Found this on another forum, hope it helps:

What is death wobble?
You'll know it if you experience it. Death wobble is when your jeep suddenly, and violently, begins to shake back and forth. It often comes after hitting a bump, and USUALLY at higher speeds. It is truly frightening. This is not to be confused with tire shimmy, where the steering wheel gets a shake in it at certain speeds.

What causes Death Wobble?
Death wobble is typically caused by
A) Out of balance tires or out of round wheels.
B) Loose track bar.
C) Worn front-end joints. (tie rod ends, track bar, ball joints, etc)
D) Bad alignment.
E) Bad caster angle.
F) Bad steering stabilizer.

 

drop pitman arm? extended shackles?

 

Never had that in my YJ, but had it on my XJ one time and it was quite strange. I hit the brakes a bit and it stopped. I dropped in a Rancho RS5000 steering dampner and it never happened again.

 

You may have bad hub bearing assemblies. Jack the front off of the ground and grab the tires. See if you can wobble them at all. If yes then you have a bad bearing assembly that needs replacing. If not, sorry look for something else. If you don't know if the tire wobles comapre to a second vehicle. Another way to tell is the car will pull hard when you apply the brakes and fast speeds (45+mi/hr). With the 33s its a very good chance you wore out a joint or bearing.

 

Check the balance of your tires. I had it in my YJ, and everyone told me I was crazy to think it's the tires. $200 later, the shop finally said they'd give balancing the tires a try. Guess who was right. Trackbar would cause bumpsteer more than DW. Good luck. It sucks.

 

I had a bad case of it in my ZJ, first are you sure its DW? If so you'll feel like your riding a bull in your Jeep and pretty much loose control untill you drop your speed under 15-20. If so my fix was torquing the crap outta my track bar, getting my tires balenced and getting a new SS.

The SS WILL NOT fix DW it just hides it

 

u may need to balance ur tires.. or when u put ur lift on something is badly worn and the lift just made it worse.. did u hit any massive bumps or go off roading recently?

 

track bar i would say my bros dodge did that

 

Its really a side effect of having a solid front axle. Double wishbone, or independent wheels will eliminate the cause of the problem, which is basically a harmonization problem.

 

i just found my stock dampener for the steering is leaking all over the ground...so i will have to put in my double steering stabilizer kit. I am going to try and get the tires static balanced.

i will also go through and re tighten everything from the lift kit bbecasue i dont want anything loose in there....

thanks

 

i just found my stock dampener for the steering is leaking all over the ground...so i will have to put in my double steering stabilizer kit. I am going to try and get the tires static balanced.

i will also go through and re tighten everything from the lift kit becasue i don't want anything loose in there....

thanks

1) You shouldn't even need a steering damper. If all is right with the rest, there should be nothing to dampen. I have not had one in years. I want it to shake if something is wrong.

2) What considerations did you make for caster angle when doing the SOA? You said 'kit', which is scary.

 

u may need to balance ur tires.. or when u put ur lift on something is badly worn and the lift just made it worse.. did u hit any massive bumps or go off roading recently?

no i didnt hit anything off roading but things may be worn down, my front steering stablizer is toast

 

I had a bad case of it in my ZJ, first are you sure its DW? If so you'll feel like your riding a bull in your Jeep and pretty much loose control untill you drop your speed under 15-20. If so my fix was torquing the crap outta my track bar, getting my tires balenced and getting a new SS.

The SS WILL NOT fix DW it just hides it

it does feel like riding a bull....a really pissed off one....

 

could be a u-joint in the front steering or anywhere

 

death wobs cured

i just cured my jeep of death wobs. it was mainly that the steering dampener was pretty shot, but it was also that various connections between front suspension parts had been wobbled loose, worsening the problem exponentially. chances are if you have death wobble, it's not just one single that that will fix it. i still have a bit of a shimmy at 60mph, nothing too bad tho.

 

holy zombie thread, batman!

 

bottom line ...
any worn suspension part


for me it was the track bar
since then no death wobble

 

Even out of the suspension you can get it from old bad bald tires. When my Wrangler had 56k miles on it and was much much newer I got it from tires. 55-65mph on the freeway a couple of times. Was scared out of my mind. Short story changed the tires NEVER happened again.

 

lol. How does this thread keep coming from the dead? My rhyme for the day.