Bad tire wear and death wobble symptoms

desertrunner

desertrunner

Active Member
So a little background i have a 08 JKUR with a 3.5" rock krawler x factor system sitting on 37" BFG KM2s.
After a while of running this set up i would notice more and more a decent occilation in my steering when going over rough bumps in the road or train tracks but it would usually clear up really fast without me doing anything and i figured it was due to my lack of tie rod/ drag link flip kit.
in the last 2 months or so i have noticed really weird wear in my front tires. Every other set of tread is noticiably more worn so i have a perfect pattern of high low high low on my front tires.
Now just yesterday the death wobble got so bad any little crack in the road set it off and i had to pull over 3 times on my 5 mile drive home from work to get it to stop.
Of course first thing i did was hit up the checklist on this forum for death wobble symptions and just with a quick look under my rig i know that my front track bar is nice and snug no problems there, havent got the chance to put up an angle finder to check my caster yet but visually i would be willing to guess its only +2 (will check with angle finder today) this weekend i was thinking about checking out my ball joints so see how much play they have.

So my question is would the wear i am seeing in my front tires point to any one cause of death wobble? (my guess ball joints)

I currently have a 1990 bronco torn apart in my garage and dont have much room to dive into the jeep right now so hoping someone might know off the top of their head what it might be so i can try to hit that first.
 
biggy

biggy

Member
How is your toe in ? That can create uneven tire wear and bumpsteer. 1/8 in is what mine is set at.

Sent from my SM-N900W8 using WAYALIFE mobile app
 
cozdude

cozdude

Guy with a Red 2-Door
if your still running factory ball joints i would start there as it is prob your issue.
 
biggy

biggy

Member
When you say had a quick look does that mean you put a wrench on everything to make sure it's torqued properly.

Sent from my SM-N900W8 using WAYALIFE mobile app
 
10frank9

10frank9

Web Wheeler
Start off by getting your tires rebalanced. I also run the KM2s and get mine rebalanced every 6k or so :yup:
 
cozdude

cozdude

Guy with a Red 2-Door
desertrunner said:
yeah they are still the stock once and i kinda thought that might be the problem but just wanted some other opinions to see
Click to expand...

yea since its an 08' with XX,XXX amount of miles on the factory ball joints i would guess its them. my factory ball joints on my 11' were starting to go only 25,000 miles into it. replaced them with Crown HD ball joints. im sure i will switch to dynatrac ones sooner or later but for < $100 they work well.
 
desertrunner

desertrunner

Active Member
biggy said:
When you say had a quick look does that mean you put a wrench on everything to make sure it's torqued properly.

Sent from my SM-N900W8 using WAYALIFE mobile app
Click to expand...

no quick look as in I grabbed my track bar and shook real hard, eyeballed my caster, and kicked my tires a few times :cheesy: i know i need to go and actually check everything and that my plan the weekend i just wanted a jump on the game with insite from the forum.

10frank9 said:
Start off by getting your tires rebalanced. I also run the KM2s and get mine rebalanced every 6k or so :yup:
Click to expand...

yeah i have heard the KM2s have that problem but seems really weird to me that i would have the same exact pattern on both front tires and it be a ballance issue but i could be wrong :thinking: on the other hand i think its been at least 15K since i had them ballanced last
 
Canvas JK

Canvas JK

-
desertrunner said:
So a little background i have a 08 JKUR with a 3.5" rock krawler x factor system sitting on 37" BFG KM2s.
After a while of running this set up i would notice more and more a decent occilation in my steering when going over rough bumps in the road or train tracks but it would usually clear up really fast without me doing anything and i figured it was due to my lack of tie rod/ drag link flip kit.
in the last 2 months or so i have noticed really weird wear in my front tires. Every other set of tread is noticiably more worn so i have a perfect pattern of high low high low on my front tires.
Now just yesterday the death wobble got so bad any little crack in the road set it off and i had to pull over 3 times on my 5 mile drive home from work to get it to stop.
Of course first thing i did was hit up the checklist on this forum for death wobble symptions and just with a quick look under my rig i know that my front track bar is nice and snug no problems there, havent got the chance to put up an angle finder to check my caster yet but visually i would be willing to guess its only +2 (will check with angle finder today) this weekend i was thinking about checking out my ball joints so see how much play they have.

