Death Wobble at 14k miles

[Rockaholic]

K02's are heavy and have been prone to imbalance in my experience. 37" K02's are going to amplify any looseness or instability.

They have been balanced three times now and the fronts switched to the back. I had crossed that off the list of causes...

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[ShadowsPapa]

In my opinion this will strengthen the problem. Weak steering boxes, and this will give your steering and track bar something to bite to and be more stable when hitting the bumps and such that usually kick off death wobble.
As soon as I experience death wobble on my new Mojave at the time, I went and did a ton of research and this was the solution. Also having the correct caster.

Go read/search/find the stuff I posted months, even years ago, from a former Jeep suspension engineer who also worked for one of the big rig companies, and also from a Jeep rally guy who owned a business building Jeeps for rally, race and off-road.
If you got your information/research results from Jeep forums, it's likely 80% incorrect and opinion.
Putting a bandaid on something may mask the wound and slow or stop bleeding, but it's not a fix.

As far as caster - there's a sweet spot there as well. As I've posted multiple times on that - from true experts and designers, too much can lead to "caster wobble" which is basically like Death Wobble - you must slow way down or stop to get out of it. Too little leads to instability.
Correct wheels vs. tire size matters as you get into scrub radius where the wheel wants to pivot around the king pin line....... I've shown examples of that as well, so ideally, if you choose a tire size that's far from stock, it's time to revisit the wheels as well....... backset and so on, and keep that SR where it belongs.
The steering boxes on these aren't weak themselves - especially for up to 33" type tires without a large increase in footprint. The box doesn't flex - cast doesn't flex, it breaks.
So when we're talking stock vehicles with stock tires, wheels and height, there's no true benefit in some of those changes.
If you have DW - a dampener is a mask....... I guess I need to yet again repost the engineers' comments as well as other science behind this.

 

[sathompsJT]

BFG K02. They have been balanced twice, one by a tire shop and another time by the alignment shop

Make sure they are doing road pressure balance. I had issue with KO2's where the would just spin balance and couldn't get it right until they did the road pressure balance.

 

[BFgoodrich10]

I had death wobble and i run 37s with a 3.5" lift.

My track bar was shot and I had it replaced. No more issues.

Those saying to run less PSI, I would not. I had more issues with lower PSI then I did with higher PSI. Morning drives when tires were cold death wobble came up way more then in the afternoon when tires were warm.

I threw money at it and got a whole new metalcloak steering system put in and it fixed it......for now.

 

[Trebuchet57]

The stabilizer that comes from the factory is crap! Get the Fox PS Stabilizer IFP 98524173, Silver from Amazon or your favorite supplier. The stabilizer from the factory looks like a 70’s vintage shock absorber. I have not had an issue after I installed the Fox stabilizer. It tool about 15 minutes to install on my Mojave!

 

[Trebuchet57]

The stabilizer that comes from the factory is crap! Get the Fox PS Stabilizer IFP 98524173, Silver from Amazon or your favorite supplier. The stabilizer from the factory looks like a 70’s vintage shock absorber. I have not had an issue after I installed the Fox stabilizer. It tool about 15 minutes to install on my Mojave!

 

[ShadowsPapa]

The stabilizer that comes from the factory is crap! Get the Fox PS Stabilizer IFP 98524173, Silver from Amazon or your favorite supplier. The stabilizer from the factory looks like a 70’s vintage shock absorber. I have not had an issue after I installed the Fox stabilizer. It tool about 15 minutes to install on my Mojave!

As noted in over a dozen posts and almost as many threads - the stabilizer masks symptoms and isn't intended for DW - it's for bump steer, etc.
The real issue still exists and will eventually wear on even the new stabilizer over time (just takes longer on a strong one). A properly operating stock front end doesn't really even need one (except for bump steer, etc.)

Stabilizer is not a cure for DW - it's a mask.
I guess I need to dig back into my archives and pull out the info from Jeep experts and truck engineers.

 

[Rockaholic]

Nothing was jumping out at me after looking at it again so I took the truck into a mechanic I trust and had him evaluate it. He felt movement from the track bar and suggested replacing this, all the tie rods, and the lateral link bushings. Is it possible to have these damaged so early??

He did say that there was barely any movement at all from these locations and doesn't feel like much harm has been done. I know it doesn't address the root cause but it makes me wonder, if I'm going to have to replace parts anyway, what would be the harm in replacing the steering stabilizer and monitoring the movement? If it starts getting bad then I take it in to have everything replaced.

As noted in over a dozen posts and almost as many threads - the stabilizer masks symptoms and isn't intended for DW - it's for bump steer, etc.
The real issue still exists and will eventually wear on even the new stabilizer over time (just takes longer on a strong one). A properly operating stock front end doesn't really even need one (except for bump steer, etc.)

Stabilizer is not a cure for DW - it's a mask.
I guess I need to dig back into my archives and pull out the info from Jeep experts and truck engineers.

Nothing was jumping out at me after looking at it again so I took the truck into a mechanic I trust and had him evaluate it. He felt slight movement from the track bar and suggested replacing this, all the tie rods, and the lateral link bushings. I still don't understand how its possible to have damaged these so early.

He did say that there was barely any movement at all from these locations and doesn't feel like much harm has been done. I know it doesn't address the root cause but it makes me wonder, if I'm going to have to replace parts anyway, what would be the harm in replacing the steering stabilizer and monitoring the movement? If it starts getting bad then I take it in to have everything replaced. I have had an episode of DW for 3-4 weeks.

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