Dwi

[CRASH!]

Death Wobble Information.

For Christmas the TJ got some presents. First, Black Rock Crawler wheels.

When I was driving home after getting them mounted I threw a wheel weight (I heard it bounce off the left inner-fender) and got a steering wheel shimmy at 45mph. A few days later I had the front left re-balanced.

But I still had a front end shake at 45mph.

With the holidays and all I haven't gotten back to my tire guy to have the other front re-checked.


But I did install a Currie 1" Body lift and 1" Motor Mount lift.

The next day after I added the lift I got my first Death Wobble. Going around a bend in the road at 45mph and hit a bump.

Since then I've had a pretty bad shake a few other times, all around 45mph and seemingly when I hit a bump or the brakes while the front end is shaking.

I may be able to swing a free (or cheap) alignment from my buddy but if I have to replace Track bar or control arms I'd rather have it done after that.


Other info: '05 TJ 2" Suspension lift (Coils and shocks) 1" BL & 1" MML






My question is: How likely is it that the out of balance wheel (my assumption) is causing the DW?


Would a 1" BL do anything to cause the DW?



Ride'on,

~CRASH!~

[Dukes69]

it can be a whole host of things. I'd start with making sur EVERYTHING is tight and torqued down. Steering, control arms, track bars, shocks, all of that stuff. Makes sure you have the proper abbount of caster. IIRC, between 5 and 7 degrees is decent. Also check your toe in, I usually run about 1/8" toe in.

[sarah]

As Chris Field said with the tightening ... we resolved mine by tightening. Maybe you can swing by and Rick can take a look. We do have extensive experience with this, unfortunately!

You can also try searching if you haven't already ... there are at least a few threads on this 'round these parts.

[Dukes69]

I wanted to add that if all the bolts are tight, then go through and look for worn out stuff.

[CRASH!]

I kind'a did a half-assed check and nothing was loose or worn except my sway bar bushings.

Would those cause a DW?

I did search the forums before I posted and there didn't seem to be one clear remedy. It seems everyone get's DW for different reasons.

I was wondering if a 1" BL or out of balance tires was the cause of mine since this all started after I installed them.

I will do a proper check, or go over and bug Rick and Sarah.



Ride'on,

~CRASH!~

[maddmike]

mine was fixed with a tire balance after installation of my 2.5" lift. that was just mine, though.

[goodtimes]

The first thing I would check is the toe-in. As Chris mentioned, 1/8" total toe is most common number I have heard others use, and is what I use myself. I have had Death Wobble a number of times, and EVERY time that it occured between 35 and 45mph after hitting a bump, it was resolved with adjusting the toe-in measurement.

No, I'm not saying that this holds true for every circumstance, as there are a large number of things that can cause death wobble...just that it has been that way for me. Plus, checking toe is quick, easy, and free (kinda like my ex-wi.....uh, nevermind).

[aston]

You can do a half way decent toe-in measurement yourself with a couple of straight edges. It should be accurate enough.

[Mtbikbob]

Hey Crash,
The one thing that really helped my jeep, was changing the steering shock.

'05, 3'' susp lift, 32'' tires, 16'' wheels......with a new Rancho steering damper.
Good luck,
Bob

[Black & Tan TJ]

From what I've heard it's usually the trackbar mount, I think that was the case with Sarah's Jeep or from what I remember reading in a post of Ricks. "Just tighten the Piss (Fields , I added that) out of the trackbar mount axle mount."

I've never had the DW but I still get a shimmy when hitting road bumps in a certain way on the left side only (?) Go figure. I have all the adjustable componets for a lift and been all over the adjustments. It's not bad at all so I just deal with it.

There's always something to keeps us going.

Cheers, B&T TJ

[Materdaddy]

From what I've heard it's usually the trackbar mount, I think that was the case with Sarah's Jeep or from what I remember reading in a post of Ricks. "Just tighten the Piss (Fields , I added that) out of the trackbar mount axle mount."

I've never had the DW but I still get a shimmy when hitting road bumps in a certain way on the left side only (?) Go figure. I have all the adjustable componets for a lift and been all over the adjustments. It's not bad at all so I just deal with it.

There's always something to keeps us going.

Cheers, B&T TJ

I love all the "from what I've heard" comments, so I'm adding one more!!!

From what I've heard...

DW is usually caused by an out of balance tire PLUS something like a loose track bar. Make sure the track bar is torqued down, not just looks tight. The exact torque setting is in tons of threads, just do a search. If you don't have a torque wrench, now might be a good time to get one. Also, get those tires balanced one more time. Alignment wouldn't hurt either!

[rick]

I put 3/8" of toe on Sarah's Jeep before we realized that the upper front trackbar nut was loose. After all the screwing around and several iterations of this, after throwing the torque wrench in the trash and putting a breaker bar on the upper track bar nut it has never happened again. Apparently, I would get it just tight enough to allow it to "get better" for a couple weeks and then it would get progressively worse. After two iterations of this and making it tighter than the manual says, we were driving on a few hour trip one weekend and it started doing it worse all of a sudden. Checked the nut at our destination and decided to use my foot on a ~18" bar to tighten it. It hasn't loosened up since.

Rick

[Materdaddy]

I put 3/8" of toe on Sarah's Jeep before we realized that the upper front trackbar nut was loose. After all the screwing around and several iterations of this, after throwing the torque wrench in the trash and putting a breaker bar on the upper track bar nut it has never happened again. Apparently, I would get it just tight enough to allow it to "get better" for a couple weeks and then it would get progressively worse. After two iterations of this and making it tighter than the manual says, we were driving on a few hour trip one weekend and it started doing it worse all of a sudden. Checked the nut at our destination and decided to use my foot on a ~18" bar to tighten it. It hasn't loosened up since.

Rick

Maybe blue loctite for everybody else?

[mrblaine]

I put 3/8" of toe on Sarah's Jeep before we realized that the upper front trackbar nut was loose. After all the screwing around and several iterations of this, after throwing the torque wrench in the trash and putting a breaker bar on the upper track bar nut it has never happened again. Apparently, I would get it just tight enough to allow it to "get better" for a couple weeks and then it would get progressively worse. After two iterations of this and making it tighter than the manual says, we were driving on a few hour trip one weekend and it started doing it worse all of a sudden. Checked the nut at our destination and decided to use my foot on a ~18" bar to tighten it. It hasn't loosened up since.

Rick

Rick, I don't specifically recall which bar you have, but the RE one that you drill the OE mount to run a larger bolt up though is notorious for what you describe. The problem is that there is a spot face on the top side of the "L" that the original castle nut sat on. When you drill it larger, it leaves small areas that stick up and prevent the new nut from seating fully on a flat surface. As you drive, the back and forth motion of vehicle works the bolt and flattens those high points out a bit. Then you lose your torque and it comes loose again. Eventually as you found, it works those spots down flat and it will stay tight.

[mrblaine]

Maybe blue loctite for everybody else?

Why blue?