Still having death wobble issues

[Cooper Smith]

Can’t say with no visual-

First tighten the bolts- don’t just throw parts at it.

Don’t go crazy with the wrench, the upper front stock bolts aren’t that big-

But they have to be properly torqued.

If they are clevites, the rubber may be so far gone it doesn’t matter.

They’re all still torqued. I can’t send videos but I’ll try and show with pictures.

 

[Cooper Smith]

Can’t say with no visual-

First tighten the bolts- don’t just throw parts at it.

Don’t go crazy with the wrench, the upper front stock bolts aren’t that big-

But they have to be properly torqued.

If they are clevites, the rubber may be so far gone it doesn’t matter.

 

[Cooper Smith]

They’re all still torqued. I can’t send videos but I’ll try and show with pictures.

 

[B1Toad]

On top of all this sadly most people are ignoring the two most important bushings aside from the track bar and that is the upper front control arm bushings and the mount on the passenger side- I don’t know how many of these I see that have 14 new control arm bushings and the upper front or 20+ years old and when they hit a hard bump they are starting to get death wobble.

Why do they get neglected, are they that difficult?

 

[AndyG]

Why do they get neglected, are they that difficult?

Yes- They are pressed into the axle….the drivers side is a bear to remove and the passenger side mount is easy to damage as you remove the bushing.

- All the other bushings are pressed into the actual control arms so they either get chunked when owners do new arms …and stock owners can get stock type arms with new bushings pressed in for a song.

In any control arm replacement scenario you don’t get new front upper bushings automatically. You have to make it happen.

The most common scenario is the vehicle will have 14 new bushings and the two critical ones at the front are 20+ years old-

My LJR had an absolute phenomenal array of parts under it…off hand I’d say 20,000- 25,000 dollar build …and still the old upper fronts. 53,000 miles and had to trailer it home. It drove awful.

The key for a great build is to do a stronger passenger side mount as well as new bushings- the LJR is amazing, was never dialed in completely.

I recently helped a seasoned LJR owner with a new MetalCloak lift do the front uppers and a beefed up passenger side mount - he said the 2 front uppers did more good to his steering than the other 14 he just replaced.

They really have a huge affect on steering.

 

[Rickyd]

Jeeps, and many others (ford, Chevy, etc) really only started putting them on vehicles mid to late ‘70’s… DW really wasn’t as big a deal with the leaf springs as it is in coil setups. Coil setups have way more points of failures that will be exploited by tires that are bad. (Balance, out of round, separated belts, etc). DW cause is always tires. Trigger is a bump. Effect is the opposite tires oscillating and jerking the front end all over the road.

what the damper does, it it attempts to absorb the oscillation before it really becomes apparent.

I always heard that the stabilizer was there to keep the wheel from breaking your thumb when hitting a ditch,etc by slowing it down? I've never attributed it to helping death wobble

 

[Rickyd]

To the O.P.- balancing is only half of the story with tire issues. Bent rims and out of round tires are just as important. You need to watch them while they spin to find that. And no,the tire jockeys usually don't give a crap about that

 

[Cooper Smith]

To the O.P.- balancing is only half of the story with tire issues. Bent rims and out of round tires are just as important. You need to watch them while they spin to find that. And no,the tire jockeys usually don't give a crap about that

I’m getting new tires. The ones I have are fairly oxidized and I wouldn’t be surprised if they had a flat spot here and there and have broke/fucked belts.

 

[Cooper Smith]

So I’ve moved both tires that have wheel weights to the front. The DW is a lot seemingly better but still apparent, so it’s looking like tires are the issue here. I have discount tire putting new Goodyears on tomorrow morning.

 

[Jerry Bransford]

So I’ve moved both tires that have wheel weights to the front. The DW is a lot seemingly better but still apparent, so it’s looking like tires are the issue here. I have discount tire putting new Goodyears on tomorrow morning.

