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So sick of this damn Death Wobble....

21K views 184 replies 55 participants last post by  bnine 
#1 ·
I installed my rough country 3.25 inch lift and had death wobble. Brought it to the alignment shop, told them it had the death wobble, got it aligned, had the tires balanced, asked them if they drove it and it was fixed and they said yes. I went and picked it up drove it home and still had death wobble.

I called rough country and they told me that the alignment shop should have adjusted my caster using centric bolts.

I ordered the centric bolts and had them adjust my caster which is now at .02 degrees which they said is almost perfect.

Now when i drive i dont get full out death wobble but still have a little shimmy when i hit bumps.

The alignment shop said this is the best they can do unless i get adjustable lower control arms. I also talked to a guy i know with a tj with a 6 inch lift and 35s, he told me a drop pitman arm will fix it.

So before i go wasting more money, what should I do? :brickwall
 
#3 ·
Search out the thousand death wobble threads. (start with this one: http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f9/death-wobble-1079511/ )
Alignment is NOT the cause of the death wobble - quit blaming the alighment shop.
It's caused by one or more often a combination of things that are worn - even slightly - and generally initiated by a poorly balanced tire(s).
You have to check every component, carefully, and get those tires balanced perfectly.
 
#4 ·
If you read what i said, they balanced the tires and i searched everything so i was asking what i should try next, my tie rod ends, wheel bearings, track bar bushings, ive checked everything and its all tight and nothing is worn out. Ive read that death wobble is caused by bad caster angle and i wasn't blaming the alignment shop i was just asking what i should try next.
 
#5 ·
You asked for help, we're only trying to give it. Lemme try to suplement-

It has been well documented that just because some shop balanced the tires, doesn't mean they are actually well balanced or run true. Sometimes they have to try harder to get it right, sometimes you gotta find someone else who will do better. Road Force machines are far better.

Death wobble is not caused by bad caster. That can be one contributor, but it's not a 'rule.' CAster on the TJ is Very forgiving, it's one of the least critical settings.

Ball joints, bearings, tre's, bushings, track bar ends etc ALLL must be 99.9% on a TJ. Seriously.
 
#6 ·
I was getting some shimmy in my '06 with 33" tires - it wasn't severe enough to be considered death wobble, but if left unchecked it probably would have developed into DW given time. I had the tires balanced on a road force balancer and it's like a night and day difference - I never knew a TJ could be that smooth.
 
#7 ·
Clark i have been fighting the same thing for a year now and finally got it fixed last weekend. i have had swampers stt's and now bfg km2's, the swampers of course would not balance so therefore shakes, the stts balanced(so the tire shop said) and i still had a little shimmy at 45, now i went to pick up my jeep from the tire shop and tell me that my brand new 33-10.5 km2's wouldnt balance quite perfectly so i was thinking great now its gonna shake real bad but to my amazement it doesent have a single shake shimmy or vibe in it. so i guess what im thinkin is maybe you have a bad tire or your shop is not getting your tires balanced like they are saying they are. just my 2c.
 
#8 ·
Just putting out my 2 cents. I had to have my tires balanced three separate times at two different shops before it was done right. Like mentioned before, try and get them road forced balanced. Make sure they are putting weights on both sides of the wheel (stickies on the outside are pretty good). A lot of shops will just put the clamp-on/hammer-in weights on the inside and say they are balanced.
 
#9 ·
I'm not sure if you had to relocate the track bar, but if you did the hole almost has to be perfect. I had the same issue you have, before you spend anymore money I would check that hole to make sure it was drilled right.
I ended up buying an adjustable track bar and mounted it the the original
hole, works just fine.

my 2 cents, good luck.
 
#10 ·
When I installed my first lift, it was only a 2.5 inch budget boost. Being I didn't have adjustable control arms I bought cam bolts. When I first drove it, it had death wobble so bad you could not drive it. I adjusted the caster with the cam bolts and the death wobble was completely gone. No other changes were made. If you don't think caster can cause death wobble, just look at the next shopping cart that has death wobble from the wheels being bent forward or backwards to much.
 
#11 ·
Is your steering geometry correct after the lift, please post some good high quality pictures of the steering set up. Did you use the same trackbar, or new adjustable with the lift, or trackbar relocation brackets ? Is the bolt on the axle tight and the hole not egged out ? Is the end on the frame side good and tight, not worn. A lot of things can contribute to DW but most common has to do with the trackbar, and most lifted TJ's do not need a dropped pitman arm.
 
#13 ·
I relocated the track bar like it says to do in rough countrys instructions with the same size drill bit they say to use. I thought of trying to get the adjustable one but when i called rough country they talked me out of it and said that the caster was probably off and thats what was causing it. I will post pics of the steering setup later on today. Also im almost positive nothing is worn, my jeeps only got 40kmi, the shop checked things over and my cousin and i checked everything too, im not saying it cant happen only having 40kmi, just saying i didnt think it would.
 
#14 ·
Just to follow: Your jeep has 40K miles,....but the lift is new?

My (very recent) DW incident was due to a combination of things: My trackbar joint at the frame had some slop. Replaced with JKS JJ Tb. I then went crazy for a week until it was discovered that I had a bad control arm bushing. Pulled all the joints to check and thats when it was found, without pulling them it looked fine visually.

My Swampers wont balance,.....and that was finally contributing factor...
And btw - Road Force Balance isnt magic. RFB is simple a 2 step balance: IF (and thats IF) there is an issue with the wheel and the tire, the RFB machine will show it and then they can break the bead and slide the tire on the rim to match the spots....this will reduce the amount of weight needed to balance dramatically. BUT thats only if you have that issue. THEN they go on and do a 100% normal balance. For example: My swampers have alot of bad spots on them....but the rim is perfect. So RFB did nothing for me. I have a metric-sh*t ton of weights on there now...all over the place to balance.
 
#15 ·
...And btw - Road Force Balance isnt magic. RFB is simple a 2 step balance: IF (and thats IF) there is an issue with the wheel and the tire, the RFB machine will show it and then they can break the bead and slide the tire on the rim to match the spots....
That is one nice thing about road force balance is that it can identify if there is an issue with the wheel or tire.

Sometimes a tire/wheel can balance perfectly fine without a load on it, but once you add a load, its out of balance.

A typical tire balance machine cannot always identify if there is an issue with a wheel or tire.
 
#19 ·
just make sure that the Track bar and Drag-link are running at the same angle, 90% of death wobble comes from them being anywhere from 15% to 40% off.. also dont be afraid to put up to 1/8" of toe out, dont let someone tell you that a new steering stabilizer will fix it either... thats just masking the problem..properly set up steering will work fine with out one. I run 37s without a stabilizer
 
#27 ·
Replace the control arm bushings - even the ones in the top of the housing. On my '03 I went for what I remember to be about a year before finally figuring out what was causing my DW. Mine looked fine by eye - no signs of rot or damage. I had about half the mileage you have and mine were shot. I went for several alignments, wheel balancing's, I even swapped tires/wheels, did ball joints, unit bearings, 2 spearate steering systems, the list goes on and on and on. It was the bushings the whole time. If I remember, the bushings were cheap and at my local NAPA.
 
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