Strolltroll

I bought a 1996 Cherokee Sport 4X4 with 117,000 miles earlier this year. Now has 130,000 miles and developed the "death wobble". Always happened when you hit 55 mph or above. Very bad to the point where you would had to pull over because it felt like it was coming apart.

First replaced drivers upper and lower ball joint (lower was shot) and both front shocks (rusted through). Hub had a little wiggle so replaced that too.

Test drive mile to highway, still death wobble

Saw movement in the track bar rubber. Installed a new track bar.

Test drive, still death wobble

Had front end alignment done, corrected high air pressure in both front tires.

Test drive, still death wobble

Kept hearing a "metal on metal" grind when the steering wheel was turned. My wife would turn wheel back/forth with me under the car. (I passed the "Does she still want me around?" test as this was her opportunity for a "freak accident") Be careful if you do this, a lot of unforgiving hydraulically moving parts. Could not isolate where the sound was coming from. When driving the truck the noise seemed to come from the lower control arm/s but under the truck they were solid.

Still noticed some movement in the track bar rubber so bought some polyurethane track bar bushings, Installed in old track bar.

Test drive, still death wobble.

Posts here kept saying it's not the dampener but I was running out of options so replaced the dampener

Test drive, still wobble, not death. Drivable, but irritating

Finally....are you ready? Found the problem. Passenger side front axle U-Joint. Was shot, needle bearings all gone out of one of the "caps". Replaced U-joint. Metal on metal noise gone.

Test drive, slight shimmy.

Figured the tires had worn weird because of this problem, moved front tires to back/back to front

Test drive, problem solved, finally.

IMO, the Jeep steering system is fragile. It only takes one thing or a few small things to cause the dreaded death wobble


Here is a list courtesy of tjwalker, it is usually one or more of these things:

-Front tires out of balance (try swapping fronts to rear; see if symptoms change)
-Tire pressure. Don’t laugh. It’s not a root cause but can exaggerate the problem. Experiment with lower tire pressure to see if it helps
-Improper lug nut torque on wheels
-Front alignment out of spec
-Loose track bar
-Worn track bar bushings
-Worn track bar (check for play!!)
-Bad control arms and associated bushings
-Worn/damaged steering stabilizer (not generally a cause in and by itself)
-Worn/damaged shocks
-Worn/damaged tie rod end
-Bad U Joint
-Bad ball joint
-Loose frame mount

Lowrange2

I still don't agree that a bad u-joint can cause DW but I'm glad you got it fixed. That stuff is annoying.

Strolltroll

I firmly believe the U-joint was the main cause. when taking the axle out and moving it around it would bind in certain positions.

77olds

Thinking about it, it's entirely possible a bad u-joint could cause it... if my thinking is correct.

Wouldn't the drive shaft sort of flop around a bit while turning, if one or more of the caps was bad? If so, that could throw off the balance enough to start that harmonizing of front end components.

You know your front end can be all in perfect shape, but it only takes one thing to START death wobble and no matter what else is perfect, it'll happen.