Get with the guy who does your tire mounting & balancing, tell him there's a $20 in it for him after your test drive if he can get the tires perfectly balanced. Tell him the reason for that is you're fighting Death Wobble and perfection on the tire balance is what might be needed to cure it. That has worked for me several times over the years. Tire shops don't often give the guy balancing tires enough time to really get them well balanced so a little incentive for him might go a long way.

 

[Cooper Smith]

Thank you

Get with the guy who does your tire mounting & balancing, tell him there's a $20 in it for him after your test drive if he can get the tires perfectly balanced. Tell him the reason for that is you're fighting Death Wobble and perfection on the tire balance is what might be needed to cure it. That has worked for me several times over the years. Tire shops don't often give the guy balancing tires enough time to really get them well balanced so a little incentive for him might go a long way

Get with the guy who does your tire mounting & balancing, tell him there's a $20 in it for him after your test drive if he can get the tires perfectly balanced. Tell him the reason for that is you're fighting Death Wobble and perfection on the tire balance is what might be needed to cure it. That has worked for me several times over the years. Tire shops don't often give the guy balancing tires enough time to really get them well balanced so a little incentive for him might go a long way.

Thanks Jerry. Helpful as always.

 

[AndyG]

Get with the guy who does your tire mounting & balancing, tell him there's a $20 in it for him after your test drive if he can get the tires perfectly balanced. Tell him the reason for that is you're fighting Death Wobble and perfection on the tire balance is what might be needed to cure it. That has worked for me several times over the years. Tire shops don't often give the guy balancing tires enough time to really get them well balanced so a little incentive for him might go a long way.

Then tell him that came from Jerry Bransford, and he’s lucky..... you’ll be glad to take payments.

 

[Cooper Smith]

Hey guys. Got my tires balanced and mounted. SO FAR: no wobbles or shimmies. Have been on the highway at 65 and hit some bumps. Good so far.

 

[tr21triton]

Boy you would think Jerry almost knows what he's talking about !

 

[Cooper Smith]

Boy you would think Jerry almost knows what he's talking about !

Never doubted it.

 

[AndyG]

Boy you would think Jerry almost knows what he's talking about !

I love it when people get on here and try to school him- Sort of like trying to give Elvis singing lessons.

 

[Cooper Smith]

Hey guys. Got my tires balanced and mounted. SO FAR: no wobbles or shimmies. Have been on the highway at 65 and hit some bumps. Good so far.

I should mention- the kid who did my balancing pulled the date code off my old tires on the stock wheels. They were from 2011, making a good amount of sense as to why they didn’t fare well unbalanced on a 2” lift.

 

[Terry from Texas]

I had a bad wobble... New wheels and tires.... Balanced and road forced them personally.... Fixed it perfectly.

 

[Hokahay]

I had a bad wabble... New wheels and tires.... Balanced and road forced them personally.... Fixed it perfectly.

I had a little wobble starting at 62 mph back in july 2015. Jeep was sporting a new HP30, 3" savvy lift, BBK, 1" body lift, TT and so on. Balance - no change. New tires another set of 33" MT/Rs and balance - no change. Some colorful language. Finally i decided to swap out the chinese ProComp steelies for some nice forged aluminum american made Centerlines ( I think 275 bucks apiece for 5) Balanced.

I left the tire shop headed home 10 miles on freeway. It was like she was running on rails. Hands free perfect at 70 MPH. I called the tire shop before i even made it home to report the success.

Eventually sold those crappy procomp wheels to a YJ owner I met in a restaurant for $20 each. I even told him my story and said they sucked. He Still wanted them.

I put a new set of KO2s on a couple weeks ago. Gave the jeep the 70MPH test to check balance and suspension. Ran straight down the freeway like 8 years ago.

 

[tr21triton]

Hey guys. Got my tires balanced and mounted. SO FAR: no wobbles or shimmies. Have been on the highway at 65 and hit some bumps. Good so far.

Now go and replace that steering stabilizer to prevent it from happening again