Every time a death wobble thread is brought up people say that the stabilizer is a bandaid. I am just curious to how many people run a LIFTED Jeep without the stabilizer since they have no purpose.

 

Lots of people ask this, and why their Xj now has death wobble after lifting. If you examine the geometry of the upper and lower control arms, or links, you will notice that the axle camber angle becomes more positive as the axle is lowered. The more positive the angle, the greater likelihood that death wobble can happen. The stock axle and suspension only has about two degrees of negative camber. You can loose some or all while lifting with stock control arms. Because it is so nearly at zero degrees anyway, the factory added a steering stabilizer to cover all the bases.

the surest way to get rid of death wobble is to take care of all the slop, tight bushings etc. and then make sure you have a camber angle of minus 4 -6 degrees. That is the way the local shops set them up, one being owned by a former alignment man.

 

Never said they had no purpose. If they were required why do vehicles come without them? As I said previously if a steering system requires a stabilizer to keep it from wobbling then it was poorly designed and looks like an after thought because they couldn't figure out how else to make it work. If this is the case with Jeeps what else was half-***ed engineered?

neither of my Chevy trucks had them and my 82 with 32x11.50s didnt have any wobble issues until something was worn/broke.

 

i dont run one. and yes i drive it pretty much everyday on road and try to take it wheeling once a month.

 

x2

I do.

 

I wouldn't say they are an after thought. my understanding is that they are there to help reduce the effects of bump steer. to make the feed back to the steering wheel less violent. I would imagine that different steering set ups can be more or less prone to it. your Chevy was probably leaf sprung in the front and had over the knuckle steering. this is a far superior set up (no flaming I know coils are smoother and articulate better)

 

I didnt say that it was.. I said IF it was required to keep the steering from wobbling it would appear that it is a poor design and that the engineers couldnt figure out any other way to fix it.

I agree, see my response where I posted what a steering stabilizer was for.

Both of my trucks were 2wd with IFS.. which as you mentioned may make a difference, but as I said previously if putting on a steering stabilizer was the only fix the engineers could come up with to fix a poorly designed steering setup then they half-***ed it.

 

Wheel bearings are getting old
but they are not like my 95 that would clunck on bumps but my 95 did not wobble.
-
55 + wobble / below that every thing is fine.
-if i hit a rough patch of asphalt, or make a wide left turn on the highway mixmaster - wobble - right turn , not sure.
-
if i slow down with brakes wobble goes away or just let off gas.

-I understand stableizer will mask the problem , even helped with keeping the violent shake a little more under control and helping me feel like i wont flip and roll as bad. the stablizzer helps reduce wear on the front end is what i read and understand.
stock 88, no lift

 

i havent had an alignment yet.

 

I am willing to bet that your steering angles suck. I bet once you ahve the thing lined up it will drive better and might cure your DW.

BTW I had no stabilizer on my MJ with 35's and a lincoln locked rear I will be ditching my front stabilizer as soon as I change the steering to an OTK setup.

As pointed out above.. they mask parts going bad.

 

Whats so great about the OTK. I had real bad death wobble until I put on a different steering stabilizer. After that, it totally went away. I do not see what is so wrong with band aids.

 

Better get one. Might cure it. Your front tires will thank you

 

i had a bad wobble it turned out to be my alignment. it was so far out i blew through a set of front tires in 600 miles. and the wobble was really bad scared a little turd out of me the first time it did it... i was on a bridge....

 

You arent fixing the real problem.

If you had a gapping wound in your leg and it wasnt getting better, would you just keep putting band aids on it forever? Doubtful...

Your XJ is injured and needs to be fixed....

 

riddle me this...

how does camber change on a rigid axle?

are you confused with caster???

Steering stability are affected by caster and toe.