Drag link issues?

[mcd2484]

I have been experiencing post lift death wobble and brought the gladiator to a decent shop and they said though there's a
few small issues but said the drag link was way too lose/play and likely causing the death wobble. They can't get the part so I figured I can order a better (metalcloak) one and just install myself. Still wondering on jeep peoples opinion on their diagnosis before I order more parts and commit to more busted knuckles. Track bar, all bushings and torque specs checked out.

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[Artsifrtsi]

The loose part is just allowing the wobble to accentuate to the point of the DW condition. Chances are the cause is an out of balance tire on the front. Did you hit a bump or anything that initiated the wobble? Do a google search for "Dry Steering Test" and perform it with someone to look for the loose parts. Recheck the torque on all the parts that were loosened or replaced.

When you did the lift, did you keep the factory control arms, or replace with some with any sort of joint? If you kept factory or replaced with a rubber bushing, were they torqued to spec with the weight of the Jeep on the suspension?

 

[mcd2484]

Hey and thanks! Oddly enough I had new tires ready to go on but wanted to wait until fall due to fill trade on snowed maine roads. I installed the tires two weeks ago as I hated the ones on there (cheap westlakes) and I felt no more shake at 60 no reoccurrence of DW and the trip to the shop was around 80 miles and it road perfectly. The westlakes were humming at all speeds and had gotten worse even with rotations with oil changes. I installed all 8 adj control arms upgraded the stabilizer (prior to DW not to fix it) and everything was torqued to spec on the ground under full weight. After 100 miles I brought to jeep for a re torque of everything and 4 wheel alignment.

 

[Artsifrtsi]

...and 4 wheel alignment.

Ugh... My biggest pet peeve with Jeeps... Dealers and anyone selling "4 wheel alignments" for vehicles with solid axles should be tarred, feathered, and run out of town on a rail!

The ONLY way you can adjust anything other than toe, and centering the steering wheel on these, is to install adjustable control arms and track bars. The adjustments of the arms should never need to be touched after the initial setup, unless they are damaged in some way.

 

[mcd2484]

If you have the tar I got tons of feathers

 

[PaJeeper]

Once you get your adjustable track bar installed ask around and find out who the local shops use. Some off-road shops may do their own alignments but most farm it out. We have a local Ford dealer that does a huge amount of post trade in lift & tire jobs, also a local “kid” who does huge amounts of what I like to call “oil field” worker truck(diesels with the low pro’s on 22” wheel and way too much lift). I found the shop they use. They had my Jeep for all of 70 minutes and had all the squirrelly alignment taken care of

 

[mcd2484]

My adjustable track bar was installed with the lift I just had an alignment after the lift and control arms. Never had any issue until I towed a trailer and it let some gremlins loose. Actually I had new rims on and was getting a bad shake at 60… I had them rebalanced and the shake was gone at 60 and reappeared at 70 but I lived with it. I had west lake sl369 tires or something they were scary bad. Had my 315 geolanders installed last week and the shake and road noise is gone.
Brought to a real 4x4 shop they have great reviews but are pricy. They quoted me $1900 for a teraflex hd drag link and teraflex tie rod bar. To readjust all the control arms based of the lift (they said they were all off and the suspension components are fighting each other) and another alignment. They actually said what other memeners have said the alignment isn’t critical with solid axels but they said they do it to ensure there is no warranty issues if something breaks or wears out prematurely. I’m surprised the drag link could even be shot as there has been less than 800 miles on the jeep since all the suspension was upgraded.
Such a mess I wish I stuck with my $119 teraflex leveling kit lol.

 

[ChrisNLA]

My adjustable track bar was installed with the lift I just had an alignment after the lift and control arms. Never had any issue until I towed a trailer and it let some gremlins loose. Actually I had new rims on and was getting a bad shake at 60… I had them rebalanced and the shake was gone at 60 and reappeared at 70 but I lived with it. I had west lake sl369 tires or something they were scary bad. Had my 315 geolanders installed last week and the shake and road noise is gone.
Brought to a real 4x4 shop they have great reviews but are pricy. They quoted me $1900 for a teraflex hd drag link and teraflex tie rod bar. To readjust all the control arms based of the lift (they said they were all off and the suspension components are fighting each other) and another alignment. They actually said what other memeners have said the alignment isn’t critical with solid axels but they said they do it to ensure there is no warranty issues if something breaks or wears out prematurely. I’m surprised the drag link could even be shot as there has been less than 800 miles on the jeep since all the suspension was upgraded.
Such a mess I wish I stuck with my $119 teraflex leveling kit lol.

