Death Wobble Drastically Worse After Replacing Parts. Have questions

[Free2roam]

Ball joints are often overlooked when people say "I checked everything".
You will definitely see them wear out prematurely if you have moved well out of factory specs on your front end geometry with lift, bigger tires, and offset.

@Metalcloak extended their 10% off and free shipping through the weekend.
https://metalcloak.com/jl-wrangler-ball-joint-set-upgrade-kit.html

So why Metalcloak vs Dynatrac?

Sponsored

 

[WILDHOBO]

So why Metalcloak vs Dynatrac?

You might want to read my recent thread. The title was something like “stuck knuckle”. It seems that Dynatrac’s QC has slipped a bit, along with customer service. To give them credit, they made it right, but I’ll be installing metalcloak ball joints this week as a result of the experience.

 

[IanNubbit]

Start with the tires, try and swap with someone. Stock Willy's tires (MT2's) cup no matter what and wayyyy too fast from the factory. Fixed a good handful with just tires on willy's and the Sahara/Overland tires as well.

 

[JoeyD]

Thanks for the feedback everybody.
Got back into town and am putting the stabilizer back on, if for no other reason to now have the wobble be a little more controlled.

That said. the steering box was loose. The first bolt was almost loose enough it took very little effort to try to tighten and the other three certainly weren't ~100lbs either.

I bought a 42mm socket to do the pitman arm but will try a test drive in a bit first, then try that next.

I think at this point, if this isn't corrected or mostly corrected it's down to the ball joints.


As for the tires. The 35's I have on there are RTs and had zero cupping until after I started having the vibration/wobble show up.

It's about 100 degrees in the garage right now (103 outside) so this is starting to take its toll on me.

 

[JoeyD]

Update,

Got everything torqued and hit the road. Vibration comes back at about 55 but isn't death wobble like, it's way out of balance tire.. like.. I can feel it coming from the rear of the Jeep. So I'm assuming that it's the rear driver side tires which was the front Passenger and has the cupping.

I think I'll drive it a little tomorrow and re-torque everything real quick. then sometime next week take it into a shop to have them align and balance the tires.

To point out, over all the front end is quiester. Something that I never noticed until I swapped all the parts was I had a little bit of noise when going through a rough parking lot or turning out of one/etc. Sad to say It's been a while since I've been off road so I can't attest to that. Maybe tomorrow it's not 100+

 

[Lunentucker]

Good job! Stay after it and get some better tires on there when you get the rest of it settled.

 

[WILDHOBO]

Update,

Got everything torqued and hit the road. Vibration comes back at about 55 but isn't death wobble like, it's way out of balance tire.. like.. I can feel it coming from the rear of the Jeep. So I'm assuming that it's the rear driver side tires which was the front Passenger and has the cupping.

I think I'll drive it a little tomorrow and re-torque everything real quick. then sometime next week take it into a shop to have them align and balance the tires.

To point out, over all the front end is quiester. Something that I never noticed until I swapped all the parts was I had a little bit of noise when going through a rough parking lot or turning out of one/etc. Sad to say It's been a while since I've been off road so I can't attest to that. Maybe tomorrow it's not 100+

Unless you do heavy off-roading, or are at quite high miles, I’d suspect your ball joints are fine. This is very likely the steering box bolts that were loose. If you think you’ve got an unbalanced tire, swap the spare in for each, one at a time, until you find it.

 

[JT1]

Unless you do heavy off-roading, or are at quite high miles, I’d suspect your ball joints are fine. This is very likely the steering box bolts that were loose. If you think you’ve got an unbalanced tire, swap the spare in for each, one at a time, until you find it.

Mine has 26k miles on 37s and some middling off road runs, and the ball joints were floppy.
They are garbage from the factory.

 

[kevman65]

Yes, first thing to really check in these cases is the steering box bolts and then the pitman arm nut.

Next is the ball joints. Check the torque on them, all it will cost you is four new cotter pins.

Doesn't matter how many miles you have on the JT, the factory ball joints are sketchy. One good pot hole and you can break the plastic innards and then you have a sloppy ball joint.

As to new ball joints, I'm going with Synergy. Not sold on the rebuildable stuff that's out there.

One more thing to check that most wouldn't think of. Top ball joint on each side has a sleeve for camber. If it's not properly clocked it can cause some wobbly steering. My driver side isn't clocked correctly, have tire wear to show it, and I get bump steer all the time.

In order to correct it, have to basically do a ball joint job so going to replace them while I'm there.

 

[darkhorse13]

As to new ball joints, I'm going with Synergy. Not sold on the rebuildable stuff that's out there.

First off to the OP, keep at it and don't give up. It sucks, I know.

Secondly, still to the OP and @kevman65, Dynatrac ball joints fixed my DW. I had Synergy ball joints that failed after 6,300 miles. I'm not bashing Synergy here because I literally have EVERYTHING else Synergy on my JTR (tie rod, drag link, UCAs, LCAs, sector shaft brace, track bar) and love them. BUT, their ball joints did not hold up for me and made the truck feel like a tire was out of balance around 60mph, with actual DW at 52-55mph after hitting a bump. I switched to the Dynatrac HDs and have not had an issue since. I even went to the local 4x4 shop with a case of beer to borrow a set of bone stock JT wheels and street tires to make sure my 37's weren't out of whack. If you can go the extra step to replace the ball joints I'd recommend it. Not saying the Dynatracs are king, but they worked for me when the Synergy's failed. The Metal Cloak Ballers do look appealing too.

 

[efitzger]

Just to add my own experience - Gladiator Rubicon with MC gamechanger 3.5” and geometry set up multiple times (caster/ toe in/ dline angles).
At 8k miles (5k on stock suspension) I got death wobble at about 47-55mph. This is my 5th jeep over 30 years (all modded quite a bit) and I spent WEEKS resetting control arms, track bars, retorquing everything, realigning , rebalancing etc. nothing helped. Bought the sector shaft brace
Nothing
Couldn’t believe the ball joints could be bad at 8k miles but I decided to press them out and install teraflex hd joints
Once I got all 4 ball joints out I was SHOCKED. 3 out of 4 were so loose it felt like a broken joystick . I could move the joint around with two fingers like it was nothing. After installing the teraflex joints and test driving for the past two months (specifically hitting the same spot/ road that caused my dw multiple times before) I can say it’s a different vehicle entirely . Steering is tight again and not a hint of dw or even bump steer
I used to love jeeps but if Stellantis continues putting out substandard pos parts I’m done with them after this one.
Unfortunate as I’ve been a “jeep guy” for over 30 years.

 

[tysongladiator]

Or... Just throwing this out there. Maybe one of your aftermarket parts is bad or went bad. It happens. Aftermarket parts are built by the same type of people that built the stock parts.... Humans. So, it can happen.

I had my stock front suspension for 170K miles and I beat the crap out of it. It was still ok when I decided to upgrade. So when I did upgrade, I installed the Apex Drag Link and Tie Rod Assembly. The Apex Chassis Tie Rod ends only last 30K miles. I had to put a stock tie rod on until I can get either a new tie rod or ends.

BLUF: It can and does happen.

Sponsored