doba

Ok so let me start out by saying I’ve had this issue since I bought my ‘15 jku with 6,000 miles and I’m now at 70,000 miles and a second set of tires. My original setup is a 3.5 AEV lift with the AEV steering kit to flip the drag link and raise it and 35” tires.

Steps I’ve taken thus far but not necessarily in order of execution prior to my latest attempt include

-Rotate and road force balance tires
-Utilized plan man’s write up to torque everything down and check joints. Marked bolts to verify if anything loosened up
-replaced the track bar with a yeti
-alignment by a reputable shop
-replaced old Mickey MTZ tires with KO2s
-Brought it to a reputable shop OK4wd to see if they can figure it out and they found nothing wrong.
-replaced steering stabilizer (yeah I know that isn’t the resolution but it helped for a while as a cheap bandaid)
-replaced drag link with a synergy one
-rotate and balance again
-checked torque again and no movement from original lines

The problem I have is intermittent based on road conditions. Basically if I hit a sharp bump on the road at a speed higher than 40mph it starts the wobble. Initially it would sometimes subside by slowing down a bit, but more recently it requires a full stop. This leads me to believe something has gotten worn out.

This brings me to this past weekend. I figured I’d circumvent the possibility of me missing something when doing the planman check and just replace a bu ch of shit. So on went the teraflex ball joints (yeah not dynatrac but whatever), new aluminum drag link and Barnes 1 ton ends, new aluminum tie rod with Barnes 1 ton ends. Didn’t reinstall the steering stabilizer yet because I figure I really test things out as well as need a bolt to attach it to the clamp.

Bolt everything up, torque it all down, check torque on other items, grease it up, check toe with a tape. Feel like it’s all good. Drive down the road everything feels tighter with less play than before (perhaps wishful thinking), then hit the highway 60 mph and hit the bump I know is a problem and it does it again.

Feeling defeated, what other options do I have at this point cause I’m really fed up with this. Only thing I can think of is the track bar bolt kit northridge sells, possibly a stiffer steering stabilizer to muffle/absorb the vibration and stop it after occurring? What else is there?

If I can’t figure this thing out soon I think it’s going to the road with a for sale sign. I love my Jeep but this thing is downright dangerous to anyone not aware of its tendencies.

Sv_dude

Check all of your suspension link bushings for play. Maybe you got a bad one? Use a pry bar between the mounts and the link, if they move a lot then your bushings are bad.

also check your hardware for the track bar, and the track bar mount on the frame side. If your holes are elongated and the mount on the inside isn’t looking good, then that could cause it too.

resharp001

It sure sounds like you're getting into the more rare causes or wobbles. It's sure hard to think that on a '15 the steering box itself is going, or unit bearings, but can't rule anything out given what you've fixed so far. I also don't think you can rule out control arm joints either even though that is pretty rare. Do you notice any difference in reaction if you hit that bump with your driver tire vs passenger tire? Sometimes can help identify which side the culprit is on based on the reaction.

doba

I’ll pull the track bar bolts to check for wallowing tonight as well as check the bushings for play. The unit bearings seemed tight when I broke everything down to do the BJs so I don’t think that’s an issue. I’ll also take a look at the gear box as well for added play as well as the control arms. Do I need to jack it up to test the arms with the pry bar or have the weight bearing down on them?

Might be worth noting I’ve never taken it off-road. Please don’t blast me too much for that. It’s a result of big dreams and limited time.

unfortunately the bump is straight ahead so i dont think I can hit it at much of an angle to test which side it’s on. The bump is at a transition coming off of a small bridge on the highway. If anything I seem to recall that it most often happens when I hit something squared up to it rather than from one side or another.

Sv_dude

Just some perspective, I have a ‘15 JKUR. It has the mopar stage 3 lift (teraflex). I’ve been chasing a death wobble for a while. I’m not 100% sure what the root cause was but death wobble will cause other issues. So far I’ve replaced my ball joints with the teraflex HD joints. I did have to adjust the joints to torque, be sure you do that to yours. I’ve also found my driver lower front link bushings on the frame side to be bad, these are supposedly lifetime joints. I have new arms coming in on Wednesday. I’ve replaced my artec front axle track bar mount with a raised mount, flipped my steering to high steer, raised my rear track bar mount, and found my steering box sector shaft to have play.

So, my point is that regardless of the year or mileage, death wobble can occur from a number of things. Any one of those things can cause another number of issues. So, it’s important to inspect everything and replace everything that’s worn or broken at once.

Also check your hub bearings too, those can take a beating from death wobble. From my knowledge, a track bar issue is the main thing that causes death wobble, but there are a handful of other things that can put the Jeep into a death wobble scenario. For instance, a track bar bushing or mount can be bad and drive fine. But hitting a bump and a bad link bushings, steering box, alignment, etc, will magnify the issue. Someone correct this paragraph if I’m wrong but either way, the whole front end is a system that works together, everything needs to be good.

vtminer

As someone that had a not-so-obvious issue with DW, I'll offer a few tips that could help. At 3.5" of lift, you should have a track bar relocation bracket to correct steering angles. First, if you don't have one, that could be your culprit. If you do have a bolt-on bracket, make sure it's properly mounted and tight. Second, ball joints and/or a stub-shaft U-joint can also cause DW. The U-joint was my ultimate culprit. While it did need replaced, the amount of play that was in it wasn't that much. It was deceptively small to be honest. But the manner in which the internals had worn created just enough play to cause DW.

P.S. - I have pulled control arms one at a time, reinstalling each before moving to the next, with the JK sitting on level ground. Make sure to chock the tires. Pull the bolts, drop it down and look at the bushings. If they are cracked, worn, or anything like that, that's probably your culprit.

doba

Ok so I got a chance to knock some snow off and pull it into my garage. Pulled the frame side of the track bar off and used my digital caliper to check the mount holes cause it seemed slightly ovaled. I did t record the readings but the back hole was slightly wider than tall so this could be a contributing factor to fix. Gonna look into a synergy track bar bracket to fix this issue as well as do the grade 8 shoulder bolts as well.

i didn’t pull the axle side of the track bar off as I think I’m just gonna replace the AEV mount with something else cause the yeti track bar is contacting it slightly.

so there’s two more factors I’ll be able to rule out.

I also used a pry bar to check the control arm bushings. One thing I noted is the driver side upper joint had quite a bit of side to side play. Up and down was negligible though. The side to side surprised me thou to see how much wiggle was there. Would this be a torque issue or bad bushing?

Sixty4x4

My old 49 Willys CJ2A had death wobble every time it hit railways or obstacles similar to speedbumps on an angle. Was at a loss, finally, I changed the BS on the wheels and went to slightly more narrow tires - bingo - was gone forever. Try a stock set of wheels on yours first if you can borrow some for a day. Might look weird but will narrow it down.

jjjmm56

Whats your wheel offset?

doba

Don’t remember for sure but I believe it’s 4.5 offset. I unfortunately don’t have factory set available and also not sure if they’d fit over the dynatrac brakes I have. Definitely won’t fit with the TREs I have on the tie rod and drag link I put in.