Okay I have heard of the death wobble, but never have experienced it before. On my 96 cherokee with approximately 93k occasionally I will experience an extremely violent shake throughout the entire car. It only happens at speeds over 55mph and only after hitting a bump, and usually only at slight turns, and after slowing down it goes away, I know its not tire balance or wheel balance related. I checked all the suspension parts under the car and there is nothing loose. The steering damper looks like its probably original equipment, and the only thing I noticed is the right front u joint has a minor click in it, there is very little to even hardly noticing the play in it. I think the u joint and steering damper may be causing this, but honestly I don't think so as the shake is so violent like something is falling off. If anyone has any insight or ideas etc.. Let me know, I'd appreciate it.

 

is it lifted? have you gotten it aligned resently?

 

I had the exact same problem...just replaced my trac bar...as well as put new tires on it so it was just aligned. I would recheck everything. Do a search for "death wobble" and read the previous threads for more info. My jeep drives perfect now. Hope this helps.

 

I've got a similar issue with my 96 Sport.

My damper looks original too and the shocks appear to be done or about to crap out 100%.... so it may be time to replace both.

All my other stuff (bushings, etc) looked ok still.....nothing that would potentially cause this other than shocks and damper I think.

 

Ever use fix a flat? Alignment, Unbalanced Tires

Trac Bar(bushings, angles, bolts), Axle Mounts, Tie Rods, Caster Angle, Control arm bushings, Steering box bolts/spacer, Frame(cracks in frame could make steering box feel loose), Damaged steering stabilizer, Bad ball/u joint, drive shaft not balanced, bad front hub, idler arm.

Check those.

 

Depends on the type of wobble you're getting. If you can have some one drive along side you, hit a bump to initiate the shaking. Have them watch, if the camber adjusts (top and bottom move in and out alternatively) it's most likely a u-joint. If the toe moves in and out (wheels "turning" back and forth) it's your steering. If the wheels move back and forth altogether, it's play in your track bar.

I've been told 90% of the time it's the track bar.

It won't seem loose when you check the bolts, there's a lot of centrifugal force when the tires are rotating at high speeds.

Here's my fix for the upper mounts.

Other than that one: The holes on the bracket welded to the axle are 7/16, the sleeve in the bushing is 3/8 and the bolt is 13/32. I drilled out the sleeve and upgraded the bolt, both to 7/16. Took about a half hour of drilling with a constant trickle of water to keep the bushing from melting.

These projects were fairly inexpensive and simple.

 

Def check the bottom bolt on the track bar. May look tight to the eye but it may be loose. I had this same problem in my 01 and thats what it ended up being. We forgot (dummies) to tighten it back to specs when we installed my last lift, and then it got loose and wallowed the hole out so the bolt moved around in there not fitting right. I put a new larger bolt and tightened the **** out of it and it fixed the problem.

 

maybe it's the same thing as track bar dunno. But unlifted has a stabilizer shock that sokes up left/right wobble. I replaced this and had no more trouble. Before doing i had your same issues sometimes whobbleing so bad i would have to slow down to regain control.

 

Update, I was able to notice a slight up and down motion in the track bar during a dry park test. I ended up replacing the track bar and the steering damper and it hasn't gotten death wobble yet. Hopefully that fixed everything.