Hey guys, wanted to share my story to possibly get some suggestions to fix some wobble I have.

First of all the wobble I'm trying to fix is not "death" it's really not very bad. But I had a fairly scary incident that did involve the worst kind of death wobble.

Some details: 2001 Cherokee Sport, 201,000 miles. 2.5 inch lift springs in the front and taller shackles in the back to level it out, also removed rear sway bar.

The problem is when I get to about 52-53 miles an hours, and am slightly turning left, I will get a tiny bit of wobble. If I speed up or slow down, it goes away. If I don't speed up or slow down, it gradually gets worse. Only turning left, if I'm driving straight or turning right, nothing. That's the problem I am trying to solve.

I was driving down a fairly empty highway in southern Colorado. I was doing right about 70 miles an hour, I wasn't worried about the setting off my wobble because the only time it ever does it is at 53~ miles an hour. I smacked a bump and that is when I saw death in the road in front of me. The whole Jeep was thrashing violently. I slowed it down as fast as I could, stopped on the side of the road, changed my pants, then crawled under to see if there was anything weird. I saw nothing out of the ordinary, so I got back on the road and couldn't go past 40 mph without the thrashing starting up again. So I limped it to my parents house.

My dad has a shop, we took the tires off and they were all out of balance by a decent amount so we balanced and rotated them. I got back in and everything seemed to be fine, it wouldn't even wobble at its usual wobble speed. I had my dad keep it and borrowed a different vehicle from him for a while. He took it in and had the track bar bushing and ball joint replaced, and the steering ball joints. Also put a new stabilizer on and got it aligned.

Unfortunately, a couple months later, the wobble has returned. Again its just at that 53~ miles an hour and turning slightly left.

Anyone have a similar situation? I have some skyjacker lower control arms for a 4" TJ lift I plan on putting on and I was thinking of getting a drop pitman arm as well. What would be the first thing you guys replace?

I honestly dont think its the stock control arms or pitman arm. I run stock CA's currently, and when I had wobbles I tried a drop pitman arm, did absolutely nothing. Im at exactly 3".

I see, yea the main reason for the lower ca's is because I have them on hand. But good to know the pitman arm didn't do anything for you. I was just looking for somewhere to start. I also thought maybe wheel bearings? I have over 200,000 and if I had to guess I would say they are original.

Did you end up fixing your wobble?

Maybe wheelbearing, bad hub, especially cuz it only does it when turning left. And yeah I got mine all taken care of, It was started with being out of alignment, which caused my stock tires to wear unevenly and unbalance themselves. Did the alignment in my yard, went and bought some brand new Duratracs, and BAM got that ***** to a 100

Don't worry about the drop pitman arm at your height.
Check out the death wobble threads on here for some tips, but you really need to inspect each component for wear and movement. Have someone sit in the jeep and turn the wheel back and forth while you watch, and carefully feel for excess play. That should help you narrow down the cause instead of just throwing parts at it.

Check your front axle u joints, they will cause it too.

Really? IDK how but to check it remove the ds and see if it goes away

No, just get under the and get ur hand on the joint and try to turn it, if its bad it will move

I never saw you mention anything about getting an alignment. Go get an alignment and see what that does. Make sure all the bolts in your steering and suspension are tight.

I've yet to have anyone explain this to me so that it made logical sense. Vibration, yes. Wobble, no...


Almost every case of DW I've dealt with was caused by one of the following 4 things:

Worn out steering/track bar components.
Worn out control arm bushings.
Terrible castor angle/alignment. (Just because you had it aligned doesn't mean the caster was set correctly.)
Out of round or unevenly worn tire.

Or a combination of several.

First thing I'd do is check the castor angle and replace control arm bushings. At 200k the bushings need to be replaced anyhow. If your after market arms have good bushings in them and they're the correct length then go ahead and swap those in.

He took it in and had the track bar bushing and ball joint replaced, and the steering ball joints. Also put a new stabilizer on and got it aligned.

Replaced the Trackbar with a new stock unit?

You can't lift a XJ with addressing the track bar, adjustable Trackbar solved my death wobble.

Bad tires was what caused mine. Got rid of those junk tires and bought brand new ones. No more death wobble.

What condition are your tires in? If they were run out of balance for a while they may have gotten some funny wear on them. Re-balancing fixed it for a while until they got some more wear on them? Just me thinking.

One thing I have noticed is every XJ acts different once it gets lifted. My 2000 had zero wobble issues. This 98 I have now took some tweaking to get everything right. It had death wobble, wanted to wander all over the road, etc. A real pain in the ****.

Yeah you can. My first xj was lifted 3inches and I never did anything with the track bar. I had zero wobble, it drove great. The axle was pulled to one side about 1/4 in but it drove fine.

thats how mine is currently. And ill do a 100 in the b****