Death Wobble Problem

[VRicotta]

First off, I have a 99 xj sport with about 221K miles, remanufactured engine ~30K miles, rebuilt transmission ~8K miles, ~3 inch mixed lift, 31" x 10.50" tires, rock hard 4x4 front and rear bumpers, rusty's steering conversion, etc..

So about 2 months ago, some idiot in a honda pulled out of a gas station right in front of me and I t-boned him (the rock hard 4x4 steel bumper destroyed his little honda). My jeep only had minor cosmetic damage, a scratch on my bumper, busted radiator, but since I have a small lift the front passenger tire made contact with the honda. I finally got my car back last week all "fixed" thanks to the honda's insurance company. The jeep drove perfect in the city, but as soon as I took it on the parkway I experienced the "death wobble". I know some people complain of the death wobble and really they only have a vibration, but trust me I had the death wobble. I also had a knocking sound while turning either direction. So my first guess was to replace the track bar, did this and it got rid of the knocking sound and fixed the death wobble slightly. I saw the sway bar end link bushings were shot so I replaced them as well even though that wouldn't cause a death wobble. I then thought my tie rod could have bent from the accident so I put in the Rusty's steering conversion. I then rotated my tires and sent it the to alignment shop over the weekend. Took it on the parkway again today (I have a 45 mile commute to grad school) and I still have a wobble, I wouldn't consider it a death wobble like it was in the first place, but it is definitely a wobble and not just a vibration. Also, the collision place only had to replace the passenger side lower control arm and the wobble happens around 50 mph.

Does anyone have an idea of what else would cause it to wobble? Right now i'm regretting that I got this fixed instead of taking the money and buying a new xj to start over.

 

[Talyn]

Check the rest of the control arms and bushings. Including the mounts.

 

[karstic]

Rotate the tires and see if you still have tue wobble.

 

[VRicotta]

I rotated my tires before I got the alignment done and still had wobble. I'm going to try and replace the rest of the control arm bushings this weekend and hope for the best

 

[Talyn]

I would talk to the insurance company about it.

 

[VRicotta]

The other insurance company totaled my jeep out and gave me $3600, they paid me so they won't do anything else, I gave the collision place $3500 of that to fix it. Now the collision place, I argued with them about the knocking noise, which was from the track bar, before I knew it had the death wobble, and they said it wasn't related to the accident which is BS. Anyway, instead of just changing the control arm bushings, i'm just going to replace the remaining control arms completely next week and get an alignment. If I still have any wobble i'm going to drive my jeep through the front door of the collision place because so far I changed the track bar, tie rod and ends, drag link and ends, sway end links, and soon the control arms. What else causes a wobble? Do you think the axle is bent?

 

[bhmike]

I had bad death wobble , went down the list and spent nearly 2000. It was the caster . Check your caster angles and or just try putting a little in at a time and test driving it . Hope this helps

 

[ert01]

also could check the steering box... any play in the steering box output shaft can be amplified as it goes through the system.

 

[VRicotta]

Update: Well the death wobble is gone..The other day I wanted to see if the track bar bolt was loose, but since I have Rusty's steering conversion I had to remove the tie rod from the driver side knuckle to re-torque the track bar bolt. The bolt was tight, but being impatient I tried to knock the tie rod end loose without jacking up the front end and bent the bolt of the tie rod end so the jam nut couldn't fit back on. Good thing about Rusty's is that I got a replacement moog tie rod end at the local auto store. So after i replaced the tie rod end I noticed that the wobble disappeared? Which is strange because I just installed the whole steering conversion from Rusty's about a week ago to try and fix the wobble in the first place. So what was causing the remaining wobble could have been a bad tie rod end from Rusty's or the toe was off and I set it right when replacing the tie rod end? All I have now is a little vibration, but I can deal with that and I should be getting my new control arms soon to fix that.