4LWranglerTJ
Member
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2010
- Location
- Clemmons/NC State
I Need Help
...with death wobble.
I really need help with this and I have read about death wobble on various forums for the past 3-4 years.
Background story (I'm including everything):
I've had my 2000 jeep wrangler since 08 and put a 4" procomp short arm lift on it that fall. I did install a drop pitman arm. I drove my jeep for 1.5 years and then had gears put in the axles. The gears were not installed right, the front ones broke within ten min offroad and the rear ones have a whine. I drove for 1.5 years on the front axle w/o a carrier/driveshaft/inner axles and on the noisy rear end and the jeep handled the same as before. In fall of 2011, I developed a very bad shake at any speed over 25 mph when I hit a rough bump or pothole in the road (fortunately it has not happened on the highway). In December of 2011, I go ahead and replace the front axle with a HP Dana 30 from ECGS, installed by me and I did not do a proper alignment after installation. I drove on it for 600 miles just fine (mostly highway), come back to school in Raleigh, and it starts shaking again, just as bad as before. About a week ago, I take it to Todd at Affordable Transmission on Capital BLVD in Raleigh thinking it could be a driveline problem like broken teeth in the rear end getting into the gear mesh. He says the teeth are fine, but the bearing is messed up, the transfer case dampener? and chain were messed up, and my 5th gear was messed up, so I said fix it and I am assuming he did all of that (It was expensive). I pick it up from him yesterday, drive it back to my apartment and lo and behold, it still had death wobble. Well I take it to Murray's Tire off of S Saunders st to look at my steering setup. The mechanic drove it with me in the passenger seat to diagnose the problem and he was scared after he experienced the death wobble. He put it on the lift, and I explain to him that I have read possible causes are caster/toe angle, bad TREs, etc. and he thinks I need an adjustable track bar or bracket, new bushings, and a steering stabilizer. I claim that the track bar should be fine (I rode on it for 2.5 years with no problem and then it develops it. I think it could potentially be the upper control arm bushings like he said, but everything I've read in the passed points to bad TREs or improper steering angles. The mechanic still claims that there is no way that shaking is coming from improper caster and toe. So they send me on my way, it didn't cost anything, and gave me the impression to buy new upper control arm bushings.
I am not currently running a steering stabilizer. I bought the OME one, installed it about 2 years ago, took it off when I swapped the ECGS axle over because one of its bushings were destroyed anyways (I think that is due to me over tightening the nut on the bolt and squeezing the rubber bushing), and some people don't run them saying the cover up any issues. I am getting fed up with spending all of this money and not having a drivable vehicle, and am asking for advice. I don't really have the time to fix it myself even if it is an alignment, and I'm willing to go to a shop as long as it gets done correctly. I've done the whole "jack up the front end and move the steering wheel, see what is moving wrong thing" and everything looks good to me.
Are there any good shops in Raleigh that deal with lifted vehicles/ know what death wobble is? Should I replace the upper control arm bushings? Should I get an alignment done and see if that fixes things? As a reminder, the shaking happened before and after I installed the front axle.
...with death wobble.
I really need help with this and I have read about death wobble on various forums for the past 3-4 years.
Background story (I'm including everything):
I've had my 2000 jeep wrangler since 08 and put a 4" procomp short arm lift on it that fall. I did install a drop pitman arm. I drove my jeep for 1.5 years and then had gears put in the axles. The gears were not installed right, the front ones broke within ten min offroad and the rear ones have a whine. I drove for 1.5 years on the front axle w/o a carrier/driveshaft/inner axles and on the noisy rear end and the jeep handled the same as before. In fall of 2011, I developed a very bad shake at any speed over 25 mph when I hit a rough bump or pothole in the road (fortunately it has not happened on the highway). In December of 2011, I go ahead and replace the front axle with a HP Dana 30 from ECGS, installed by me and I did not do a proper alignment after installation. I drove on it for 600 miles just fine (mostly highway), come back to school in Raleigh, and it starts shaking again, just as bad as before. About a week ago, I take it to Todd at Affordable Transmission on Capital BLVD in Raleigh thinking it could be a driveline problem like broken teeth in the rear end getting into the gear mesh. He says the teeth are fine, but the bearing is messed up, the transfer case dampener? and chain were messed up, and my 5th gear was messed up, so I said fix it and I am assuming he did all of that (It was expensive). I pick it up from him yesterday, drive it back to my apartment and lo and behold, it still had death wobble. Well I take it to Murray's Tire off of S Saunders st to look at my steering setup. The mechanic drove it with me in the passenger seat to diagnose the problem and he was scared after he experienced the death wobble. He put it on the lift, and I explain to him that I have read possible causes are caster/toe angle, bad TREs, etc. and he thinks I need an adjustable track bar or bracket, new bushings, and a steering stabilizer. I claim that the track bar should be fine (I rode on it for 2.5 years with no problem and then it develops it. I think it could potentially be the upper control arm bushings like he said, but everything I've read in the passed points to bad TREs or improper steering angles. The mechanic still claims that there is no way that shaking is coming from improper caster and toe. So they send me on my way, it didn't cost anything, and gave me the impression to buy new upper control arm bushings.
I am not currently running a steering stabilizer. I bought the OME one, installed it about 2 years ago, took it off when I swapped the ECGS axle over because one of its bushings were destroyed anyways (I think that is due to me over tightening the nut on the bolt and squeezing the rubber bushing), and some people don't run them saying the cover up any issues. I am getting fed up with spending all of this money and not having a drivable vehicle, and am asking for advice. I don't really have the time to fix it myself even if it is an alignment, and I'm willing to go to a shop as long as it gets done correctly. I've done the whole "jack up the front end and move the steering wheel, see what is moving wrong thing" and everything looks good to me.
Are there any good shops in Raleigh that deal with lifted vehicles/ know what death wobble is? Should I replace the upper control arm bushings? Should I get an alignment done and see if that fixes things? As a reminder, the shaking happened before and after I installed the front axle.
