I think death wobble is why people sell their jeep. It always seems like there is something that is so easy to overlook. I have had death wobble on and off for a few months. Sometimes it is better than other days. Other days you simply cannot drive it over 40 mph.

You can check everything on the front end without moving but nothing will put strain on it like driving it. It puts more stress than you can imagine, but makes determining problems impossible (unless your crazy and hang over the front bumper while driving 50 mph during a DW attack).

Since mine has started, come and gone and come again I have done the following.

-Tire pressure...
-Track bar hole is almost a 12mm hole with a 10mm bolt. Welded a plate over the hole and made an exact size hole for the bolt.
-Stock tie rod with large tires that stocker will flex more than you think during everyday driving.
-Track bar its self. I have a RC TRE track bar and I feel the TRE is not the right end for that type of a joint. A double shear is more ideally suited for the front end (IMO).
-The steering can be sloppy, TRE's shot, steering box loose, flex in the frame, steering box wear and tear internally....
-control arm bushing shot

There are probably 2 dozen more things that could be the cause of DW. It takes time and patience to get it squared away. I get much frustrated messing with it and getting no where but i know sooner than later I will figure it out.

DW is like a really bad ex gf they keep coming back no matter what you do.

 

Death wobble isn't just caused by old worn out ****. You can take a brand new Jeep with zero miles on it, change a bunch of suspension components, do it wrong, **** the geometry all to **** and end up with death wobble.

If you take it to the fundamental root cause of the actual phenomena it really has nothing to do with component age. It is a rapid change of steering/suspension geometry. Worn components can cause that but so can whacked geometry from ill-advised mods.

If I had to hazzard a guess I'd say the Jeep in the video (which is obviously lifted) probably has some serious bumpsteer issues compounded by a screwed up track bar.

 

My 92 just rolled over 83k...yes...83k. I've already been through 2 sets in the past year. First was the factory ones and then a cheap set.

To check the hubs, put a jack under the axle, get the tire off the ground, and then try to shake the tire. If it shakes, the hub is gone. But, be sure to have someone else looking as you shake because movement could also be caused by worn ball joints.

 

I agree fully.

 

Check your bushings on your LCAs

 

Yes, it is not just worn parts. But worn parts are the main causes. Either way, something within the steering is wrong and needs to be corrected. So, check for worn parts, then check everything else(angles, loose nuts and bolts, etc)

 

I know of quite a few people who have had stock wranglers get DW in 100% stock form.

I don't think geometry in a 100% stock vehicle would really be out of wack to cause DW but I think the problem is a compounding factor where lets say a worn lower control bushing causes the axle to move 1/2" out of wack during a large bump which puts extra strain on the tie rod which flexes just a little which throws the axle in the opposite direction throwing alotta stress on the track bar and the list keeps going..... if you get my drift (BTW the above was just a made up scenario no idea if it is even plausible)

 

I swapped the tires and it still didnt fix the problem, not even a little bit. The good news is that I don't have to drop a grand on some tires. The bad news is I still don't know whats wrong.

I took a pic of the suspension. The track bar is NOT parallel to the drag link. I think I need to slide the LCAs back a couple of degrees. I have it at +7 now. Not sure if that will even help. Question is weather it will affect the rest of the alignment since I just paid $50 to have someone do it???? Check out the pic

The other question is weather its even death wobble to begin with. The vibration is consistant starting at about 47 mph +. Its a pulsating vibration that shakes the whole dash pretty bad and a very light vibration in the floor. Seems to come from the dash for the most part. It dosen't make a difference if I hit a bump or not. It vibrates either way. Now what?

 

Not DW. Sounds like a worn u-joint on either driveshaft. Check your driveshaft/pinion angles as well. I'm not sure how much lift you have or if you have installed an SYE so I'm doing to assume not. With that being said, it could be binding in your rear driveshaft if the angles are up there.

Edit** In my case, the front driveshaft was so worn that it actually caused the DW. It spun so out of balance that it caused the entire axle to shake and then make the dw.

 

When they balanced your tires did they put weights on both sides of the wheel? DW can start from having a dynamic imbalance in the tires. This sets up the dreaded self perpetuating steering oscillation (death wobble). Also a lifted Jeep should have a little less than 7* of caster angle. I like to run about 5* on Jeeps that don't have drop brackets or long arms.

So, take it back to the alignment shop and reduce the caster to 5* and make sure the tares have weights on both sides.

What kind of control arms do you have? There have been a few cases where simply switching from a stock arms to a HD aftermarket arms will fix the problem. The stock arms are kinda flimsy.

 

I was just sitting staring at the Jeep when I came up with close to the same thought. I agree that we should get away from the DW therory ( hence the thread title "Uncurable DW" ) I have checked all the U-Joints and did not see an ounce of play in them. Not sure if they may be to tight. I don't think the binding would be and issue since its only a 3" drop and there's also a 1" transfer case drop (correct me if I'm wrong). The pinion angles sound like a great idea to check next though. For three reasons I can think of, the guy that I bought it off of said he had problems with the U-joints poping off of the rear drive shaft when it was at 4 1/2"s before I dropped it back to 3", the leaf spings have a small spacer between the spring and the axle housing that is falling out, and I hear a clunk just about every time I put it in gear. I'm thinking I should put new U bolts and a new spacer or what ever you would call it and see if that helps the pinion angles. Would it hurt anything if I removed the rear drive shaft and drove it down the road in 4-wheel to see if that cures the vibration?

 

Agree - but yesterday I said I didn't think it was DW. Tires were likely but after his most recent post I agree about the drive shafts.

 

Something that appears to have been overlooked throughout this thread is ball joints. They can/will cause DW, and if you have DW, it will trash the rest of your front end parts as well. The longer it goes on, the more repairs you will have to do. If there is slop in the steering box, at the sector shaft, that can cause it too. I had it, and felt like it would never go away, after a complete front end rebuild, I drive without a steering dampener with no issue...

 

the front driveshaft and gears are not designed to take the entire load of the vechile and move it. With removing the rear driveshaft you run the risk of tearing up the front end gears so I wouldnt remove the rear driveshaft. You can also check your pinion bearings. Those will cause vibrations as well. To check those, unbolt the driveshaft from the axle and see if you can get any play. You will see that there is some backlash in the gears but should see no vertical or horizonal play.

 

Correct. When I read the initial post for some reason I thought he said he had already checked them.