Also.. I feel its worth mentioning.. ive been having a grinding like feeling while not moving, like at a light. It happened at the light right before the highway when this happened. I made a thread on it but im on my phone and cant link it.

 

Just drove home on the same highway as yesterday, and I tried forcing the wobble to happen, and it did not. I tried emulating what I did yesterday, which was passing a car and getting back over in the right lane. I had a brief window of time when I was by myself on the highway so I moved my wheel a bit as I was driving, but nothing.


Would it be silly/overkill to go to OTK steering? I have a Rusty's HD tie rod, stock drag, and IRO adj. track bar.

 

Death wobble can be temperamental, it's not always going to happen at the same speed under the same conditions. It's time to do some investigating/work on the XJ. Because it will happen again.

And whatever that grinding is, won't be contributing to death wobble. The components that can cause death wobble are all steering/suspension components, which won't be being used at idle. You have two issues here

 

I'm assuming that since you haven't replied back, you haven't felt death wobble since?

 

That is correct. Sorry, I forgot to update it. Been trying to fix my radio and just fixed my gauge cluster lol. I've been on the highway a few times since then and it hasn't come back. I didn't change anything. lol

 

So this issue happened again while driving down the highway at highway speed. I hit a bump and it started. That appears to be the trigger. I feel like it wants to shake violently when driving around town when I go over a bump too. I'm trying to think what could be causing this. Steering box? Loose wheel spacers? The spacers are unlikely since I feel like if they were loose it'd happen all the time, or more than just hitting a bump.



Any thoughts?

 

Have you tried anything previously suggested in the thread? First two things you want to do:

Tire rotation. See if there's any difference after. Not a bad idea to retorque wheel spacers while the tires are off. If there is a difference, you're either looking at getting your tires balanced or new tires.

You install the long arms yourself? Find a reputable shop and get an alignment.

If neither of those make a difference, it's time to look at components. Ball joints and steering (tie rod ends and box) are suspects since your control arms and track bar are new

Also retorque every bolt you can get your hands on in the front end

 

I'll go for an alignment. I haven't had one since I lifted 3'' to 6.5''.. Could a bad steering box cause this? I have pretty bad steering wheel play. I'll check my ball joints again too. I checked them when I lifted the Jeep. And that was back in October. Also the tie rod is Rusty's HD tie rod and was put on in December.


Cheers

 

Yep a bad steering box sure could. But that's not as likely of a cause as alignment or your tires. Honestly start with both those places before you jump into messing with your steering box

 

So I took it to a local 4x4 shop to get it aligned, since I got the death wobble 3 times on the highway coming from wheeling. And the wobble was happening while driving down the street, along with I had to constantly turn the wheel to go straight.

Well, they called me this morning telling me almost every bolt on the front end is loose. Track bar, pitman arm, all that. They tightened it then called me and told me there's something that has to do with the pitman that's now bowed due to everything being tightened, and it's throwing the steering off, and you can't make full right turns anymore. I'm assuming they drove the Jeep before they worked on it, since I took my spacers off and I rub like no other. The tightening is costing me 2 hours or labor, which is about $200. He said after the fix and then the alignment, I'd be at $700. I had to decline any further work due to funds at the moment. But I was wondering if anyone might know what's wrong with it. I'll ask for more details when I pick it up, since the price threw me off before he told me what was wrong.

 

So I had the guy show me what he was talking about when I picked it up today. Apparently since all the bolts and everything have been tightened, it's making the drag link bow. And the bolts are hitting the Lca mount when turning right. I have rusty's tie rod and IRO's track bar, with a stock drag link with a steering stabilizer. I'm assuming upgrading the drag link will fix this issue? And can I just replace it with a HD one? Or do I need to do OTK or something?


Cheers

 

Here's where it's hitting when I turn right apparently.

 

Hmmmmm and it wasn't doing that before their shop touched it? Fishy...

 

And weird, you could have saved yourself a good amount of money had you used a our suggestions here.

Me and another guy suggested retorqueing everything in the front end (meaning retightening all bolts you can get a wrench on for all your front steering/suspension components).

I'm still saying upgrade your steering and throw away your stabilizer. Putting in an HD tie rod did you not much good. The rod ends are no bigger. I would suggest going to 1 ton steering. By those pictures, you need it. OTK/UTK would depend on what kind of wheeling you do. If you hardcore rock crawl, I would say OTK. Anything else, it wouldn't be all that necessary

Also your tires!!! Rotate em and see if there's a difference. Balancing would be a fantastic idea.

What makes you think your box is bad? I'm still really curious why you think that

 

A friend warrantied out his old Moog drag link and sold me the new one for $50. As you can see, my old one was bent. This will hold me over until I can afford OTK.


Well, having looked at it, I somehow bent it. I was going pretty hard on Sunday on the trails, so it's not surprising. It's a bend, too. So I don't think the shop did anything to it. They did try to straighten it out for me though.. I don't mind the money I had to spend to get this into working order. I don't have a garage of my own, and this is the first time a professional has touched my jeep in a while, so a second set of eyes who knows what's what isn't bad. Also, I think the rubbing they were talking about came from the lack of spacers. I took them off before the trip and I rub like no other. I drove it out of the shop and the bolt wasn't catching or anything, I didn't notice anything different, other than the tires rubbing, so.


I don't have access to my own garage, so it's a little difficult doing any work on my vehicle. I'll be ditching the stabilizer when I go to OTK, no question. I'll get my tires rotated and rebalance them, since the rims were balanced for 31s, I'm on 33s.


And even after having everything tightened, it's noticeably better/tighter steering, but there's still some play. And when I go over bumps now, it doesn't wobble, but it still feels like it might. I'm assuming it's the stock box, and I wheel it hard, and I'm sure the PO did as well. Don't these boxes go bad overtime?