Death wabble here we go.

[rockclimber]

Its another way they can get out of a warranty.

they had no problem honoring the warranty and doing a complete rebuild +shipping both ways when it developed a small dead spot from the sector shaft bearing being too tight. all they needed was me saying "yes I run a stabilizer".

And what does a solid axle have to do with anything?

IFS steering systems do not work the same way solid axle systems.

most IFS stuff uses a rack and pinion which is pretty much its own stabilizer.

I don't think I have ever seen a solid axle rig without a stabilzer. I haven't seen them all though. even the TTB fords came with stabilizers.

 

[Devilfrog]

With larger than stock tires the measure ment for toe gets incrementaly larger. The degree of toe will be the same for stock size tires and 35s but they will measure different with tape. 1/8" toe on a stock size tire will measure about 9/16-3/4 on 35s if you just swap tires and check again. The degree will be the same but larger measurment is needed with larger tires. 1/2" should be right with 33s. Not trying to start a pissing match. Just dont want bad info floating around.

Nope, no pissing matches required, everyone just gets wet.
Just passing my experiences is all, I run 35's and use 1/16" as a toe setting at the tire edge. I actually had 3/8" at one time and was creating a very twitchy condition, excess wobble and further tire wear. Once I reset toe to 1/16" the wobble went away, and steering was predictable again. I drive my XJ to work and back once a week (258km round trip). I fought DW for months, before getting it sorted out.

 

[techno1154]

Nope, no pissing matches required, everyone just gets wet.
Just passing my experiences is all, I run 35's and use 1/16" as a toe setting at the tire edge. I actually had 3/8" at one time and was creating a very twitchy condition, excess wobble and further tire wear. Once I reset toe to 1/16" the wobble went away, and steering was predictable again. I drive my XJ to work and back once a week (258km round trip). I fought DW for months, before getting it sorted out.

What did you do to get rid of the death wobble?

 

[Boss Cherokee]

Its another way they can get out of a warranty. And what does a solid axle have to do with anything?

Thanks Rock but I got this one!
Wow with that testimony the off road world is saved from spending any more green backs on worthless stabilizers! Why where stabilizers ever put on solid axle vehicles at all is beyond me! Geez those damn engineers must have gone in cahoots with the vehicle designers and dana axle company to rip us off all those years! Dogone it I am going to pull mine off tonight and send one to Ford and the other to Rancho and tell them I don't need it! Especially on a vehicle that when it hits a good enough size rock at a descent speed off road will steer perfectly over it as if I had a high dollar race steering set up. Oh when I break a couple fingers from having an open steering I'll send you a pic!
I looked at my 70 Scout and it has a factory stabilizer, no wonder they stopped making pick ups and suv's. Those over priced, not needed, extra weight boogers broke I. H.
While I'm at it I should remove the one on my 3 axle Kenworth because they real don't know what they are doing!
Oh and I just looked at my wife's stock 99 XJ 2wd yes 2wd and her's has a factory one. I'm going to take that one off too but I have to wait till she's not looking, she may think I'm trying to kill her! SSShhhhh!

 

[Boss Cherokee]

Sorry just trying to make a point!
Freeway expansion joints, a/c concrete joints, concrete cracks!, bigger stock tires are all reasons for stabilizers introduced in the design of the 4wd vehicles by manufacturers. Now for after market concerns! Lifts changing steering angles, not to mention even bigger tires, faster off road speeds, freeway expansion joints, a/c concrete joints, concrete cracks.
If stabilizers did not HELP some vehicles if not all vehicles in steering support, which was designed by engineers, then why should we go bigger on our steering components? Is that not over engineering as well? If you ever owned a VW bug you would know if you pulled the steering stabilizer (dampener) or it was leaking, almost certainly you would get death wobble. Why? It's a stock vehicle! Why does D/W stop when it is reinstalled? Are these magic grits (My Cousin Vinny movie quote) I mean magic stabilizers!

 

[Devilfrog]

What did you do to get rid of the death wobble?

New control arm bushings, 3/4" heim Tracbar, extra gussets on the Tracbar mounts, replaced the PS gearbox, and added a brace to the Tracbar mount. Then about once a week I did a suspension alignment, trying get caster, and toe dialed in (the toe setting had a dramatic effect on DW).
Everything in my suspension was replaced by the end. Ball joints, TRE's, springs, shocks, link ends (have a 3 link that uses all RE large joints on all the links upper and lower). The steering box also made a vast improvement, as did reinforcing the Tracbar bracket as it was actually twisting under road force, but not in the driveway.

 

[ftwelder]

Anyone ever see a pitman arm jump splines? I had to use a puller and hammer to get it off the stock box and the nut did feel to be at the right torque. It didn't pop or move turning the wheel back and forth even with the knuckles locked in place. but it would seem a bump would get it to jump.

The girlfriend made a comment and it got me thinking and i went back to take a closer look at the videos i took of the steering. You could see that something was a little off when looking at the arm after the wobble started. It was so miner that i didn't notice before. Looking at the videos with the new box it looked the same way.

So i went Under the Jeep and pulled the tight nut off and i could pull the arm off with the puller just turning the socket by hand. You could see the splines looked rounded a bit but over all didn't look bad. So i stuck some tin foil on the splines and jammed it back on to give it a test run. SOB was 100 times better. I still have a little DW but its not going to kill people in another state like it could before. I really think that's just due to the last caster setting i wanted to try of 1*. So going back to 6.5 or so should fix everything.

Never seen a arm become a ware item before. Thats going into the notes.
Just wanted to thank everyone for the help.

That is interesting. Was it a stock pitman arm? was there still a washer under the nut?

 

[yossarian19]

I don't think I've ever had or heard of a pitman arm jumping splines but I definitely have had sloppy steering owing to a loose pitman nut. Same as you, I've twice had the experience of a pitman nut backing off to hand-tight. The torque spec is 180 ft-lbs, roughly half the spec for a 7/8" diameter (pitman thread diameter) bolt. That's why the lock nut is there; the torque isn't enough to lock the threads by itself.

Loctite that summbitch.

 

[Mach2nh]

It was a stock arm and ya on box boxes i had torqued the nut to 150(max on my wrench) and then used a breaker bar and gave it one more good snug. Washer was in place as well both time.

 

[ftwelder]

FYI don't use grease or anti-seize on tapered press fit connections. they should be clean and dry.

 

[Mach2nh]

FYI don't use grease or anti-seize on tapered press fit connections. they should be clean and dry.

Clean and dry.