So I was home from school working on my jeep, new to me tires(31 bf good at) 3" coils(IRO) and trimming and brakes. I finished everything drove it hard and in every situation I could think of before my 700 mile trip back to school. Everything was working fine. So I left and 200 miles into the trip I hit a rough bumpy spot in the road and got the nastiest death wobble ever. So I got out checked everything seemed to be fine. Started driving again and same thing. Had it towed to a shop and they put a new wheel barring in new steering stabilizer and drilled a new hole for my track bar because it was pulling my axle pretty far out. Got back on the freeway and same thing happened need to get back to school asap for some tests. But have no clue what to do now. Please help!!!!!!! Thanks!

 

Upgrade your steering system

 

Get you tires balanced, get an alignment, check the bushing of all your control arms and your trackbar

 

+1

 

Also look for bad TRE. Best method is to watch the front end while someone moves the steering back and forth.

 

^all good advice. Alignment is the big one if you havent yet.

 

I had a bad one at 35 mph. It was an alignment ( 2 inches off) plus I threw on a new steering stabilizer and pitman arm and now it's just fine. I'm running 31's as well.

 

I had the death wobble and a new steering stabilizer helped a tiny bit but a new (adjustable) track bar fixed it completely.

 

I had to replace everything in my front end to finally get rid of the DW.. this is on stock tires too...

 

x2 on getting wheels balanced and alignment checked as a start - if you hit a hole on the highway and it suddenly got and then stayed wobbly, it sounds like you tossed a wheel weight. Also no one has mentioned ball joints. I'd check those for play too. Another thought I had was you said the tires are "new to you"... if they're worn unevenly even if there's plenty of tread left, that could also be pretty noticeable on pavement. Couldn't hurt to check all the linkage bolts too, like the track bar mount, etc. good luck!

 

Rotate your (new to you tires) front to back and see if that helps . You may have a bad tire,bad tires still can balance out. I just found out what the cause of my death-wobble was it was a bad tire ,wasn't wearing funny or anything ,but it did have some cracking on about a foot of tread.

 

Thanks guys! Ya I made it got an alignment it was off. Also tried rotating tires. Still feels like it's trying to happen so I will be checking for all the things that were mentioned.

 

X3 on wheels balanced and alignment...Just ran thru the same thing about 2 weeks ago

 

plus even if its not alignment....alighments come with like 3 year warranty (: ABUSE IT haha

 

Sweet, glad to hear you made some progress (and made it back)! Did the alignment place give you a printout with the readings from their machine? I got one when I had mine checked, and found my camber was off by 1deg on the left and 1.5 on the right. Because there is no camber adjustment on XJs other than adjustable ball joints, he instantly grabbed a pry-bar and checked my ball joints - which were way worse than I had expected. Lots of up/down play. The right upper was way worse then the left. I now understand where the vibrations, minor wobbling on highway, and cupped-out tread on my old tires are coming from! I'd keep investigating because if it was the hole that threw your alignment off, it may have done other damage too. If it wasn't the hole you hit, then there is something else wrong that's making it go out of true. Bad ball joints cause all kinds of other problems if they go unfixed for too long! I just learned that the hard way cuz I didn't know mine were going bad!

Jack up the front and put stands under the axle tube so the weight is off the tires (leave the tires on). Then take a pry-bar from the front side and go under the tires put a chock behind the bar so you are pushing straight up on the tires from underneath when you push down on the pry bar. You will see right away if there is any play in the 4 ball joints! Then take the wheel in your hands and turn the steering back and forth, looking for any looseness/weirdness in the bushings and tie rod ends. May be helpful to have a 2nd set of eyes for this. Also try and wobble the wheel from the top and see how your hub bearings feel. Pretty easy to do all this and it will help narrow down where your problem is greatly!