Death Wobble?

RatLabGuy

RatLabGuy

You look like a monkey and smell like one too
Joined
May 18, 2005
Location
Churchville, MD
Showing my newbie-ness....

What exactly is this? I see the term thrown around alot, guess related to steering/suspension? What's the deal? I do have a minor shake at certain times, but I'm assuming its from crappy, funky worn (by PO) tires.
 
at it's worse case...

you'll be driving down the road, and hit a small bump...and the tires will start shaking, to the point you think the front axle is shifting back and forth about a foot...and that it might break loose at any moment...

it's one of those things that once you have it...you'll KNOW you have it...

often caused by loose bolts in the suspension/steering...in a TJ, the front track bar bolts are the common problem areas...

a lot of people think it's an issue with a steering stabilizer...a stabilizer would just be a band-aid, as something else is actually wrong...with proper steering alignment, and everything adjusted properly...you can drive without a steering stabilzer and never experience DW...

Greg
 
Uh, okay... thanks... but I still don't understand... what exactly IS the cause of this? Or do you mean this term just refers to any kind of wobble that is steering/suspension related?
 
RatLabGuy said:
Uh, okay... thanks... but I still don't understand... what exactly IS the cause of this? Or do you mean this term just refers to any kind of wobble that is steering/suspension related?
Click to expand...


I'm not sure there's a technical definition to it...

it's generally used for any wobble that's beyond just a bad tire or a vehicle that needs to be aligned...

the cause(s) are an endless list of things that aren't right...

Greg
 
its called harmonic oscillation. like when you're going down a hill really fast on a skateboard and it starts weeble wobbling out of control until you faceplant. it occurs from a loose suspension component such as a trackbar, control arm, tie rod end, crappy alignment, worn out tires, and the list goes on.
 
picture yourself going down the road, everything normal. All of a sudden all four tires go from round, to egg shape. the small ends of the egg shapes are in different positions. That's what DW feels like to me. To add to the list of causes.

loose steering bracketry
lugs loose
center pin broken and axle slipped foreward or aft

Usually occurs at a certain speed, and will go away when you slow down. It will honestly shake you to death it seems.
 
I'll add one more cause...
If a moron previous owner "builds" a lift kit using an add a leaf in the front on one side and a real lift spring on the other....:mad:

And you would be surprised how many things a guy would check on a perfectly level sitting truck before he'd ever go counting leaves...
 
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