So my question is would the wear i am seeing in my front tires point to any one cause of death wobble? (my guess ball joints)

I currently have a 1990 bronco torn apart in my garage and dont have much room to dive into the jeep right now so hoping someone might know off the top of their head what it might be so i can try to hit that first.
Click to expand...


I had the sort of the same issue and found it was a combination of two things. One tire pressure was too high causeing uneven wear but the vibration came from unbalanced wheels. As mentioned in previous responses take a torque wrench to make sure everything is within specifications. Then have someone assist by turning your steering wheel left and right while inspecting the movement of all the mechanical items on the front axle. Just because it is tight does not meat they are not worn. Additionally you can do the grab check. Grab each component and check for security and movement. If something moves chances are there is a worn part. To check the ball joints you will need a dial indicator to visually see if they are worn slightly.

R/
Will
 
wayoflife

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
desertrunner said:
in the last 2 months or so i have noticed really weird wear in my front tires. Every other set of tread is noticiably more worn so i have a perfect pattern of high low high low on my front tires.
Click to expand...

Is it safe to assume that this pattern is just on the inside tread of your tires? If so, this is typically caused by bad ball joints, bad unit bearings or both. That is where I would start as they are most likely the cause of your death wobble. Having said that, stiff springs in conjunction with shocks that are no longer dampening as well as they should can cause this too. While that typically will not cause death wobble, it can help instigate it.
 
desertrunner

desertrunner

Active Member
wayoflife said:
Is it safe to assume that this pattern is just on the inside tread of your tires? If so, this is typically caused by bad ball joints, bad unit bearings or both. That is where I would start as they are most likely the cause of your death wobble. Having said that, stiff springs in conjunction with shocks that are no longer dampening as well as they should can cause this too. While that typically will not cause death wobble, it can help instigate it.
Click to expand...

i do recal that the tread wear was slightly different on either the inside or the outside but off the top of my head i cant remember which so ill take a look again when i get home from work. Also i know the wear on the passenger side tire is slightly worse than the driver side. not much but slightly
 
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2007blackJk

Member
Ball jointsx3
And remember, the longer that shit goes on. More wear is put on other components ie Tre's, track bar mount holes, CA bushings, etc
 
desertrunner

desertrunner

Active Member
so here are the pictures of the tire wear i have been talking about
driver side
IMAG4294[1].jpg
passenger side
IMAG4295[1].jpg

wayalife i know you were asking about inside or outside tread tire wear and it looks like to me the driver side is pretty even but the passenger side has more wear on the outside of the tread

i also just measured my caster and to me it looks like its roughly +2.5-3 so maybe something i can fix to help me out too
 
desertrunner

desertrunner

Active Member
my front tires are also showing more wear than my rear tires. once i track down the problem ill prob rotate the fronts to the rear hopefully that will help me out too but i wanna fix the problem not just treat the symptoms
 
JayKay

JayKay

Caught the Bug
desertrunner said:
so here are the pictures of the tire wear i have been talking about
driver side
View attachment 104260
passenger side
View attachment 104261

wayalife i know you were asking about inside or outside tread tire wear and it looks like to me the driver side is pretty even but the passenger side has more wear on the outside of the tread

i also just measured my caster and to me it looks like its roughly +2.5-3 so maybe something i can fix to help me out too
Click to expand...

Bad ball joints can/will cause inside edge wear on your tires. The outside edge wear is caused by either the toe being excessively positive or I've seen it with a lot of in town driving. Frequent tire rotations will help reduce the abnormal cupping you're seeing (high/low/high/low pattern). Definitely check steering/suspension parts for wear. I would definitely get the tires balanced also. Looks to me that a new set should be in the near future :shock:
 
desertrunner

desertrunner

Active Member
yeah i would love to get a new set of shoes under her but a new set of 37s just arent in the budget right now haha trying to make these last as long as i can :rock:
 
desertrunner

desertrunner

Active Member
k so update on my situation

i rotated my tires first and took it for a drive, in addition to still having the death wobble i also had a really hard pull to the left which i did not have before.

upon further inspection with a buddy helping me i am getting a little bit of play in track bar where it attaches to the axle
IMAG4300[1].jpg
in the pic you can see a little where the hole is getting a little warped

also i measured my toe and i am 1/4" closer in the front

so where to go from here? how can i mitigate the track bar movement? and should i change my toe to more of 1/8"?
 
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