I purchased a 2000 xj awhile back and immediately noticed on the drive home that it had death wobble. I inspected everything in the front end and it’s all tight. The only thing I think it could be is the lower control arms. The Jeep seems to have a 3” RC lift with the 1.5” budget lift on top, making it 4.5” with stock lowers. The track is adjustable, tires seem to line up front to back okay, tires are balanced and all. It has 3” spacers on it as well.

 

i had same problem and tried just about everything. finally put 2 stabilizers on the steering and stopped it. not sure if that's a fix or just a patch.

 

death wobble can be very difficult to pin point.
it could simply be the tires. my bias ply tires would give me death wobble, until i put on a coil over steering dampener.
but i could take the dampener off, swap to radial tires, and it would drive as nice as a car.

but 90% of the time, it seems to be track bar related. but i know every hard part counts in determining where it is coming from. (control arm bushings, track bar bushings, ball joints, wheel bearings, loose links. or a combination thereof.

 

yeah I checked everything, it’s all newer parts and I can’t find a weak link anywhere other than these control arms being stock, could that be my issue? Stock control arms on a 4.5” lift

 

Most of the time just grabbing and trying to jiggle parts by hand isnt enough to find a problem. Suspension parts get stressed by alot of force and just a wiggle and a tug usually just isnt enough.

Not saying you are doing it wrong. Just stating that you cannot be overly thorough when it comes to this stuff

 

Yeah I had somebody wiggle the steering wheel and checked everything out that way as well, visually inspected all of the bushings, everything is tight. The only weak link I can find is the control arms though and I can’t seem to find an answer as to if that could be the culprit.

 

Does it also have bump steer.

I dont buy into bias tires causing death wobble ive junk new parts brand new have seen balljoint literally last a week parts are junk these days

I'd be looking to make sure track bar and drag link are parralell and every joint in the front end for excessive free play

Also make sure bolt isnt wobbled out hole on axle side of track bar.

Some rigs are more temper mental wobble comes easy otheres can have 2" of play in every joint and not wobble.

Ohh shocks to. A shock pogo sticking could kick of the wobble as its pogos through the setters joints.

Good luck

 

if you seen my bias ply tires, you would. lol condition is key.

anyway, use a pry bar to pry on tie rod ends, try to pry the tre out of the knuckle/drag link. then jack each front wheel off the ground a couple inches, and use the pry bar under the tire, lift (jerk) up the pry bar to feel for any looseness in the ball joint.

 

Bump steer on it is pretty bad, the angle of the drag line and track bar isn’t too bad but it def could use adjustment, but it’s got no play in it at all, I’m gonna throw a set of adjustable lowers at it and see what it does.

 

if bump steer is pretty bad km going to assume the track bar and drag link are not parrel. Im also going to take a wild guess and guess theres a drop pitman arm installed.

You saying it has bump steet makes me zoom in to this area

 

They’re close until the ends, but yeah there’s no drop pitman arm

 

Forgot to mention it needs a power steering pump, could that be contributing to it?

 

probably not.

Though death wobble is usually a combination of things all over looked.

 

OK, if you have bump steer, that is the source of your death wobble. Let's see some pics of your steering setup, which I assume is aftermarket

 

Steering is a stock setup