Need some help with death wobble. I’m the proud original owner of a 95 XJ sportwith about 263,000 miles on it. I’vereplaced the following original parts and still have the problem.

• Lower control arm bushings (Moog K3164)
• Upper Ball joints (Moog K3134T)
• Lower Ball joints (Moog K3161T)
• Track Bar (Quick Steer DS1235)
• Steering Stabilizer (Rancho RS5401)
• Sway Bar End Links (Moog K3174)
• Sway Bar Bushings (Moog K3171)

The lower control arm bushings were the most recent changebut it almost feels like the problem has gotten worse since then. I’m going to replace the shock next. The existing shocks aren’t original but dohave a lot of miles on them. The onlyother options I can think of are the upper control arm bushings, springs, tierod ends, and front end alignment.

Am I missing something? Any suggestions?

 

Bad tie rods will give ya the shimmy's. Pop em out of the knuckle and get a better look at them. Shocks, same thing, unbolt them, should be tough to push up back in place. A bad shock is gonna bounce on any bump in the road though. You can check alignment with a tape measure to see how close it is. And these won't cost ya a dime to check. Oh and coil height can be checked by measuring from bottom of flare to center of axle nut.

 

Tires

 

The unit bearings aka wheel bearings can cause it so can tires or even needing a alignment.

 

I forgot to mention that it does have 4 new tires. The wheel bearings aren't original but do have about 60,000 miles on them. The wobble only happens at 65 mph and above after hitting a bump or pot hole. Everything else about this jeep is great. I'd really like to get a few more years out of this thing without having to be afraid to drive it on the highway.

 

Check your tie rod ends for even the slightest amount of play. You can check this easiest with two people. Have one shake the steering wheel back and forth while the other checks the tie rod ends for any slop. Vehicle does not need to be running.

Check your upper control arm bushings both frame side & axle side.
Make sure your toe-in on the alignment is good.

Shocks and springs would be the last things I checked or replaced.

New tires can have problems. I had a shimmy over 50 MPH when hitting a bump or crack in the road just right. The thing was it took miles of driving for this to occur. I theorized it was tires "warming up". I put my old tires back on and haven't had any problems since. Two of the tires on the vehicle when the shimmy was occurring would not even stand up straight.

 

Alignment and loose trackbar. When you find the problem, please provide an update.

 

I have seen the wobbles caused by bad front axle u joints.

 

My shimmy was from unit bearings aka hubs. Tie rod ends are a usual culprit and are relatively easy to change. Doesn't sound like you wheel it much, but you can do the ZJ tie rod upgrade for cheap. I replaced the drag link too to have all new tie rod ends. No more shimmy