Alignment IS critical to a degree. Caster angle ends up being a big deal on these solid axle rigs. Toe on occasion. Thing is, anyone can set both of those angles by themselves at home. I have used a tape measure before to set toe on my 2016 JK, and an angle finder on top of the axle to set the caster by adjusting my upper control arms.

Anytime the JK would act up (exhibit death wobble or random noises) I'd to a dry steering test and watch all the moving parts under the front end while someone rocked the steering wheel back and forth. Normally I'd find something - usually a bad rod end or a bolt moving in its mount that had worked its way loose.

In the near term I'm am molesting my new JT as little as possible to avoid gremlins as long as possible, LOL.

 

[mcd2484]

Totally agree. My plan was just a leveling kit and larger tires. That plan lasted approximately 7 hours lol.
One thing I have learned hosing forward is most of these lift kits are bare bones out of the box and the 5k lift maybe a lot cheaper than the $1500 lift when all is said and done. Sill find it off about the drag link. I did go under and found a lot of play ends are like putty. Jeep has 15300 miles and hasn’t even seen off-road yet wanted to get it finished prior.

 

[ChrisNLA]

Totally agree. My plan was just a leveling kit and larger tires. That plan lasted approximately 7 hours lol.
One thing I have learned hosing forward is most of these lift kits are bare bones out of the box and the 5k lift maybe a lot cheaper than the $1500 lift when all is said and done. Sill find it off about the drag link. I did go under and found a lot of play ends are like putty. Jeep has 15300 miles and hasn’t even seen off-road yet wanted to get it finished prior.

On my JK I bought the Metalcloak True Dual Rate lift and by the time I was done I added rear brake lines and the rear track bar to get everything 'right'. You're right. Sometimes 'more' turns out to be 'less' LOL.

I'm putting the Teraflex leveling spacers on my new JT and gonna ride that for a bit on some Rubi 33's. Maybe next year I'll find the perfect lift kit for me and step it up to some 35s once the truck is a little broken in. She's only got 405 miles so far...

 

[ShadowsPapa]

My adjustable track bar was installed with the lift I just had an alignment after the lift and control arms. Never had any issue until I towed a trailer and it let some gremlins loose. Actually I had new rims on and was getting a bad shake at 60… I had them rebalanced and the shake was gone at 60 and reappeared at 70 but I lived with it. I had west lake sl369 tires or something they were scary bad. Had my 315 geolanders installed last week and the shake and road noise is gone.

You don't drive through or out of death wobble. You must slow or stop to get out of it.
The whole steering wheel shakes violently back and forth.

Does the above mean you have different rims on your JT when it does the DW thing - if it's really death wobble?

I had a violent shake on another vehicle - it was not DW but the whole thing shook badly, enough to crack things. I could drive through or out of it - get above 75 and it was fine.
Turned out to be a wheel that wasn't perfectly round.

Too much caster can result in "caster wobble" which is a source of death wobble. Sometimes more isn't always better.
If you changed wheels and widened the stance and/or made other changes - it can contribute as well.

 

[chadinsc]

lay under the front and have someone turn the wheel multiple times checking for movement in the joints. on my last jeep i had a worn tie rod and drag ling which caused death wobble. if anything is loose or worn you should see it

 

[mcd2484]

It was definitely DB there was no control of steering in fact if I had my finger in the small part of the steering wheel it could have broken. The rims are the same however I upgraded the tires The previous tires had a lot of road noise and it was getting considerably worse even with only 5000 miles on them and they were shaking at highway speed since the day they were installed all that has seem to go away with new tires but you have a good point that just a few instances of death wobble could have absolutely caused enough violent actions to damage the other steering components like the drag link

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