kspano

Hi all,

This is my first post, mainly due to the fact that compared to most of yours, my mostly stock JK is not very interesting to read/write about. I bought the ’08 JKU Sahara at the beginning of this summer with about 45K miles on it. I owned a TJ a few years back and been eyeballing the JKs since they came out.

Anyway, my first impressions were that the extra wheelbase and width made a huge improvement in the ride when compared to my TJ, even the wife noticed (very important when trying to justify these toys). But, when I would hit a set of railroad tracks or a pothole, I always felt like I better have both hands on the wheel or this thing may do something crazy. I just figured, hey, it’s a jeep thing and just kept on going. That is until one day, with my 7yr old son in the car, we crossed a set of tracks about 45mph and the Jeep started shaking uncontrollably, like I broke a tie rod or something. I had to bring it to a complete stop in the middle of the road before it would stop shaking. My heart was pounding and I thought “Holy Sh*t“ what was that? I slowly gave it some gas and pulled it off to the side of the road (hoping it would go straight), then got out to look underneath to see what had broken. I couldn’t find anything obvious, everything looked OK. So I got back in, explained to my son that “No, we didn’t lose any wheels, I counted and there is still four”. I also had to remind him not repeat any of the new words that he just learned. We took off again, very slowly, and the Jeep drove like nothing happened.

I remembered the term “Death Wobble” from lurking around this site, so I started poking around here and looking on YouTube to see what was being said about it. I watched some of the videos and it confirmed that is what happened to me. I guess I ignored these conversations before, maybe because I assumed that this whole “Death Wobble” thing would be something that would only have to be dealt with once I put on 4” of lift and installed 70lb/37” tires. Come to find out, this issue can happen to even stock jeeps. There we even accounts of this happening to people with ~10K miles on their stock jeeps. So after doing some research I got the standard list of things to check. Steering stabilizer, tie rod ends, drag link ends and track bar bolts/bushings were the main ones items that kept coming up and as I studied it more, these are the items that made the most sense.

Like all of us, I have my “wish list” of things that I want to do to my JK and I thought if I am going to replace some of these parts, let’s look and see if I should upgrade any of them now. My future plans are not extreme. I really like the 2.5” lift and 15” wheel with 33x12.5” DuraTrac setup for the trail riding that I do. After some more reading, I decided that just replacing these parts with quality, grease-able, parts (ie. NAPA or MOOG) should be fine. I didn’t like the thought of replacing a solid track bar with an adjustable tube, especially after seeing vid’s of guys flexing these things (plus I will not need the adjustable part). I think there is a very good reason that the adjustable unit Teraflex sells looks like an adjustable version of the stock unit with the “bent” part being cast iron. I thought about upgrading the tie rod, but once again, I liked the fact that I can get a new one at NAPA with a lifetime warranty at a fraction of the cost of an aftermarket one and I am going to keep my wheel/tire package as light as possible.

Finally I started reading the opinions and mini-debates regarding the necessity of a steering stabilizer. Some guys say you should go the dual route. Some guys say one is fine, as long as it’s a good one. Some think that the stock one is fine and then there are those who think you don’t even need it if everything is setup correctly and all the parts are in good shape. I figured I would wait to make a decision on this.

Then it happened again, on the same set of tracks. I ordered the parts. Then once again, same place. I was trying to drive around it slowly but at times you just forget, you know. I’ve been over these tracks a million times it seems. (BTW, my wife’s Escape handles these tracks without any drama whatsoever, and she does remind me of this.)

So, finally the parts arrived. I replaced the whole tie rod and drag link (the only thing you keep from the stock drag link is the adjustment collar). I also upgraded the bolts on the track bar and yes they needed to be replaced. The rubber in the bushings was fine and the metal sleeves were not wallowed out, but you could see where the bolt threads had cut into the bushings as it was slapping around. The new, shouldered, 9\16”-Grade 8 bolts looked like they should have been in there since the day the Jeep left the factory. I tightened ‘em down until I heard ‘em scream, then just a little more. When I pulled the stock steering stabilizer off it was shot, so I set it aside. I wanted to drive it for a few days with no stabilizer to see what I thought. I figured that this would help me decide if I needed to spend extra $$$ on a high-dollar or dual unit, or could I just get a standard replacement (i.e. OEM or Rancho, etc.).

I drove it a week or so with the new parts installed and there was no doubt that the whole jeep handled the potholes and train tracks much better than it did before, even without the stabilizer installed. I figured then that I could most likely get away with a normal stabilizer, so I bought and installed a Rancho SS figuring it would be able to handle a bit more abuse than the stocker and that should be all it needed.

That really seemed to take care of the issue and I thought that I had put the whole thing behind me. You could really notice the difference and I even started to not think about the potholes and train tracks anymore. Then a few weeks later came a different set of tracks. Same speed as before, about 45mph, but a bigger hole. I heard a pop, then here comes the death wobble again. I slowed down enough to get it to stop, then slowly took off again. Once home, I again checked everything over. Didn’t notice anything obvious, so I loosened one side of the Rancho and found out it was blown out. I could push it freely in one direction with no resistance. I have only had it installed for about 4 weeks.

I can only figure that there must be some kind of inherent problem with the steering geometry on these rigs and the axle/steering system takes quite a sideways shock when you hit a pothole with that front right tire. Now that I am again driving without the stabilizer I can really tell that it is not there. Most of the time, it’s hardly noticeable and it is still much better than before, now that I have the new parts and the upgraded track bar bolts. But, when you hit a pothole, a frost heave in the road or a set of train tracks you can really tell it’s not there. You feel that steering wheel start to shimmy and you grip that wheel tight.

