So, my cousin decided to join me with my Jeep and got a auction ZJ for 800 bucks. Came with a 4.0 like the Cherokees and I believe the same 4 speed auto trans. It has 257,000 miles and is rust free. After owning it for a while he told me about a really bad shake that would occur on fairly big bumps, and he described it just like I had experienced with the stock track bar when I put my lift on. The only thing we could find wrong were the track bar bushings were pretty shot. He replaced the track bar and steering stabilizer, and then continued driving it. After about a week of no problems, the worst shake happened. We were on our way home from school, I was behind him and we were doing a good 60-65 mph on a country road. He hit a bump and immediately all four wheels started wobbling in all directions like i had never seen before. The only way to stop it was to slow it down to under 20. All bushings seemed fine and all bolts were tight. He drove it again and a couple days later it happened again, and again, and again. We weren't sure what the problem was but it was manageable as long as we were careful and took good roads. It started to get worse and we started to think about the cause more and more. We figured the ball joints could be a culprit, but weren't sure what to really do. The reason I am typing this now happened this morning on our way to school. We were going 65-70 on a 4 lane highway. I was pretty far behind him because of some heavy fog we had this morning. All of the sudden I see brake lights appear and slide off onto the shoulder. He had hit a bump and it went into the worst wobble he has had so far. It pulled hard to the right and since he was braking, the second he touched the gravel shoulder it pulled him in and started to spin. Meanwhile i'm on the brakes almost wiping the rear end of his Jeep off of the face of the Earth. We are both lucky to make it out of that completely fine, rigs untouched. Our family is lost on what to do now, so i have come here for some advice from my local Jeep gods. Post any ides, solutions, or anything you want to post honestly, put it below.

Thanks

-DJXJ

 

"All bushings seemed fine". They may not be. Also check your tie rod ends. My WJ had bad ones that was causing a wobble. Also make sure bolt holes aren't ovaled. That can cause it too.

 

ANY part that moves up front can cause a wobble if there is looseness in it or it's mounting. The track bar is the most common culprit. If the bolt holes are worn big, they can be brought back by welding a thick washer to the brackets and drilling them to the right size or going to a larger bolt. Remember it still has to fit the bushing sleeve.

It sounds to me like that's it because it got steadily worse quickly. Every time it oscillated, it wore the bolt hole larger. Check the ball joints and wheel hub bearings as well. Even tire balance could have started the wobble.

There's a good guy on YouTube called "Bleepin' Jeeps" that has videos on what to check.

 

an easy way to check for loose or sloppy connections is while parked have someone turn the wheel back and forth while you watch each joint individually.

 

Do this with the vehicle sitting on the ground.

 

Dave makes a very good point, you don't want to be airborne when checking for sloppiness. besides the difficulty in timing the jump and the micro seconds the observers has to check, it could be a risky situation for the observer.

Just having fun Dave...

 

Yeah....I guessed that! I was just backing you up, but also warning that it's difficult to check bushings while on a hydraulic lift.

 

I am working on my 97 again, it has death wobble, about like this guy is describing, it gets really violent, but I do not think its my track bar. I have a 96 that someone else put part of a 4 " lift in, they drilled a new hole in the axle plate mount for the track bar. This wallered out of course, and using the original one pulls the front end over but doesn't effect the wheels fighting each other which I think death wobble is. It just has really loose steering because of it. hesitant steering. I replaced bushings on track bar and they go out within two weeks. Im not driving it again till I fix and add the correct lift components. But honestly I cant see how a track bar being loose can cause death wobble.
Now on my 97 4.0 , it has 201k on it, probably never had tie rods or ball joints or shocks or anything. I added a set of 1 3/4 lift blocks a year and a half ago and about 6 months or more ago it started death wobble, not on big bumps but small ones at bridges or on a highway with sink spots you really cant even see. It was bad enough to be annoying and make you slow down. Finally I changed my tie rod ends last week, got a pretty good alignment by just keeping the adjustments the same, then tweaking them a little. It goes straight as an arrow , does not pull , rolls easy. But now the death wobble got crazy bad. The tie rods had been dangerously worn out. but now with new ones the death wobble got worse. So I ordered new ball joints, all 4. As long as ive had this thing I knew it had play, in reverse tires would rub but not in forward, lol. I also got new shocks. But anyway my jeep is a rust bucket, not one bolt came out right, not one kotter pin came out, had to just shear them, the wheel bearings were frozen onto the hub, one wheel bearing seems bad after trying to get it off, backing plates rusted out. but finally I got down to the ball joints in the axle side and can not get them to budge, and the new ball joints, at least the lower seems a liitle different , they have a groove and snap ring as a keeper, and the stock ones are flush with what it goes into. Oh the ball joints all seem to have play , one even pulled apart, but anyway, im stuck, I cant get the rest of the ball joints out and I don't have a torch or machine shop , can anyone tell me how to finish this up? To get them out ?

 

Oh I wanted to add I couldn't see the ball joint slop or even the bad wheel bearing when I looked under it with someone turning the wheel. I could see the tie rods easily though. I've been beating on them with a hammer ( ball joints) and they will not budge, I started drilling one out to hollow it to give it relief so maybe it breaks loose, but thought id hold off until I see what more experience people are saying. Along the way with this I want to add that I also did the tranny fluid filter and band adjustments, it works like new again, I didn't even realize it wasn't doing so good before, 5/8 turn tighter than spec on bands. And my dust seals are shot apparently, and im surprised there isn't an outer axle bearing, I should take the diff cover off and clean the axles entirely or is that necessary? Im interested in how the original posters jeep turns out. I know what he means by the death wobble being violent and uncontroolable

 

On my 93 zj I changed everything. Ball joints, track bar, tie rod ends, hub assemblies, etc... Finally I decided to change all 4 control arms (got them for the same price as the 8 bushings would have cost me. Problem solved. The ones I removed looked good but were super soft so I am guessing they were flexing a lot and letting the control arms flex all over the place.

Max

 

I had thought of this in my predicament, I didn't even want to mention it though, hoping it isn't that problem.

 

I've replaced everything in the front of mine and still deal with death wobble.