I have a 98 XJ which has, I believe, a rough country trackbar (like this one). I bought this rig 1.5 months ago. Previous owner built it as a rock crawler. Pretty heavily modified. But it suffers from DW. I suspected the stock bushings that came with the trackbar. Removed the trackbar and could definitely see how the bolts could move in their respective holes. Drilled the holes on the trackbar mount and axle side, and used larger m12 bolts. Changed the bushings using the aforementioned ES bushings I got online. I did have to drill through the sleeves so the bolts could fit. Went for a spin after the swap and still has pretty severe DW. I don't even need to drive fast (30 mph is enough to get it on bumpy road). Drove the jeep back, inspected the bushings/track bar. It appears that these bushings are too soft still, as I can see the trackbar moving when turning the steering wheel L/R. Anybody experienced the same issue? So now, not sure what to get.
I'll provide a picture of the front end so you guys can see.

 

This is the only alternative I found. A bit pricey but supposedly top notch. Any feedback before I spent another 70$?

-->https://kevinsoffroad.com/collection...s-with-sleeves

 

Call Andy at Ironman Fab. He has one piece press in bushings with several different size sleeves for different size bolts. I’m not sure if they’re standard size though. Clayton sells a 9/16” trac bar bolt by itself.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll check Ironman Fab's and Clayton off road websites. I did not know about these.
Which bushings, bolt size, and track bar are you using?

 

I’m using one of Andy’s trac bars, trac bar bracket, and trac bar brace. It’s a double shear with a Barnes joint. I ordered it with a 9/16” sleeve. Andy didn’t have any hardware so I got a Clayton bolt. It has a flag nut ( not absolutely necessary) with locking threads and is like 30 bucks. Pricey for a bolt yes, but this bolt WILL stay torque down. Might be the same bolt mentioned in the site you posted.
Don’t be surprised if you still have symptoms of DW after your trac fix. In my experience it usually takes more than one problem area to cause what your describing. Good luck.

 

The bushing, and its mount is important for the death wooble prevention. However you MUST have the track bar/drag link at the correct angle. Correcting the angle on my rig was the final fix. Sure I did oversized bolt, urethane bushing, but the death wooble wasnt fixed till I got the track bar to match that of the drag link angle, For me required a pitman arm change, and some adjusting, and now she is pefect
see link bellow, it has some good photos showing what needs be done.

The angle is the line between the mounting points of the bars. it may help to get a straight stick to hold between mounting ends and the bar itself might have bends in it, making it difficult to eyeball the angle without help of a a straight stick.

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f67/ge...advice-132894/


If the two are not at same angle, i.e. parrallel, then all the bushing work in the world ain't going to fix the death woobling of your rig.


good luck, have fun, ride wooble free!

 

Thanks for all the suggestions. I need to post a picture of the current set up. Without doing accurate measurements, I believe both look parallel. But I am a noob at this stuff!

 

Here







are some pics.

 

I can see from my pictures that the passenger side coil is not sitting correctly..

 

On your first photograph, I lay a straight edge on drag link, and it does not line up perfect with trackbar. Driverside of trackbar is too low I am guesstimating it is 10 degrees difference or theres abouts. It'd be better to measure in person however, as camera angle can distort things.

Nice truss on the axle you got there. You make it?

 

Just realized I never replied..

No, I did not make that truss. One of the previous owners did this work. Yeah, it looks pretty beefy. They also installed a Ford 8.8 axle in the rear with coilovers too, regeared everything I believe to 4.88 gear ratio. Lockers front and rear (lunchbox type). But there is a noise (marble like?) in the front which I also need to address. Previous owner believes the pinion bearing is bad.

I will carefully check the angle difference between the drag link and trackbar and see what I find. Not driving this Jeep until this DW is fixed. Quite scary.

 

Took some measurements last night from the ground to pivot point, for each bar, on the passenger side (PS) and driver side (DS):

• drag link measurements: PS 39.5 cm || DS 72 cm --> 72-39.5 =32.5cm
• track bar measurements: PS 42.5 cm || DS 63.5 cm --> 63.5-42.5 =21cm

Overall diff: 32.5-21 = 11.5 cm or 4.5 inches. Yep, No good! So basically, the track bar is pointing too high on the DS.
What do you guys advise? As far as I understand, you'd want to get these bars as parallel to each other as possible, also in the same plane, and finally as horizontal to the ground as possible. Given the current conditions, I could increase the track bar DS height to 75cm (i.e. 42.5+32.5). It would help with parallelism, but not bringing both bars more horizontal to the ground. Any thoughts?

 

Update...

Repeated above measurements to triple check everything. The 'pivot point' I originally used for the drag link side at the pitman arm was incorrect. So, I repeated the measurements and essentially found that the drag link bar needs to drop an additional 5cm (or 1.97") to be parallel to the track bar.
I currently have a RC pitman arm that provides about a ~4.25 actual drop. So I purchased a pitman arm from clayton offroad which should provide a 6.25" actual drop. I believe that should fix the 'parallelism' issue.
I also purchased the kit I posted earlier from Kevins offroad. I hope all of this stuff will help. It should.
I'll provide an update. I will also plan on checking my front alignment and check tire balance.

 

Another quick update..

Still waiting for parts to arrive.. In the meantime, I put the Jeep on jack stands to troubleshoot some 'marble sound' I've been hearing from the front end. Was not able to figure out where it came from (e.g. transfer case or front diff) as I could not replicate the sound. In the process, I found out that the front left wheel bearing is shot! Good amount of play on that wheel. I recall the previous owner telling me the death wobble was more likely to happen if the left front wheel was hitting a pot hole..

 

Wheel bearing changed with a Timken unit. No more play on that wheel. Good!
Just received the 9/16" bolts and 75D bushings from Kevinsoffroad. Man, this stuff looks pretty tough compared to the Energy bushings I installed. Can't wait to install them and then test drive the Jeep. I hope we'll be good after that.
Side note: I also received the upgraded dropped pitman arm, but will not be able to install it. Two problems: the drag link will probably interfere with the trackbar. And the pitman arm mounting point for the drag link ball joint is too small. Dang it.