I have a toyota on 4 inch TJ coils front and rear, has a HORRIBLE death wobble when it hits bumps.
When I first finished the suspension swap the wobble was there. The funny thing was when I set the castor to 12 degrees or more the wrong way, it was ok to drive and rarely wobbled, but of course the castor was horribley wrong. The trac bar had worn bushings so I replaced it and set the castor correctly. I set the drag link and trac bar almost perfectly parallel. The wobble changed from a constant thing to only when I hit bumps, but it got much, much worse when it was there.
So now I have the castor set at 5 degrees, the drag link and trac bar are parallel, there is no play at all in the trac bar, axle is locately perfectly the same on both sides. Steering arm bolts and steering box bolts are all very tight. Wheel bearing bolt is tight.
Problems I'm wondering about:
I'm using heim joints for ends on steering arm side of drag link and on both ends of tie rod (but I have 2 friends who are using same heims in steering and have no problem).
Drag link angle is extreme, 15 degrees.
I'm on the verge of buying Kongs high steer, but I'm hoping some coiled guys here have some suggestions for me, I'm at my wit's end.

a steering stabalizer wiill work wounders.. try a different set of wheels and tires off a friends rig

Ah yes, bump steer. First step is like 2stroke said, try it you might like it. You say the drag link and track bar are parallel but where the track bar is located in reference to the drag is important as well as the length. It sounds like you have a compound issue with castor and steering geometry. What do you mean by "12 degrees or more the wrong way". If you are saying that it gets better by turning the axle 12 degrees (pinion up) forward, I would guess that your steering geometry changed radicaly which might indicate that you have a problem with your link arm geometry too.

What type of link setup are you running and how/where are the located?

Details man, details.

Steering stabalizer masked the problem slightly, but did not solve, wobble was still there in full force.
Trac bar is located above the axle about 4 inches higher than the drag link, which is something I was wondering about too.


Originally posted by Ramstein
If you are saying that it gets better by turning the axle 12 degrees (pinion up) forward, I would guess that your steering geometry changed radicaly which might indicate that you have a problem with your link arm geometry too.


Yes, 12 degrees forward, and what you said is exactly what I was thinking.

My links are set up kind of like radius arms or rubicon's long arm kit for jeeps, but with heims at all points. 49 inch lowers going to frame, with about 15 inch uppers from axle to lowers. Axle is located EXACTLY 39.5 inches from rear of crossmember, messured from both sides........many times. I have pics of the front if someone wants to post for me.

Originally posted by Aaron29
Steering stabalizer masked the problem slightly, but did not solve, wobble was still there in full force.
Trac bar is located above the axle about 4 inches higher than the drag link, which is something I was wondering about too.




Yes, 12 degrees forward, and what you said is exactly what I was thinking.

My links are set up kind of like radius arms or rubicon's long arm kit for jeeps, but with heims at all points. 49 inch lowers going to frame, with about 15 inch uppers from axle to lowers. Axle is located EXACTLY 39.5 inches from rear of crossmember, messured from both sides........many times. I have pics of the front if someone wants to post for me.


Shoot me the pics. ramstein@pirate4x4.com

There is a huge amount of info on the "death wobble" on this site, so do a search.

Basically the death wobble is the front wheels oscillating and there are a lot of things that influence it both positively and negatively.

Promoting factors:
1) Cumulative play in any component that locates the wheel. This is anything from wheel bearings to spring bushings and from the steering box to the tie rod ends.
2) Excess toe in (or toe out)
3) Bump steer (bad drag link angle)

Inhibiting factors:
1) more caster (farther away from zero, either positive or negative) tends to make the wheel self center. 12 degrees is on the overkill side.
2) Steering dampener can decrease the tendency but won't eliminate it without fixing the promoting factors.

3) in the way of bumpsteer Id say parell links is most important, then equal length links track and drag, then orientation like track bar is 6in more to the DS then the drag link. The orientation I dont think would be a big concern at all. If the drag and tie are equal length and parell I dont think bumpsteer is possable.

DW sucks,

makes leafs look good huu.

Well today I re-torqued the wheel bearing bolts down to specs, checked tightness of steering arms and moved the rear tires to the front with no result at all.
I'm on the verge of buying a steering kit and praying it works.

Talk to Mark Mason (Owner) at kongs 4x4 and see if he has any experience with this. His Toy is running coils up front. If nothing else, he may be able to tell you wether or not buying a pre-fab hysteer kit will help. It's worth a shot...

great idea, thanks