death wobble!!

Thanks! I've jacked up the front end, and can't find any play. I plan to take the jeep to a front end alignment guy and let him see if he can find something i'm missing. At least he can check the alignment/camber.

cal

There is a track bar and if it's bushings or ball joint end go bad you can get the shakes,

Mike

RoyJ wrote:

When all else fails and you are 'sure' all the bushings, bearings and ball joint or tie rod ends and tires (rotate them to the back to be sure) are perfect and still have the shimmy, check the rad fan.

We had the death wobble in our Cherokee so bad I thought I was going to lose a front wheel finally. It worked it's way worse. I checked everything, changes a pile of 'marginal' parts and still no joy.

Then my fan started eating the fan shroud. Bingo. That sucker went into a harmonic wobble literally bad enough to shake us off the road. A weak engine mount and a spongy tranny mount let the vibration magnify that bad.

Mike

Cal wrote:

I would say check your tires for binging out of round..... and choppy from not rotating at 3000 miles. After then I would go to the stabilizer shock. and listen very close to Bill H. he has been around Jeeps a very long time. and we have be doing it for 15 plus yrs. and deal with nothing but TJ's

Larry

The most common malady that causes death wobble is incorrect caster angle. Caster angle is an imaginary line that goes through the center of the upper and lower ball joints, and the spindle that the tire actually revolves around. This angle should be tilted a few degrees toward the rear for stability. This helps hold the tires in a straight ahead attitude. If the caster angle is not steep enough, then the tires can set up an oscilation that you feel as Death Wobble.

A test for caster angle is to turn the steering wheel full lock, and let go of it, then as you press the gas pedal to start going, the steering wheel should come to center by itself, if it makes no effor to come to center, then your Caster Angle is not correct. When you make a U-turn in the street, you should simply give a flick to the steering wheel and let if slide in your hands to straight ahead, if you have to physically crank the wheel around to get to straight ahead, then you have issues with caster.

I AM NOT SUGGESTING THAT YOU SHOULD LET THE STEERING WHEEL FLY AROUND BETWEEN YOUR FINGERS AS A NORMAL COURSE OF DRIVING, I AM SUGGESTING THAT THIS IS A TEST TO SEE IF YOU HAVE A MALFUNCTION. IF YOU ARE GOING TO LET THE STEERING WHEEL GO, MAKE SURE YOU ARE NOT WHERE YOU WILL STRIKE ANY OTHER OBJECTS OR PERSONS STANDING BY.

We once owned a '65 Ford pick up truck, it did not have a steering stabalizer. I suspect the steering stabalizer has very little to do with death wobble.

NOTHING AT ALL TO DO WITH THE PRICE OF BEANS IN CHINA, But I was changing the oil in my BMW last week, and while rolling around in the oil spilling all over the floor, I noticed that there were several chunks of plastic laying around in the fan shroud area, and a few more back by the firewall. Anyway, it was the fan. It had stripped all of its blades and I never even knew. All that remained attached to the viscous coupling (fan clutch) was the ring that the fan blades are molded onto.

Why would I want to do that? I didn't have one, why would I replace it? I should rephrase that, I don't remember that it had one. I remember lots of stuff it did have, but the steering stabalizer isn't any of them.

NOooooo! Don't ever mention BMW's here or Bill will have to post a link about his brothers 12-cylinder 740i lemon again!

wonder if death wobble caused this?

Any motorcyclist who experiences death wobble should change his steering stabilizer immediately.