justfill22

I have a 93 grand cherokee with the death wobble.

I'm about to have the tires replaced, an alignment done, and if needed, shocks, ball joints, tie rod ends.

however, as I read about the death wobble, there is a lot of jeep specific suspension stuff that I don't know if the average garage can deal with.

is there a jeep specific/jeep friendly/knowledgeable mechanic in the dayton /cinci area?

Thanks,

Phil

zjrog

Phil, I'd suggest looking at control arm bushings as well. With the front end off the ground, is there play in the steering or the balljoints? Grab the top and bottom of the tire and see if it moves (even just tiny thunks), if there is movement, replace the balljoints. Grab the tire on the left and right side and see if there is play. If so, tierod ends.

I went through the front of my ZJ two years ago. All new tierod ends, new steering stabilizer and two alignments (different shops...), had the tires balanced and rebalanced. But still had DW. And it was bad enough that it would loosen lugnuts. I got a great deal on a set of tires and wheels, so I swapped them on and the DW went away. Not completely, I still had a little vibration at 50-55 MPH. But nothing that passengers noticed.

Last winter, I added a 2" BB, and swapped in fixed front lower control arms, and adjustable uppers. They were used so I got new bushings. Now, even that little vibe is gone.

justfill22

thanks for the advice...

since the tires are bald, it's definitely time for new ones, along with an alignments. The shocks seem ok, but they probably need replaced anyway. Since it's work that needs to be done, I'll go ahead with it. Of course, a 'normal' shop can do the 'normal' stuff like ball joints and tie rod ends... (I can do tie rod ends, done them before, but haven't done ball joints before...)

a question for you...

you say you had the wobble at 50 or so mph... was it always there at that speed?

for me, it's between 50 and 70 or so, but only when I hit a big bump ... then it wobbles until I slow down to about 40 mph... kind of a bad thing to do on an interstate.

I get a little bit of a wobble when I go around certain sweeping curves on country roads at about 40-50 mph... It feels like the uncontrollable wobble is about to start, but whenever I straiten out, that goes away. Actually, it feels a lot like warped brake rotors, but I'm not on the brakes.

I have warped rotors, but they aren't very bad...

Thanks for the advice...

justfill22

FIXED! as far as I can tell so far...

Took the jeep to USA Tire in Kettering OH. I've taken vehicles there before. Good shop with some good, professional, long time, knowlagable mechanics.

I told Mike that I had a problem with wobble when I hit bumps at high speeds, and I wanted new tires, an alignment, possible shocks, and to take a look at regular stuff like ball joints and tie rod ends and that I didn't expect him to look into any jeep specific stuff. He told me immediately, he doubted that it would be ball joints, but he would also check the trackbar, and that usually fixed the problem. In addition, he mentioned something about the front transfer case (or something related to 4wd) and I told him that the 4wd supposedly didn't work and I have never even tried to put it into 4wd.

When I got there, he told me he put new tires on it, did the alignment. The trackbar seemed fine. The shocks were worn, but not worn out, so he didn't replace them. They tried to put it into 4wd. It went for about 10 seconds and then something bad happened, so they put it back into 2wd. He also told me I had bad u joints (which I knew, but had forgotten). He thought that if the tires and alignment didn't get it, then the next piece to try would be the steering damper/stabalizer. And then, after that, maybe the shocks, then maybe the track bar, although it seemed ok, maybe it really wasn't.

Anyway, on the way to work this morning, I went over one of the bumps that ALWAYS causes the death wobble and ... no wobble! Whoo-hoo!

Can't say for certain it is 100% fixed, but ... <crossing fingers> maybe we got it...

Anyway, I hightly reccomend USA Tire in Kettering OH. Good, honest mechanic... he could have changed the trackbar and the shocks and I would have been ok with it, but he didn't. gotta love that.

also, gotta love the out the door price of $351. (yeah, I know, nobody here wants to put Lexington tires on their prized jeeps, but they work to get me to work and back)

Thanks for your advice guys. Thanks for the tiny little bit of jeep knowlege I have gained.

Later!