Steering Wobble Mystery

[Free2roam]

That just happened to be at a slower speed, since I didn’t do any highway driving today. Last month at 73mph, I hit a bump and experienced a violent wobble in the steering. Had to pull over and it continued down to 25mph. Drove the rest of the way home at 65mph and it never happened again. Drove the jeep all this week and didn’t happen at all. Today, the steering god is unhappy and full of wrath. I don’t know why today and not yesterday, or the day before. It’s a mystery and I can’t pin it down. And it’s making me crazy.

Have you done any mods to the truck? Lifted, bigger tires, or wider stance with rims?

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[jetdriver73]

Yes see original post. Clayton 2.5” Overland +, and now Falken Wildpeak 38x13.5’s. Fox 2.0 front and rear. That’s all so far. I’m open to upgrading components to compensate for changes. Just don’t want to throw parts at it without knowing what’s wrong.

 

[Free2roam]

Did you do rims as well? If so which style and type? I'm running a -6 Icon Rebound Pro. Check post 26

 

[jetdriver73]

Yes, did rims. Went with a 0 offset as I don’t like tires which poke out too much. Had to adjust steering stops but that’s all. They fit perfectly.

Brand: Anthem Off-Road
Model: Intimidator
Part Number: A784179058050D
Color: Satin Black
Backspacing: 5
Wheel Diameter: 17
Wheel Width: 9
Hub Bore: 110.50
Load Rating: 2500
Wheel Exposed Lugs: No
Wheel Material: Alloy
Weight: 27.6

 

[Free2roam]

So it's a Willy's. Standard axle, used to be a +44 well when stock I believe. So there is the possibility that because of the newer scrub radius and the what I consider is more tension, pressure, or leverage on the new setup. That the stock steering components can't handle it. Do you have an upgraded steering setup yet?

 

[jetdriver73]

You may be correct, and I anticipated having to upgrade components. Just need to know exactly where to start. I’m assuming ball joints are a good choice.

 

[Free2roam]

You may be correct, and I anticipated having to upgrade components. Just need to know exactly where to start. I’m assuming ball joints are a good choice.

I thought about that too. But mine didn't show any signs of looseness. Went steering upgrade. Easier to install then have it aligned. Mine has been perfect so far. My specs last alignment

 

[KQL]

Well today was a bad day. Was a little colder, and I experienced the worst day of death wobble so far. Drove to a different alignment shop and they’re hooking me up with an old-timer who’s been doing alignments for 25 years. They seem to think he’ll be able to figure it out. The appointment is on Wednesday, so I’ll let you know what we figure out. Based on the great feedback earlier on this thread and from speaking with Clayton, here are the notes I made on what we’re going to focus on:


Dry steering check

Re-balance tires

Check caster (5.5 deg

Check toe (more toe out due to increased scrub radius?)

Check ball joint torque

I posted a video of what I’ve experienced with just about every bump I hit today. Notice how the wobble stops around 30mph. That’s been accurate with every occurrence today. Thanks for all your input.

Thanks for the video, I am experiencing the exact same symptoms, but my Jeep is stock height and suspension, 29k miles, except for replacing the stock tires with mild AT Cooper discoverer 255 75x17 AT3 SL a couple of years ago. The wobble just started with the colder weather at highway speeds. The worst episode was while merging onto the highway at full-ish throttle (so truck squatting back slightly) and there was a slight right hand curve to the on-ramp. Both myself and the passenger agreed that it felt like the wobble/looseness was originating on front drivers side.

Checked torque of all suspension bits, lower ball joints (can’t check uppers without a crows foot attachment, incoming from Amazon).
Torqued my steel steering box to frame, maybe needed 1/4 turn to come up to 100ft/lb, can’t imagine that was it.
Rotated tires.
None of these helped.

Double checked the recommended tire pressure for the slightly larger tires: lowered by a few pounds to 33psi = wobble got worse. Might not be related, maybe just the wobble getting worse with every test drive.

Other things I’ve noticed:
Cupping on front tires
Tendency to hit the front bump stops earlier than I would think reasonable for speedbumps.
Bouncy rear end on highway expansion joints (is prob normal).

