The death wobble or whatever the hell this is is back and worse than before... I'm at a loss. I've checked all the control arms and everything is new, the heim joints are all new but the shaking I'm getting now is at low speed, it almost feels like when your in 4wd and try to make a sharp turn that chugging you get... But it's coming from both sides... The steering wheel literally tries to spin out of my hands and it doesn't stop until you completely stop then stay again. At this point I just need to get it to go 20mph so I can get it to a shop. Does anyone see anything wrong? This is a list of new stuff installed from the previous owner's body shop.



If there's other pics you want to see that might help please let me know. I can't let my son drive this when he gets his licence in this condition. Buying new tires and wheels seemed to fix it but after sitting for awhile I took it out today and it's worse than ever. It shook so bad the exist fell off loll

 

New doesnt mean that all steering and suspension bolts are tight and secure.
my eye was drawn to driver knuckle and what looks like a bolt that isn't straight bolting it to the knuckle.

Put a wrench on every. Then let me know and I'll head that way with the gooseneck ill only charge a 300 disposal fee and need title for the recycle yard.

When you steer it just sitting there is steering box flexing frame.

Shop will likely take tons of money with a good chance of not fixing it.

Wheel lug nuts tight. front unit bearings tight not coming unbolted,

Put a wrench on every single bolt. On the front end.

 

Jack it up and use a shovel or something under the tire to see if ball joints are shot or possibly falling out of the bores theyre pressed.

Your going to have to do the work to fix this. Nothing in a can or new rubber will.

 

I checked the ball joints when I put on the new tires last week... There was no flex at all that I could see at least. I fully understand that there's no fix in a can but I thought the new tires fixed it because the stockers we threw on to drive it home were mismatched, bald and in terrible shape so I was hoping new tires would fix the issue.... And it test drove great for about 6 miles after putting on the new tires and wheels. Today this all happened again so I'm not sure if something broke out what, it's kinda weird. I had the tie rods and Trac bar off today and removed every nut and bolt I could find to make sure nothing was bent or broke and there wasn't anything out of the ordinary. I hate the wobble that heim joints give but I guess I need to live with that for now. There is no stabilizer on the truck at all, I know most think they are a band aid but not sure if I should throw one on anyway to see if it helps. I'm not a complete idiot, I've built trucks before but I've also never felt this particular issue. I've had death wobble but nothing as severe as this, it actually feels like the front end is breaking off the truck. I'm going to take the front wheels off tomorrow again and really look say the ball joints.... I'm starting to lean that way in my thinking now that I think about it

 

I took more pics before the heavy rain started. Not sure if this helps anyone see something that I'm missing but never know I guess.

 

I ordered a new set of all 4 ball joints from quadratec... Gotta start somewhere I guess. Will report back after I get them installed

 

I think I figured something out...I went outside to confirm and the back of the knuckle I guess it's called is touching the spring. The passenger side is absolutely touching and the driver's side might have a CH of clearance but it's going to rub under any compression. I think that's why it starts to wobble after I got any sort of bump. It's there anyway to even fix this?!?! I'm guessing it's supposed to have clearance.

 

ummm... So it looks like the idiot I bought this truck from has the passenger side spring basically sitting on the axle? It's dark and rainy but I think it's sitting too low that's why it's dig into the back of the knuckle or whatever that piece the ball joint mounts to is called how do I fix this ****? Sometimes I hate people. For a body shop/used car business to sell a truck built like this knowing it's going to be a kids first car is so sad...J-O!!

I'm assuming this is enough to cause a death wiggle in steroids scenario? Should I cancel the $220 ball joints order?

 

Im trying to think if I think the springs rubbing would even cause death wobble

The balljoints don't look new they would be something that could be eliminated but I honestly haven't seen ball joints cause death wobble.

The holes in the track bar mounting brackets are known to wallo out allows the bolt to move even if joint is good

I didn't mean to say your an idiot just many think a forumn will help the problem fix itself i see your doing the work..

Heim on driver side tie rod looks like it has some wear.

The drag link going to the top side of the knuckl means thats its a fair amount longer than the track bar..

The length differences combined with being out of parralell could mean that bump steer.. i dont know that either of these i mentioned are an issue they just could be..

Im looking your pictures over..

The spring touching the passenger C could mean track bar is to short for the lift heigth so track bar pulls axles towards driver side.. instead of being long enough to center. Normal clearance is CH.

wish I could be there to give you a second set of eyes id lay under it while steering is work in its free play and stop to stop. Sometimes putting your hand around tie rod and drag link can feel things you can't see.

In your pictures on the inside of one of the wheels it looks like a stripp of wheel weights are missing. If that wheel is severely out if balance and chucked the weights in that 6 miles
I'd be curious what swapping to balance beads in all 4 would do for death wobble. I wouldn't expect it to cure it but might help.

Yes heims flopping over is annoying

I to ran the cheap balljoints for less than a year.. all 4 went bad then i warranted into better one's. I think balljoints is a good place to by quality..

I think some more digging can be done before throwing money at it

 

Thanks for the help!

I'll check the wheel weights tomorrow...I never thought to look to see if I lost some.I have a balancing bead kit in my house that I never used because the Dodge I bought them for had sensors so I couldn't just shoot them in through the valve stem....I could put them in here pretty easily. Sunday I'll take off the Trac bar and see what's up there. I know I adjusted the tie rod because the drivers tire was making a slight right when the passenger tire was pointed straight and that was before I took it out today so I don't know if that caused this mess or if something else broke to cause it but I've since readjusted that damn tie rod 5 times with no improvement at all. Thank you for taking the time...I do appreciate it!

 

The steering angles are wrong in relationship to the track bar. I have the same steering setup.

Put the drag link on top of the pitman arm, make sure you have 1/16th tow in, check castor and take for a drive. It's aggravating but I was chasing the same issue. Step back and take your time. Make sure those steering bolts are tight as **** too.
Trail Forged Offroad has a great set of online instructions for that style steering.

 

This is what hodge is explaining.

Raise drag link to top of Pitman to bring it parralell with track bar. My super precise cad drawing does make it look like it needs to go up

 

I tried to doodle it on my phone with my reply but it was basically a drunk twizzler. As mentioned I had this exact issue, not quite death wobble, but a hard shimmy. Fine tune that front end and you'll likely be rid of it.

 

Lololol thanks guys. the wife is dragging is to the beach today so I can't work on the Cherokee... At least I'll get to drive my gladiator in some sand so that's a plus! Tomorrow my son and I will get the front end up and start testing **** out and inspecting. I'm only going to do one thing at a time though so I can easier isolate what makes things better. First thing I'll do is remove the drag link and move it to the top of the pitman... I thought you wanted it as low as possible, isn't that why they have drop Pitnam arms? I'll give er a try, but just curious. The Trac bar and drag link are curved so they'll never get truly parallel with Each other. If you look in the first pic above where the drag link mounts to the Pitnam it is perfectly parallel to the Trac bar before they bend out. I'll try it out tomorrow and report back... Thanks again guys

 

You might be missing these spring stays or whatever they’re called. Can’t tell from the pics.