Allright I've done searches and I've tried all the recommended advice on this subject. But it seems I still haven't found a cure for my death wobble.

Heres my setup:

3" Re coils
Stock LCA's, and trac bars with a RE relocation bracket in the back
Front Lockright
Rear Detroit
No rear sway bar.

All of this on a 2K TJ.

I've had numerous alignments done (different shops, all the specs come out the same 6.5 Deg caster, 1/8" of toe, etc...) I did find I had a bad passenger side hub but replacing that didn't help.

Everything is tight (i.e. front tracbar, lca's, etc..) tires are balanced. So my question is...

Could the front locker be exaggerating the problem??

Could the stock LCA's and trac-bar be just plain wore out enough that with the 32's they can't keep the axle posititoned??

The vehicle has 50K on it and it gets wheeled atleast once a month, usually more.

I've tried everything and am running out of ideas. Some things (like a RE long arm upgrade) are out of the budget right now.

Help me out here.... not every bump causes really bad D/W but the steering wheel shimmy's everytime I hit a bump.

TmbrRtlr

I had a hub locked in on one side and it shook pretty damned bad- but i'm running 38.5 swampers grooved and had a loose ball joint too- its a combination of things- i also went to a daul steering shock its all gone now well most of it- Jess:D

Do you have stock uca's also? 3" shouldn't make much of a difference on your caster but there are always those "unique" cases. Regardless you need to find the cash to get adjustable ca's. lca's preferably, they get beat up more often. just dial them in using trial and error.

I got rid of my DW long ago, so I havn't thought about it in a while but isn't 6.5 degrees a bit too much?

Last thing, when I had stock ca's once I bent the shit out of the uppers (one more than the other) trying to crest a steep ledge, that'll throw off the front end gemotery real bad.

Yeah.. I have stock uppers to. Everything "looks" straight. I'm gonna borrow a set of stock lowers from a buddy and throw em on to see if that helps. My very next purchase is going to be a RE long arm upgrade but it'll be atleast a month or so before that happens so I'm looking for something I can do cheap to get rid of it w/o quitting driving it.

TmbrRtlr

like I said it's been a while since I've thought about this, but aren't there cam bolts on the lca's? I'm assuming you have adjusted them from full front to back or visa-versa...

check the wheel bearing my friend change those and dosen't have dw anymore.

Hey Brain you queer stop usin my damn name to post.

I'm sorry if you ahve a crappy ass XJ that always breaks down.
At least I don't have to get my ass towed 200 miles by a friend and then whom also had to stay up till 4 am driving your ass home because your rig sucks balls. Sorry that you didnt give a shit either. :flipoff2:

3" is usually not enough to cause a nasty case of the DW's. If your toe, caster, wheel balancing, etc. is all OK, then IMO- your problem lies somewhere with the front and/or rear tracbar. Sounds like the tracbar(s) may be loose, or the geometry is off. I would re-torque all of the suspension components to begin with. You may want to also swap out the front tracbar while you are changing the LCA's.

I'm currently running the RE Long Arm kit with 6" springs, 1" BL, 36's, and no DW whatsoever. The LA kit makes the Jeep ride better than stock, which is quite nice since it's my DD as well. If you can find a way to hold out until you upgrade to the LA kit, that is your best bet.

what tires are you running?

also, are you running the stock steering and using the stock track bar? after reading your post again I noticed the last line mentioning the bump steer, you have some geomerty problems somewhere.

Originally posted by TmbrRtlr
Everything is tight (i.e. front tracbar, lca's, etc..) tires are balanced. So my question is...

Could the stock LCA's and trac-bar be just plain wore out enough that with the 32's they can't keep the axle posititoned??


I would replace your bushings on your control arms if ther bad but they should not cause DW. Mine were ripped and had a good 1/8in of play in them and had no DW, alot of noise, no DW.

Tighten:
steering box bolts,
trackbar and trackbar bracket bolts,
re-tighten tie rod ends, drag link

1. have a friend turn the wheels and watch for shifting joints.
2. support the axle on stands, and shacke each tire feal for play in the steering.

The only part of the geometry that could be off is when I redrilled the front trac-bar to center the front axle. But I wouldn't think that would be enough to cause DW.

I've checked both front wheel bearings. Only one was bad so I replaced it. n

I haven't tightened the steering box bolts. Trac-bar and trac-bar bolts are tight. (I've checked them multiple times as I've had DW caused by that before) I haven't checked the TRE and draglink bolts lately. And I'll retorque the ball joints but I had DW before I did anything with that stuff.

Also I have my cam bolts adjusted to the front (max caster) and have installed 2 deg offset upper ball joints.

I'm gonna tear into it tomorrow and see what I can find. I don't want to replace the bushings in the arms just yet cuz the arms are in bad shape.

