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death shake

X

XJdawg

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Fla
Hey Yall.....I got a 2000 XJ with 31's lifted 3 inches with rear shakles and front springs and spacers.At about 38 mph shearing wheel starts to shake or when i hit a bump like a pot hole or somthing.Anyone else have this problem...and if so what did you do to resolve it..any sugeations would be helpful thanks...XJdawg
 
hydrolic ram attached to your axle and tierod that helps with steering. But a 200 psi ram isnt going to let the death wobble happen, basically what you need to check is: tires being balanced, Trackbar being tight and correct length, control arm bushings, ball joints on the hubs, tierod, drag link, any thing that looks worn replace it, also check the steering shaft. hope some of that helps
 
you don't need hydro-assist to fix death wobble. It may cover it up for a while, but it will wear other joints and bushings and will come back worse.....but Chris is right about the rest. Make sure your tires are balanced first and the check for any worn parts. If you have stock lca's you shoud either replace the whole arms or at least the bushings, check all tre's and your track bar.
 
TheBlackSheep said:
hydrolic ram attached to your axle and tierod that helps with steering. But a 200 psi ram isnt going to let the death wobble happen, basically what you need to check is: tires being balanced, Trackbar being tight and correct length, control arm bushings, ball joints on the hubs, tierod, drag link, any thing that looks worn replace it, also check the steering shaft. hope some of that helps
Click to expand...



You are horribly wrong with the statement that a hydraulic ram will stop you from getting death wobble.

And for the thread, you need to make sure your trac bar is tight. even 1/32nd of an inch will throw stuff off... do a search for death wobble on the boards, you will come up with lots of info.

Tire balancing may cause a little shimmy which can lead to DW.
 
TheBlackSheep said:
hydrolic ram attached to your axle and tierod that helps with steering. But a 200 psi ram isnt going to let the death wobble happen, basically what you need to check is: tires being balanced, Trackbar being tight and correct length, control arm bushings, ball joints on the hubs, tierod, drag link, any thing that looks worn replace it, also check the steering shaft. hope some of that helps
Click to expand...

You got alot of learning to do if you think a hydro ram is going to fix your wabbles.
 
rredalty said:
You got alot of learning to do if you think a hydro ram is going to fix your wabbles.
Click to expand...
Um ok? anyway that wont correct the whole problem but with my front D44 i have in my driveway, with new everything, i am not going to pour money into my weak D30 to just discard it soon. So since i have hydro assist waiting for me ill put it in now so i dont have to swap that later when i do the axle swap. So i hope that clarifys for anyone who think im full of it. it wont work for everyone but as for me it will fix it for a few weeks, until i can finish fabbing on my D44 for the swap. Correction: The Ram is not going to fix all my problems but for my needs right now it will work. Sorry about the confusion
 
Out of balance can cause it....but harder to detect is OUT OF ROUND....an out of round tire/wheel assembly can be balanced....but it will still be out of round....been there...have the t-shirt.
 
make sure you are using the correct track bar or a trackbar bracket for your lift, then your tie rod ends.... basically what you are looking for is any sort of play in the steering and track bar systems, i had a light shake at highway speeds so i aligned my tires replaced the tre's on my tierod and replaced my trackbar.... then found that the last little bit of wobble was due to a steering box flex at the frame.... after i installed the c-rok inner and outer plates the heep drives like a car at 75 mph and theres no wobble at any speed


i forgot to ask xjdawg what kind of tires are you running because a cupped MT tire will wobble like crazy
 
Everything that doug mentioned, and also check your u-joints. I had a terrible shaking, only when slowing down, at about 20 mph and it turned out to be a broken u-joint. The FIRST thing I would do is add a trackbar drop bracket, followed by tie rod ends at a close second. And the bronze would probably go to check ball joints.
 
jbmoose said:
Everything that doug mentioned, and also check your u-joints. I had a terrible shaking, only when slowing down, at about 20 mph and it turned out to be a broken u-joint. The FIRST thing I would do is add a trackbar drop bracket, followed by tie rod ends at a close second. And the bronze would probably go to check ball joints.
Click to expand...

The track bar bracket may not be needed on 3 inches. I run 3 inches and tried to use one and it put the axle at a worse position. I now run a stock track bar with no bracket and the axle sits perfectly centered.
 
Jess said:
The track bar bracket may not be needed on 3 inches. I run 3 inches and tried to use one and it put the axle at a worse position. I now run a stock track bar with no bracket and the axle sits perfectly centered.
Click to expand...
You are correct. I've seen guys with 4 inch susp. lifts with no t-case drop or trackbar bracket and they have no complaints. In my case, I run both. Just remember, these heeps are unibodies and, oh yeah, made by Chysler :D
 
I am having fits with my '01, also with a 3" lift. I have rotated/balanced/aligned my 31s, upgraded my tie rod, upgraded my steering damper, and added a HD adjustable track bar ... still have the DW. I am curious what effect the unibody frame has on this phenomenon ... any experience with adding some kind of crossmember?
 
PROBLEM SOLVED!!

After the following mods, I have found the solution:

1. Rotated/Balanced/Aligned Tires to lift specs.
2. Replaced OE Tie Rod with heavy-duty TR
3. Replaced OE Track Bar with heavy-duty, adjustable TB

Still had death wobble (at high speeds 50+ mph) after running over the outrageous bumps on the local Arkansas roads and highways

*Discovered the control arm angles, even with a modest lift, tilt the forward part of the lower arm to where it is pointed at the road surface, thus taking the full impact, rather than flexing "up" as it would if it were otherwise level with the road.

The OE arms are (surprise) pretty flimsy. So I replaced them all (upper and lowers) with heavier, adjustable control arms. The ride is much better, basically now that I have an entirely new front end.

Death wobble can result from a number of things, but this is my experience. Hope this helps some of you guys that have floundered in your efforts to identify this troublesome issue.

I answered my own question on the same topic here also: http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?p=243345106#post243345106
 
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