So I bought this XJ the other day from my buddy and I believe i experienced the infamous " death wobble ". (my last XJ never had an issue with this so it was a new and and exciting experience for me) it seems to have bump steer pretty good also, when I hit a bump is when the real bad wobble started till I slowed down. I believe it's a rustys 6.5 in lift. I know the alignment is off because the passenger front tire is wore more than the others and it also needs a drivers side axle ujoint... However after looking into posts about steering geometry I believe mine is off which could possibly be contributing to this also? I really want to get new tires soon too as 33x13.5x15 super swampers are too wide imo and drive horrible on the street but I think I have other issues to take care of first. Any help in the matter would be appreciated and sorry for the long post!

 

It looks to me like the pitman arm has too much drop. The track bar should be parallel to the the drag link.

It looks like the pitman arm is has a lot of drop to it, but the upper end of the track bar hasn't been lowered...or the lower end raised...to keep it parallel to the drag link.

If the drag link and track bar aren't parallel, you will have bump steer. The more they don't correlate, the worse it will be. It looks like yours are off by a lot.

 

steering shock looks like it leaking also?

 

Yeah they are off by alot... Maybe ide be better off with like a ZJ Pittman arm than the (I'm guessing) 3in drop Pittman arm? I'm not sure if I would be able to adjust the track bar enough to match the current pittman arm/drag link setup. Maybe I'm wrong tho idk.. This is all new to me so I appreciate the input. And yea I noticed the steering stabilizer is bad but I know that's not the cause of the problem

 

I'm not sure if this will help you, but I got a new trac bar bushing from autozone, the two part one for like 11 bucks. SO much better now, not perfect but much better now. Mine was bad like the really bad death wobbble where everything shakes veryy violently.

 

^^^THIS^^^

Worn steering components will always be great things to fix, however in this case the steering geometry is really off.

If you look in the pic, you'll see both the drag link and trac bar, both start at the top right of the pic and go downward to the bottom of the left side of the pic. Notice how they are not in line with each other? Thats bad.

 

http://www.facebook.com/v/2555055034223

Just FYI this is an HORRIBLE video, you'll need to skip to the end (ish) to see the wobble

 

Is it safe to say the drop Pittman arm is not needed here or do I need a different track bar?

 

Does it have a drop bracket for the track bar? With that much lift dropping the track bar may be best

 

you need to either drop the frame end of the track bar, or raise the axle end to make it parallel with the drag link. At that height though, I'd be looking at a stock pitman arm instead and an over the knuckle steering setup to replace the stock stuff (which really isn't up to the task of large tires and lifts).

 

I don't know if it has a drop bracket... When I get home ill post some pictures

Still though, I'm leaning towards a different Pittman arm and upgrading my steering setup because it looks stock to me and is most likely warn out also.

 

Here are some pics... I think this is a standard trac bar bracket? (but what do I know lol)

 

Sorry hit send... Here's the pics

For a steering solution im leaning towards either rustys wheel to wheel tie rod and drag link combo(RS-SC250-UV) or iron rock off roads over the knuckle steering (IR-TOTKS) Originally I was thinking about just getting a aftermarket tie rod (maybe ironman 4x4 or rustys) or even a ZJ tie rod as ive used one before with good results; but I want a new drag link also so Ide rather just do it all at once

 

Someone made that. It's not stock, and it doesn't appear to drop the bar either. Buy rustys drop bracket and see where your at.
If your still not there go to a lesser drop pitman arm

 

The Rusty's drop bracket for the track bar would be your best bet. But, whether it fixes it or not, I would trust it more than the home made one that's on there.