TmbrRtlr

You still may have play in the track bar with the bolts tight....
The bushings may be worn...
I believe energy syspension makes replacement poly track bar bushings for about $10

Lay under the front of your jeep and have a buddy go Ape shit rocking it side to side as hard as he can while you look for ANY movement in the front end components...

Off-center track bar doesn't cause DW.
Stock LCA's at 3" lift does.
I don't know why, less isn't a problem, and more isn't a problem, but I keep seeing DW time and time again at 3" lift with stock arms, and swapping the LCA's always fixed it.
Granted, you might find a loose ujoint here, motor mount there, off-center track bar, alignment, whatever.
But it usually comes down to stock LCA's and their rubber bushings.
Been there, done that. :flipoff2:

Slag--

That's what I was afraid of... LOL.. not that I want to keep the stock stuff, just I don't have the $$ in the budget right now to get the long arm upgrade. And I'm not going to do short arms just to upgrade to long later. Eh.. I suppose though.. I gotta spend the $$ sooner or later, may was well bite the bullet. Hmmm.. or maybe I can just make some longer arms from stuff from work... square tube works for arms right?? :flipoff2: :flipoff2:

If not I can probably price out the DOM for the job...

TmbrRtlr

Originally posted by Slagburn
Off-center track bar doesn't cause DW.
Stock LCA's at 3" lift does.
I don't know why, less isn't a problem, and more isn't a problem, but I keep seeing DW time and time again at 3" lift with stock arms, and swapping the LCA's always fixed it.
Granted, you might find a loose ujoint here, motor mount there, off-center track bar, alignment, whatever.
But it usually comes down to stock LCA's and their rubber bushings.
Been there, done that. :flipoff2:

I had 3" RE springs, with all stock components and no other adjustments. No death wobble at any speed and I could hit every bump. I'll bet my left nut it's your trackbar. Sometimes it is very hard to see the play in it, but that's my educated guess from working with other death wobble cases.

It seems that the one variable that you have that no one else has mentioned is the offset ball joints. I've never had them and would assume that most of us trying to help have neither, could be wrong. Why did you decide to go with the offset joints? :confused:

think P T is onto something with the offset ball joint. here a link to a good article on Bump steer and DW.
http://www.naxja.org/html/techarticles/bumpsteertech.htm
I suspect you have a combination of things but mainly too much Caster.

I've had the DW on my TJ one to many times. I found that the big culprits are either wrong front castor (solution: get adjustable lower links), slopy front trac bar (I just put on an RE), messed up toe-in/out (align it), wheel out of ballance (this one happens often), and finnaly, and one you might look into, slightly warped disk brake rotors ( solution, get em turned for $40).

My stock front rotors were really warped and I got the DW all the time till I turned em. I eventually got some aftermarket rotors and they seam to last way longer. I think they can handle heat better than the stock ones. Sounds like you've tried nearly everything else...

Hope it helps!

The reason I installed the offset ball joints was with the stock arms and cambolts turned to max caster I only had 4.5deg. of caster. Installed 2deg offset ball joints, so I now have 6.5deg. caster.

I fixed my "sloppy" trac bar tonight. Welded some 3/8" washers over the holes and used a 3/8" bolt instead of the metric crap that's supplied. Much tighter fit now, didn't help any.

I've had the tires balanced many times to no avail. and I just did front brakes and had the rotors turned at that time.

So this brings me down to the bumpsteer question. After reading that article (thanks Loafter), I may end up having to play with my draglink length and such to see if I can't get things to jive up front.

if none of that helps, maybe I will just trade the darn thing in on a Rubicon hehehe...

Arrgh... so much for a TJ being a reliable daily driver heheh

TmbrRtlr

I assume you had the DW w/ the 4.5 degree caster? Have you tried to turn those cam bolts back since the new ball joints? Just try different combinations, every application is a bit different, it's not quite as much of a sicence as we'd like to think.

I know you have but look hard for any raw metal wear on the front end componets? that should give you an indicator of what might be moving around on you.

all BS aside, I'll bet a bunch it is you caster setting...

Allright.. believe it or not after checking it again and again and trying different things I gave the tie rod 1 turn tighter tonight and bingo no DW. I had tried it at 0, 1/8" , 1/4" in etc... lastly it was at 1/8". Being frustrated tonight I grabbed the wrench and gave it 1 good turn and went for a spin over the bumps I know would cause it. Nothing... more rough blacktop roads at 50mph, nothing... seems it's good for now. Sometimes it's the simple things. Well... thanks for the help and the ideas. atleast now I have something to look back on if/when this happens again.

Still gonna order the long arm upgrade and a new front trac-bar but I dont' have to hurry on that stuff now.

TmbrRtlr

Glad you found your problem. Thanks for the letting us know the outcome.