Death Wobble

[BombshellJT]

I have a 2020 JT and have been chasing a death wobble problem ever since going from a 2" spacer lift to a 3" Rancho lift. Originally got the wrong part for the new steer stabilizer, so ran without one for a few weeks. Noticed a bad death wobble stemming from bump-steer. Installed a Fox 2.0 through shaft stabilizer, track bar relocation bracket, and flipped drag link at the same time. Wobble still present. Replaced crappy Rancho track bar with SteerSmarts. Bump-steer definitely better but problem still exists. Noticed when removing Rancho track bar the jam nut keeps coming loose, so the axle end was just flopping around. Steering geometry looks great now. Front axle is very centered. Not so much with the rear because factory track bar (replacing with adjustable rear track bar next to center up the rear axle).

But there is still significant bump-steer. At this point I'm not sure what could be causing it.

2020 Gladiator
3" Rancho lift
Rancho front upper/lower control arms
Stock rear control arms and track bar
Rancho shocks
Fox 2.0 Performance TS steer stabilizer
Synergy drag link (flipped position)
SteerSmarts Yeti-XD Pro-Series track bar
SteerSmarts track bar relocation bracket and track bar/sector shaft brace
Stock tie rod
RockJock AntiRock sway bar setup (aluminum arms, .850" bar)
JCR Off-road bed rack and Roofnest Condor tent

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[dcmdon]

Let me start this by saying I'm the farthest thing from a Jeep expert. I'm new to it. I haven't even ordered my Gladiator yet.

But I am a pretty good disgnostician.

So my first question. Did you replace anything when you did the 3" lift besides the suspension components necessary for the lift?

Have you confirmed that all bolts are tight?

Have you checked toe-in?

Tire pressure?

Wheel balance?

 

[BombshellJT]

Only things replaced with the lift were the rear sway bar links (front already had AntiRocks), all four shocks, all four springs, front upper and lower control arms and track bar. Factory steer stabilizer was removed.

Since then we've tightened the control arm jam nuts, swapped the Rancho track bar with SteerSmarts, swapped factory drag link with Synergy in flipped position, installed track bar relocation bracket and track bar/sector shaft brace, and installed new Fox through-shaft steering stabilizer.

Am planning on going over all bolts today. Originally found a loose bolt on the track bar bracket, and later the track bar jam nut (both resolved now). Having a professional alignment done next week, though I am planning on getting a toe alignment tool soon so I can check toe myself. New rear tires were put on during all of this, so all four were balanced a few weeks ago. Tire pressure goes up and down a lot depending on wheeling. We run around 12psi off road and 30 on road.

Did you replace anything when you did the 3" lift besides the suspension components necessary for the lift?

Have you confirmed that all bolts are tight?

Have you checked toe-in?

Tire pressure?

Wheel balance?

 

[dcmdon]

Only things replaced with the lift were the rear sway bar links (front already had AntiRocks), all four shocks, all four springs, front upper and lower control arms and track bar. Factory steer stabilizer was removed.

Since then we've tightened the control arm jam nuts, swapped the Rancho track bar with SteerSmarts, swapped factory drag link with Synergy in flipped position, installed track bar relocation bracket and track bar/sector shaft brace, and installed new Fox through-shaft steering stabilizer.

Am planning on going over all bolts today. Originally found a loose bolt on the track bar bracket, and later the track bar jam nut (both resolved now). Having a professional alignment done next week, though I am planning on getting a toe alignment tool soon so I can check toe myself. New rear tires were put on during all of this, so all four were balanced a few weeks ago. Tire pressure goes up and down a lot depending on wheeling. We run around 12psi off road and 30 on road.

Hmm. The quality of your response, plus the fact that you are a software developer tells me you are probably a pretty good diagnostician also.

Shoot. Nothing jumps out. I'm sorry I can't help more, but am interested in learning what you find out is the problem.

Of course you may never find out. You may retorque everything and then its gone. ha.

 

[DankjeeP]

Sway bar links look a little long. You should be at 4-5* up, yours looks a little high.
Kind of hard to tell in the picture, but maybe flip the drag link to the bottom side at the knuckle. You won't really loose any clearance. It just looks like drag link and track bar are not really parallel and that = bump steer. Also, double check toe is ~ 1/8" in at rest. I'm no expert on JT steering, but this works well on the XJ. Caster may be out of spec. Hopefully your alignment will fix it.

 

[BombshellJT]

I'll adjust the sway bar links today. I actually just re-did the passenger link this morning. The AntiRocks weren't compatible with the SteerSmarts track bar bracket. So I swapped the bottom of the link with an end from Clayton Off-road. Below is the current configuration.

I'm having a 4WD shop do an alignment a week from Friday, so that may also help verify the toe.