So that is where I am now. I am NOT convinced that you “don’t even need a stabilizer” or an upgraded one. You may not think you need it where you live, if your roads are mostly smooth and there are not a lot of train tracks, potholes, etc. My experience is that they are essential to keep things under control once you hit something significant with that front right tire about 45-50mph. It is my opinion that the only reason there are people that think they do not need a HD SS is because where they drive. Stock jeeps with 10K miles do not have worn out parts yet, but they still have the Death Wobble issue. Yes the track bar bolts are a major problem, but it can still happen with 9/16 bolts when everything is tight and in good shape. It only seems to happen about 45-50mph, there are no issues at highway speeds without the SS.

I am returning the dead Rancho and I just ordered the Dual SkyJacker setup with the monotube M95 shocks. I’ve never been a fan of the look of the big bright white/red dual twin-tube setups, so I liked the fact that these are bit more subdued silver/black. I also liked the price ($142) through Quadratec and I got the free shipping by searching for them with Google shopping. I was going to go with a single Fox or Bilstien, but I liked the thought of having two dampers instead of one. My hope is that the first one will help with the steering and the second one will protect the first one. I am happy with the monotube damper design, I have Bilstien 4600s on the corners now and they are sweet. The Skyjacker kit seemed like a good deal for dual monotubes and figure that even if I need to upgrade the shocks in the future, I will still be able to use the mounting brackets. It seems that a lot of the other companies were selling some awfully expensive brackets that, as far as I can tell, are overkill to the Nth degree. I have never heard of anyone breaking a stock steering stabilizer mount clamped on the tie rod.

UPS says the parts will be here tomorrow and I will keep you all updated on the results (with some pics).

Wondering if some of you have been down this path, and if your results were similar to mine?

Cheers...

jonesje2

Wow. So I've read your comments as well as many of the posts in the main death wobble (Importance of changing out...) thread. How is this Not a Jeep recall??? I have a 2012 with 7k miles. I guess I need to change out my parts. Scary stuff.

JK08MCS

I went out and thrashed my jeep and bent my drag link. When I adjusted it out to far it death wobbled. You might want to turn the collar in a 1/4 turn on the drag link (fixed mine).

FutureMarineLT

You haven't mentioned it but have you checked your ball joints? I had the EXACT same thing happen to me. Twice I had to go home to change my drawers after the experience. The first time was literally 2 days before a 3000mi trip so you can imagine how nerve racking that trip was for me. The one and only thing I checked and repaired was my ball joints. If you do t know how to check them it's really simple and you can find a thread on here about how to check them. If you can't find it let me know and I'll explain. I tried to replace them myself and had all sorts of trouble. Some guys have tricks to it but I didn't know them until after the fact. Hind sight is always 20-20. Anyways, I paid $250 for synergy ball joints and had them installed with an alignment for another $360. I know I know, that's some cash to shell out when it shouldn't have been a problem to begin with. But let me tell you once I got my Jeep back from the local garage I didn't think twice about the money. I'd rather spend the $600 on that instead of $500 on a totaled out Jeep for my deductible.

keycat02

I've also been strugglng with death wobble on a 2010 JK that is close to stock - it only has a leveling kit and 265/70 r17 tires. I replaced the track bar with an adjustable jks bar, upgraded the bolts for the track bar and lower control arms, relocated the steering stabilizer and eventually replaced it with a beefy ome one. These changes seemed to tighten things up considerably, especially the amount of movement at the trackbar bushings. I also reduced the tire pressure to 28 psi - have you tried that? I'm not sure which change was critical, but no wobbles now.

kspano

I am going to have it re-aligned, if I have troubles again after that I will give this a try. Thanks!

kspano

LT,

I actually did check the ball joints and mine appeard to be OK. I actually had already purchased them and borrowed the press with full intentions of swapping them out. I have done this before on serveral different vehicles so I was comfortable with the task. I had a few other people, whos opinion I trust, check them with me and they all agreed as well. In the end it's probally better, when I do replace them, I will go the Synergy route.

kspano

I havn't lowered the tire pressure, but you know, that might not be such a bad idea. I still have the stock 18s and I have never been a big fan of that small sidewall. There was another member here that I read said that his DW went away when he went with a bigger tire. You would think that anything that helps keep the impact load from being transfered into the steering/suspension would help this issue. I will try this. If it works, this just might be the fix that forces me to finally upgrade the wheel tire package!

Honestly, the reason I haven't done any major upgrades yet is that wanted to feel comfortable with the setup I have before I start adding more possible points-of-failure. I just figured I would be blaming any/all of the aftermarket stuff on my troubles when in fact that is not the case. So, until this is handled, I will be staying close to the ground!

kspano

Ya know, now that I re-read your info, I am going to upgrade all of the other bolts as well. I only did the front track bar, but it makes sense to do them all. If the LCA joints are sloppy, it could easily cause movement of the axle when you hit something. The better 9/16" shouldered bolts could really help. I glanced at those LCAs when I replaced everything and they looked OK, so I didn't give it much thought after that. I guess, at the time, I figured that I found the root cause when I saw the track bar bolts were moving around and the SS was shot.

Thanks,

hneiper

You'd be really surprised at how something looks fine until you really inspect it. CAs were my final issue I had to deal with. Just one of many components that contributed to a very sloppy ride and DW. Good luck!