If your caster is out, it'd flop like a shopping cart wheel.

Dude, stop torturing yourself and just get an alignment and rebalance. Occam's razor.
You can overthink what it could be, ask everyone who's never even met you or seen your car what it could be, end of the day it started when you got new tires.

FYI I had hellishly scary death wobble from very old warped tires. Got new tires installed, balanced and aligned, no more death wobble.

Kind of, sort of, not really. Any harmonic vibration such as death wobble requires a driven oscillation, aka a "constant vibration" input. An unbalanced tire is exactly that. Its constantly wiggling a little bit, and at just the right speeds the suspension will take that wiggle and amplify it. If the conditions are right, the suspension system can actually be unstable, and rather than stopping that amplified vibration, it actually helps the vibration "grow". This is called resonance.

Death wobble is the term we use when our Jeep suspensions have deteriorated to the point where there is a massive resonant frequency (vibration speed) which is equal to one of the frequencies (vibrations) coming from the tires and roads on which we drive. Whether it is the road, tires, or actually a suspension setup (bad caster = hunting vibrations) which causes the vibration, you'll never know. It could be all three, and it's different on every Jeep. That's why having balanced, ROUND tires is very important in solving this problem.

So basically DW is a combination of all the above. Bad tires by themselves do not cause death wobble. But good tires might eliminate death wobble because you eliminated the initial source of problem vibration. That doesn't mean your suspension isn't worn out, it just means that the parts are playing together nicely again...for now.

I have tried to simplify a very complex engineering subject down into something usable and understandable. What I described is close enough, but not exact. Please let me know if I did an OK job.

I purchased a used TJ about 3 years ago. It passed the safety check and the deal went through. When I drove it I experienced death wobble. I checked the front end myself and it was tight. I took it to a dealership for confirmation (not the garage that certified it). They confirmed the front end and alignment were good and that the problem was strictly that the tires were out of balance. I had them balanced and didn't bother going back to the original garage that certified it. I haven't had a problem since.

are you sure you have a "death wobble" or is it just a bad shimmy because you never balanced the tires??? always get at least the front tires balanced when you get them mounted on a street vehicle. saving a few dollars will cause you a headache as you have found out.


sounds to me like you need to get the tires balanced and an alignment done..


.

I'd still recommend everything posted earlier to get your vehicle in a decent running state, but one other thing I can think of... Check the slop in your steering. Raise the front end with the steering wheel locked and see how much play is in moving the wheels left to right. Listen for clicking. If there's play in your steering shaft or gearbox, this could lead to DW's.

i appreciate all the input here

im just trying to make my vehicle safe to drive....

took jeep in today to have tries balanced and they were not able to balance due to the tires too "wavy"

this sucks...the tires only have about 8-10k miles on them with about 80% tread left...they cost .me over 500.00 for the set bf goodrich all terrain at....they are suppose to be very good tires.....

he balanced them as well as he could ....i will now take car in to get an alignment when i have time...and see how things go....if i have to buy new tires i guess i will have to make the decision.....the car is ok under 50mph....and i would hate to have to spend another 500.00 on this old used car......we will see......and not even sure it will cure the death wobble .....so

maybe ill try to find a good used set of tires ....that have little wear and are even....

what would cause tires to become wavy ??

air pressure?
sitting long time?
front end alignment?

have any pictures of them?

how about putting the bad ones on the rear and the good ones freshly balanced on the front and see what happens. assuming that 2 are still ok.

Did the tire tech use that term? "Wavy"???? :confused1:

That's certainly not a well-educated tire tech. Tires can become cupped from misalignment or worn suspension parts. I let mine go too long that way and I'm in the same boat you are; a self-inflicted wound. I am considering having them shaved to see if I can rescue some life from them.

I did rotate mine from front to back and it's really helped, but I still can feel a bit of DW. It's like it's there under the surface, waiting to strike. Still gotta find out where the worn parts are.

he balanced 3 tires as best as he could......tires are no good even rear ones were bad but not nearly as bad as front

could not get 1 rear tire off lug nut rusted on solid so only 3 tires got somewhat balanced....

he put the 2 best of the 3 on the front ....

dont have pics of actual tires off car...here are 2 pics i today took just for the hell of it

yes i know springs in back are 100% shot........not going to replace too costly

is it cost effective to even have them shaved?

prob cost a fortune

I had a serious dw issue a while back replaced a ton of parts with no cure .. I had a friend come over and turn the wheel back and forth a little bit while I was laying under it and I seen movement in my TRAC BAR MOUNT (frame side) I looked at it closer and found a very small crack in the mount .. welded it up ain't had a problem since that was about 4 yrs ago ...just another idea of things to look for