my death wobble trouble shooting plan

[KC0GFG]

Hello all! well I finally got around to installing my rough country 4" lift on my 90 pioneer and low and behold I have death wobble.

 

so far I've had an alignment done and that seemed to help it out a little bit but the death wobble still occurs it just takes a larger bump to get it going. Next up on the agenda is all the tie rod ends regardless of if they are needed or not we are talking about a 35 year old truck here so I'm going to lay out my plan of attack and update after each step on if it was the fix or not

 

**1: pull caster shims $0, should decrease caster angle (currently +9 if I'm reading the alignment results right) = update I got the caster shims pulled result was no fix. Hard to say how much the caster angle changed as I I didn't see much difference in my before and after measure meant useing a magnetic angle finder

 

**2: tie rod ends $70 for all 4 ( likely cause and they are old might as well )= update: well of the 4 parts I received from the parts store only 1 was correct passenger side tie rod got changed results are inconclusive as I also installed a rough country's tearing stabalizer at the same time and as of now the death wobble is not present (once I get the rest of the tiered ends and drag link replaced I'll do a test run with either the old stabelizer or no stabelizer installed)

 

3: adjustable track bar and drop pitman arm $170ish ( will center the axel; not number 1 because track bar is new as of 4 months ago)= pending

 

4: adjustable upper control arms $180ish ( will provide finer caster adjustment)= pending

 

personally my money is on either the tie rods or the caster angle.

I also have a new steering stabilizer on order but the popular opinion is that's just a band aid not a fix.

why not lower control arms you ask? because the lift kit came with extended lower control arms.

why this order? because that's the order I can afford do it in.

why don't you balance the wheels? because the problem did not exist before the lift.

[Eagle]

How can you have 9 degrees of caster if you had an alignment done? That's way out of spec.

(Although positive caster should help prevent death wobble, not cause it.)

 

2: tie rod ends $70 for all 4 ( likely cause and they are old might as well )= pending

Tie rod ends cannot cause death wobble. New ones can (maybe) mask death wobble to an extent, but sloppy ones cannot cause death wobble.

[KC0GFG]

How can you have 9 degrees of caster if you had an alignment done? That's way out of spec.

(Although positive caster should help prevent death wobble, not cause it.)

 

2: tie rod ends $70 for all 4 ( likely cause and they are old might as well )= pending

Tie rod ends cannot cause death wobble. New ones can (maybe) mask death wobble to an extent, but sloppy ones cannot cause death wobble.

 

 

because the shop I went to didn't know how to adjust it ( they don't get many old jeeps) and I didn't either until I researched it more.

[Eagle]

because the shop I went to didn't know how to adjust it ( they don't get many old jeeps) and I didn't either until I researched it more.

But they charged you for a complete alignment? IMHO that's fraud.

 

The same method applies to all Cherokees through 2001, and to Grand Cherokees at least through 1998 (I don't recall about the WJs). There are hundreds of thousands of those vehicles on the road. An alignment shop that doesn't know how to align them shouldn't be allowed to have a repair license.

[Akula69]

In all my DW cases it has been a combination of:

 

1) Out-of balance or out of alignment tires

2) Some problem with the track bar including

     a. Not tight at top mount - either mount to frame or bar to mount

     b. Worn or rounded out top mount hole 

     c. worn or destroyed ball joint at top end (frame side).

     d. worn or loose bushing at lower end (axle side)

     e. loose bolt at lower end

 

If the track bar is new (4 mths ago) my bet would be loose or defective. We actually had to put a lock washer on the bottom end of my son's bar after replacing a defective one (the ball joint was bad).

[KC0GFG]

Finally got some time to do some fixes, see original for updated results indicated by **

[shelbyluvv]

Remove the steering stabilizer and fix the death wobble. The only thing it is doing is hiding the problem.

[Eagle]

Remove the steering stabilizer and fix the death wobble. The only thing it is doing is hiding the problem.

Agreed.

 

As for caster angle:

 

1. It's almost impossible for MORE positive caster to cause death wobble. Increasing caster (within specs) usually helps.

 

2. Adding a 4" lift would decrease caster, not increase it. If you had 9 degrees after the lift, your caster was probably already out of spec before the lift.