Sway bar links look a little long. You should be at 4-5* up, yours looks a little high.
Kind of hard to tell in the picture, but maybe flip the drag link to the bottom side at the knuckle. You won't really loose any clearance. It just looks like drag link and track bar are not really parallel and that = bump steer. Also, double check toe is ~ 1/8" in at rest. I'm no expert on JT steering, but this works well on the XJ. Caster may be out of spec. Hopefully your alignment will fix it.

 

[BombshellJT]

I'm an "okay" diagnostician. I've learned a LOT about Jeep suspension and steering in the past few months. But I'm at the point where I don't know what could be causing bump-steer and death wobble. Originally when the bump-steer showed itself I assumed it needed a track bar bracket and flipped drag link, but that didn't fix it. Added the Fox TS steer stabilizer and it's still happening. I know a steer stabilizer is just a band-aid for death wobble, but the complete lack of one had to be a contributor.

Hmm. The quality of your response, plus the fact that you are a software developer tells me you are probably a pretty good diagnostician also.

 

[James H]

Please post your alignment specs before/after, I'm curious what the results will be.

 

[BombshellJT]

Will definitely have an alignment printout after next week. Will post results here.

Please post your alignment specs before/after, I'm curious what the results will be.

 

[Wheelin98TJ]

Can you post a straight-on pic of the front end that shows both ends of the drag link and the track bar in the same pic?

 

[MikeInMo]

It may seem like a long shot, but you might check wheel balance again. We chased death wobble on my son's XJ for a long time, including rebalancing. There were a couple tires with issues that became apparent after being rebalanced multiple times. He replaced them, and everything has been fine since then.

You may know this already, but the steering stabilizer doesn't cause or fix death wobble. It just might hide it some.

 

[spectre6000]

Multiple posts between reading the first few posts, typing a response, and finally hitting post...

Alignment is what jumps out to me.

 

[j2paulino]

I have a 2020 JT and have been chasing a death wobble problem ever since going from a 2" spacer lift to a 3" Rancho lift. Originally got the wrong part for the new steer stabilizer, so ran without one for a few weeks. Noticed a bad death wobble stemming from bump-steer. Installed a Fox 2.0 through shaft stabilizer, track bar relocation bracket, and flipped drag link at the same time. Wobble still present. Replaced crappy Rancho track bar with SteerSmarts. Bump-steer definitely better but problem still exists. Noticed when removing Rancho track bar the jam nut keeps coming loose, so the axle end was just flopping around. Steering geometry looks great now. Front axle is very centered. Not so much with the rear because factory track bar (replacing with adjustable rear track bar next to center up the rear axle).

But there is still significant bump-steer. At this point I'm not sure what could be causing it.

2020 Gladiator
3" Rancho lift
Rancho front upper/lower control arms
Stock rear control arms and track bar
Rancho shocks
Fox 2.0 Performance TS steer stabilizer
Synergy drag link (flipped position)
SteerSmarts Yeti-XD Pro-Series track bar
SteerSmarts track bar relocation bracket and track bar/sector shaft brace
Stock tie rod
RockJock AntiRock sway bar setup (aluminum arms, .850" bar)
JCR Off-road bed rack and Roofnest Condor tent

I’m chasing the same bump steering f/b death wobble on my 2020 JTR with a 2.5” EvO Enforcer Stage 2 plus lift on Nitto Trail Grapler MT 37s, Synergy Sector Shaft Brace and EvO Track Bar. The dealer told me to upgrade my steering stabilizer, which I did with a Fox Race ATS Stabilizer, but long story short it failed and Fox is finally fixing it. I also have @rpm_steering tie rod and drag link to install once I get my stabilizer fixed. If this doesn’t fix it, I may check my ball joints. I read that they wear out around 20,000-30,000 miles. I’m at 25,000 miles right now. I’ll update if any of this works. Let me know if you find a fix. Thanks. Good luck.

 

[BombshellJT]

With only 20k miles I was told it couldn't be the ball joints. The only factory steering part we have left is the tie rod, which I don't think is contributing. Moving up to remote reservoir King shocks soon. Originally went with a Rancho lift that was basically all garbage components. Only Rancho components left will be the springs.

Where we are now is it acts like it "wants to" death wobble, but then doesn't. Like more bump steer than it should have, but not quite full on death wobble.

 

[JustinLentz]

Luckily, I have not had to deal with this with the JT yet BUT... I dealt with it for months with my JK. I had around 70k miles on the jeep when I started having issues. I started with ball joints, then to track bar, steering stabilizer, shock bushings.... ended up being my lower control arm bushings were bad. Replaced the lower control arms all together and bye bye death wobble.

With only 20k miles I was told it couldn't be the ball joints. The only factory steering part we have left is the tie rod, which I don't think is contributing. Moving up to remote reservoir King shocks soon. Originally went with a Rancho lift that was basically all garbage components. Only Rancho components left will be the springs.

Where we are now is it acts like it "wants to" death wobble, but then doesn't. Like more bump steer than it should have, but not quite full on death wobble.

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