So my situation might be pointing at bad shocks, or at least bad shocks + some other cause.

Ordered 4 corners of Bilstein 5100 shocks for my stock height (a package deal that includes a new Bilstein steering stabilizer) for $480. Figured better/stiffer shocks aren’t a bad upgrade anyways, but could also be the cause per the other things I noticed that might indicate bad shocks.

I tried the shock bounce test with my current stock set up, and the ball joint tire lift test, neither showed any sign of being bad, but plenty of info around that these tests aren’t always reliable. Will update once the new shocks are on in the next week or so.

 

[Jchap1987]

Mine is doing a much lighter version than yours with the same lift and tires. Everyone loves saying tire tire tire. We need upgraded tie rod and draglink esp now that you’re on 38s. I’m personally Going with metalcloaks hd steering upgrade.

 

[jetdriver73]

Really great information from everyone, thank you. One thing that I’ve never heard of which was stated in one of the death wobble instructional videos, is that the track bar and drag link must be parallel to each other. Going to take a look at that. Also, I’ve been running 30psi in my 38’s. What tire pressure to you 37-38 guys run?

 

[40x40]

Really great information from everyone, thank you. One thing that I’ve never heard of which was stated in one of the death wobble instructional videos, is that the track bar and drag link must be parallel to each other. Going to take a look at that. Also, I’ve been running 30psi in my 38’s. What tire pressure to you 37-38 guys run?

how many miles on the jeep? how many miles since the 38s were installed? i bought mine new and at 4300 miles updated to 40s and a 4.5" lift. 7000 miles later i was getting the bejesus scared out of me by wobble/shimmy/shake/devil possession. call it what you want. i read everything on this forum pertaining to this calamity. one person suggested worn ball joints. my joints only had 11k miles total on them so how did they wear so quickly. they are not indestructible and will expire earlier with modifications, ie: lift or larger tires. i realize throwing away parts dollars is not fun but i replaced the joints with american iron offroad joint deletes. they are not cheap but it immediately ended MY problem.

 

[Jchap1987]

Really great information from everyone, thank you. One thing that I’ve never heard of which was stated in one of the death wobble instructional videos, is that the track bar and drag link must be parallel to each other. Going to take a look at that. Also, I’ve been running 30psi in my 38’s. What tire pressure to you 37-38 guys run?

28 psi cold

 

[Wheelin98TJ]

Really great information from everyone, thank you. One thing that I’ve never heard of which was stated in one of the death wobble instructional videos, is that the track bar and drag link must be parallel to each other. Going to take a look at that. Also, I’ve been running 30psi in my 38’s. What tire pressure to you 37-38 guys run?

The track bar and drag link remain parallel as long as you do not drop or raise only one and not the other. When you install a lift and do nothing else, the parallel relationship remains and does not change.

When the track bar and drag link are not parallel, it causes bump steer. Bump steer is when you hit a bump and the steering wheel turns and then turns back. The steering wheel does not continue to shimmy.

 

[KQL]

Another thing that occurred to me while I was checking things under the truck, was the sheer number of welds that we count on when we torque things down. If any one of those welds broke, you’d have slop in the system no matter how well you torqued things. I don’t have a lift, so on the garage floor on a creeper with a light and dirty undercarriage, it could be pretty easy to miss a compromised weld.

 

[jetdriver73]

how many miles on the jeep? how many miles since the 38s were installed? i bought mine new and at 4300 miles updated to 40s and a 4.5" lift. 7000 miles later i was getting the bejesus scared out of me by wobble/shimmy/shake/devil possession. call it what you want. i read everything on this forum pertaining to this calamity. one person suggested worn ball joints. my joints only had 11k miles total on them so how did they wear so quickly. they are not indestructible and will expire earlier with modifications, ie: lift or larger tires. i realize throwing away parts dollars is not fun but i replaced the joints with american iron offroad joint deletes. they are not cheap but it immediately ended MY problem.

Jeep has 22k miles. Lift has been installed for about 15,000 miles so I know it’s not a bushing issue. Going to spend some time with an expert tomorrow so I’m looking forward to digging into things. I’ll keep you posted on what we find.

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