....


wayoflife said:
That's where I would start and have been able to determine it was my tires in the past. Again, it's free to do too.



Loose steering box will NOT cause a shimmy. Regarding your play, are you running a dropped pitman arm?



Did you go wheeling between the time you got them installed and you starting having a shimmy?
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I have an 08 unlimited and a case of the dreaded DW.. Had upper and lower ball joints on both sides replaced with moogs and was good for a couple weekend then yesterday BOOM💥.. It's back.. Moving on to replace the track bar now..
 
2 weeks after I bought the heep with 32k on it I got death wobble! Dealership said it was the stabilizer and they wanted to charge me for it. Told them to shove it, took it to a 4x4 shop, they sold me a stabilizer (skyjacker) happened 5 minutes down the road from the shop. Went back, They said I needed ball joints. I then went home and ordered a ball joint press kit and did it myself. 75k later guess what's back! Note to self, don't replace oem parts with oem parts! Just bought new bj's should be installing this weekend.
 
Two days ago, my DW got substantially worse after I rotated my tires.

I had my tires balanced yesterday, asking for a Road Force Balance, I was told the balancer could not balance my tires because the coned shaped nut wouldn't fit on due to the ring on my bead locker PS wheels. So I got the standard balance, anyone have recommendations around that problem.

Has anyone used or recommend Magnum Balance Plus?

DW is still their. So I checked track bar for play, I did not see any when turning wheel from left to right. But I did see a lot of flexing and bending in this JKS adjustable track bar. I also re-torqued (9/16 grade 8 bolts) my track bar to 125 lbs.

Dumb question: I thought I read, the track bar is not supposed to bend and flex. Am I right? If so...this all started after I installed this crap thinking I was upgrading to a heavy duty TB. Since then I've been chasing ghosts, probably progressively making other parts fail.
 
BlackHabuJKU12 said:
Two days ago, my DW got substantially worse after I rotated my tires.

I had my tires balanced yesterday, asking for a Road Force Balance, I was told the balancer could not balance my tires because the coned shaped nut wouldn't fit on due to the ring on my bead locker PS wheels. So I got the standard balance, anyone have recommendations around that problem.

Has anyone used or recommend Magnum Balance Plus?

DW is still their. So I checked track bar for play, I did not see any when turning wheel from left to right. But I did see a lot of flexing and bending in this JKS adjustable track bar. I also re-torqued (9/16 grade 8 bolts) my track bar to 125 lbs.

Dumb question: I thought I read, the track bar is not supposed to bend and flex. Am I right? If so...this all started after I installed this crap thinking I was upgrading to a heavy duty TB. Since then I've been chasing ghosts, probably progressively making other parts fail.
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I would loo for another shop that can do road force balancing. They should be able to do it even with the ring.

As far as the trackbar I would switch back to the stock one. If you have 3" of lift or over I would get the evo drag link flip kit.
 
cozdude said:
I would loo for another shop that can do road force balancing. They should be able to do it even with the ring.

As far as the trackbar I would switch back to the stock one. If you have 3" of lift or over I would get the evo drag link flip kit.
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Here's the results of my trouble shooting. Removed the JKS track bar, because it was bowing/flexing when steered LH/RH, found the bushing looking like they were starting to dry rot. Installed the factor track bar. Sill DW. Rotated the back LH tire to the front, still DW. Found lots of bolts that required re-torqued. Found the two from control arms bushing worn out. Temp fixed the bushing with tape to close the gap. They are the Skyjacker three piece from what I gather not the best style bushing, and 3 yrs old. Anyways, it definitely help the situation. There's barely any shake now. New bushings are ordered. I'm considering ordering new bushings for everything.
 
Well the parts that are causes of death wobble are the trackbar, steering linkages, wheel berrings, upper and lower balljoints, upper and lower control arms and some times big tires tend to give a shakey feeling in the wheel because they have more weight and tend to wonder on the road. A steering stablizer fixes that. When I had death wobble I did all of the above and it fixed it. It was a combo of old and retarded parts. It's all moog now ;p
 
BlackBandit said:
Well the parts that are causes of death wobble are the trackbar, steering linkages, wheel berrings, upper and lower balljoints, upper and lower control arms and some times big tires tend to give a shakey feeling in the wheel because they have more weight and tend to wonder on the road. A steering stablizer fixes that. When I had death wobble I did all of the above and it fixed it. It was a combo of old and retarded parts. It's all moog now ;p
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Most of that is not true.
 
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