What could still be causing my wobble?

[jpnjim]

Toe in can definatly contribute to death wobble, but so can too many fat chicks, er.. I mean camping stuff

I just set mine with a tape measure, trying to match the measure between the ft of the ft rim's edges, to the rear of the ft rim's edges.
If your more comfortable with having an alignment shop do it, atleast check/try to set it yourself first.

DW usually involves some loose component in your steering (or even a ball joint), but not always. Lots of guys have cured it with a new stock steering stabilizer, but I have a 15 year old, worn out stabilizer on my 6" MJ, and have never had DW.
My gf's stock ZJ had death wobble 4, or 5 times while I drove it, but it hasn't done it for over a year (I added 2" Rancho coils, replaced the sway links when they broke, and changed the tires... don't know if any of those did the trick).

Make sure your trac-bar bracket bolts are tight, check all your tie rod ends for up/down slop (check your track bar for slop, even though it's new), and see if your steering stabilizer is weeping fluid.
Jack up your axle, and check for any balljoint movement. Give each wheel a good shake, while it's jacked up.
Did you notice if your lower trac-bar mounting hole elongated at all when you took the stock one off?
I'm sure others will add some more causes, but these are the only ones that come to mind right now.
Good luck'
Jimmy

[xjaddiction]

In my opinion, you've adj. the caster the wrong way. Stock is 5.3 to 8.0. You need to be in the lower range. When I was at 5.5"s of lift, I ran the caster at 2.5 degrees (you prob don't need it that low, Tereflex suggested this caster. It got rid of my DW for the time being). Did you get the tires balanced? Try rotating the tires if you don't want to balance them.

When you want to get serious about getting rid of DW, get the RE drop brackets. I've had mine for over a year with absolutely no hint of DW. I've had DW many times(at ; 3"s of lift, 4.5"s, 5.5's, 7.5"s and 9.5"s.), I hate feeling like crapping my pants when I'm runnin' 70 on the interstate. I've tried all the remedies, they work for a while, but as soon as something gets outa wack... DW!! With the drop brackets, I've had loose track bar, bad tires, bad balance, bad allignment etc... NO DW!! Lets face it, with off-road diving, the balance and allignment aren't going to be perfect all the time. Why be afraid of every bump in the road?


Good Luck, DW Sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Greddy

[Texan]

When I lifted to 6", I had the rear shocks dico'd for a couple of days. Even with the front end being tight and aligned, I had some scary ass DW at even very low speeds. Point is, pretty much anything out of whack with driveline can cause DW.

I'm not speaking from experience, just speculating as to the cause, but I would dry setting your caster to stock and then adjusting in very small increments. My caster has never been adjusted and DW is not a prob.

Good Luck!

[TPJC-XJ]

Check your track bar drop bracket, I sheared mine and didnt know about it until I took it to the JEEP dealer...Mine would death wobble so bad I would have to pull off the road and stop...just a possibility.

[Deej]

If you havent checked your toe in yet thats definately your problem.

My Jeep was doin the death wobble with the combination of a left hand curve at 62 km/h and hitting a bump with a rear tire.

Turned out I replaced a tie rod on the trail a couple weeks before and completely forgot to readjust the stock tie rod for my lifted Jeep. Oops, that equates to about 2" of toe in.

Now that I have my toe in set for 1/16" it drives fine, even though I have about a hundred things wrong that should be causing death wobble.
I've got loose Johnny joints, shot upper control arm bushings, no steering stabilizer, no swaybars, worn out rear spring bushings, beat to death track bar bushing, and one rear shock thats not connected, just zap strapped to the axle to keep it from dragging on the ground but it drives fine aside from a little (okay a lot) of noise now that I have the toe-in correct.

My theory is tire scrub, due to now incorrect ackerman angle, with that much toe in it drove pretty straight, but on the turn the tires hit a point in the turn where they were parralel, and the inside tire was forced to scrub, or rather bounce, and once the tire bounced it was all over, all the slop in the components were forced one way, and then reacted badly and bounced back.

Stick your head out the window when this happens, you wont believe how much your wheels seem to be turning back and forth considering theres no steering input.

[NCxj]

Well i just got done with my battle. It was the toe...it was off more than 1" so i just fixed that and it went away. The drivelines
have nothign to do with DW. Check ur bolts on everything up front...thats what we did and my trac-bar was loose....and then the toe was off other than that its gone. I get a lil shimmy once in awhile (brings back the feeling) but its alot better than the old time. I dont see how ppl drive around with DW sometimes. I think i almost went crazy and scaried.

[notmyxjinaz]

I'm at 4.5" to 5" w/ RE adj. CA's and JKS adj. Trackbar and it wobbles like crazy when I hit the right kind or right series of bumps in the road - speed does not matter it just changes the harshness of the wobble.

I've adjusted my caster back to around 6deg and it hasn't gotten any better - I was at 4.5deg. I don't really want to increase my pinion angle any more as it will start to vibe.

I'm checking my toe-in tonight but I don't know how much that can contribute to the wobble.

This is getting really annoying. Any input is greatly appreciated. Is there anyone local to PHX that would be willing to help me diagnose this and correct it? That would be a big help. Thanks!

[notmyxjinaz]

Thank you all for the responses. I didn't get a chance to check my toe-in last night but will be sure to do so tonight. I know it's not right where it should be so hopefully that's the culprit. I've double tightened everything and xjaddiction is the first that's ever told me caster should be lower than stock - everyone else has indicated somewhere between 5 and 7 degrees.

Fortunately the DW seems to go away at higher speeds. It's the mid-range speeds that it's the worst after the right bump and it usually carries on for a block or so.

I'll get to that toe-in tonight and let you all know if that did it. Thanks!

Yeah - fat chicks can definitely contribute to DW! People really do read my posts!

[notmyxjinaz]

Well, my toe-in was about 1" off. I've got it at about 1/4" in now and that helped significantly - but - I'm still getting the wobble. I guess I'm wondering if I've correctly measured my caster angle. It's seems to me that you measure the verticle line between the steering knuckle centers.....?

[Tornado97TJ]

Try 0. Works for me. I've even seen a few that had to be toed out slightly.