Death Wobble Cured!

J.C.

J.C.

Volunteer
Moderator
Joined
Apr 18, 2005
Location
Greensboro, NC
There have been several posts recently, looking for info on what could be causing vibes, also known as Death Wobble.

There are admittedly many different variables that come into play when DW rears it's ugly head, from worn bushings, to unbalanced tires to mis-alignment. I was pretty sure that mine was related to caster. I bought my ZJ with a 3.5" Rusty's lift on it. It was a little squirrely from the get go but it wasn't until I added some 1 3/4" coil spring spacers that the DW started.

I knew that the caster was off and that the spacers had made it worse. The cure was to fab some new front upper and lower control arms which would get the caster angle back to where it needed to be. I talked with Brandon, at Rides, and followed his recommendation to build the lowers long enough to push the front axle 1 1/2" forward. The lowers were made 17 1/2" long from eye to eye. Then I set the caster to 8 degrees and fabricated the uppers to fit, which turned out to be 16 1/4" long.

The resulting test drive a various speeds, acceleration and braking was smooth all the way, DW cured!

If you are experiencing DW on your lifted rig, check and make sure your caster angle is in the ballpark for the amount of lift you have. Every inch you lift your rig throws the caster angle further off and until that angle is addressed the DW will remain!
 
I lifted my XJ with 3.5" replacement coils, leaf packs, and longer fixed LCAs...life was good. After over a year, I decided to try and level it out with a 1" spacer up front, which actually measured 0.70". I didnt think this minor change would have any impact on driveability, and was really caught offguard when the DWs popped up on the ride home from the initial ride. Over the next few months, I checked, adjusted, and changed about everything under the front end one item at a time. What finally cured it was a set of used LCA's, adjusted to the same length as the previous set, so I guess my bushings were bad.
 
I THINK I may have found what is causing my death wobble.
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Thats pretty kick ass. My uncle had an old scottsdale with wooden lift blocks front and rear. I never saw it but they told me lots of stories.
 
nothing but the best on my rig.
 
castor is one of the most common problem leading to death wobble on lifted vehichles. Alot of people will set thier pinion angle with adj. control arms but never look to see what the castor of the knuckles are.

Bad castor+old bushings+ unbalanced tires+ect... can make for one crazy ride.
 
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