My Death Wobble finds and solution

just wanted to share my story about what i found and what fixed my DW

what was wrong....

out of balance tires
caster at 3 degrees ish
badly worn out ball joints
worn out drag link end at knuckle (joint would pop up and down when turning my tires vid below)
worn out poly RK bushings on lower front control arms (pic below)
driver side lower CA 1/16" longer than passenger
passenger side upper CA 1/16" longer than drive.... yeah imagine how those when together :cheesy:
slightly bent tie rod that had my toe in at 1/4"

what i did...

first got my tires balanced... that helped but didnt make it go away
set my caster to 4.2 ish... didnt notice any change.

at this point i said screw it lets rip it all apart :beer: bought me a fancy new torque wrench and went to town.

fixed my control arm length differences
installed some dynatrac prosteer ball joints
replaced the worn out CA bushings
did an EVO drag link flip kit (when i did this i ditched my grade 8 replacement bolts and put factory ones in, also put back in a factory front track bar and ditched the RK adjustable one, same with sway bar links)
adjusted my tie rod to get me a 1/8" toe

DAMN my jeep has never driven so good! never thought i would see the day when i could let go of the steering wheel at 50 mph and it just goes straight :bleh: it is a great feeling to finally have my front suspension dialed in (well at least way better than before)


CA bushing


drag link end vid

Nicely done and thanks for the writeup! With all of those issues fixed, I bet that Jeep drives better than new!! :thumb:

Looks like you got a good handle on things. Glad things worked out!

ERAUGrad04 said:

Nicely done and thanks for the writeup! With all of those issues fixed, I bet that Jeep drives better than new!! :thumb:

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i didnt really go into much technical detail there but just hoping at least to help someone looking to track down their DW problems they can look where i found my problems :thumb:

and honestly i pulled my track bar out before even checking the torque so who knows that was prob loose too :doh:

and yes it drives so damn good its quite the relief and great feeling to see what you fixed actually work

the only thing i can still say is that the steering seems a bit stiff and tends to stay going in one direction but from everything i have read thats all part of the prosteers or any new ball joint for that matter being tight when they are brand new

desertrunner said:

the only thing i can still say is that the steering seems a bit stiff and tends to stay going in one direction but from everything i have read thats all part of the prosteers or any new ball joint for that matter being tight when they are brand new

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I'm sure it will "break in" over a bit of time. Perhaps check and re-torque parts at 500-1000 miles.

ArmyofMike said:

I'm sure it will "break in" over a bit of time. Perhaps check and re-torque parts at 500-1000 miles.

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yup i have an oil change coming up in about 500 mi i was gonna go through and re torque everything again at that point

desertrunner said:

the only thing i can still say is that the steering seems a bit stiff and tends to stay going in one direction but from everything i have read thats all part of the prosteers or any new ball joint for that matter being tight when they are brand new

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That's a result of your new ProSteers. Give them 500mi or so and they will be much-mo-betta!

I hope I don't sound like a dick, but majority of your problems are with the rk lift. From the bushings to the 1" stretch.
I know I already said it, but glad you're figuring out stuff and for future reference to people who are looking at their products.
Your drag link looked bad also.

olram30 said:

I hope I don't sound like a dick, but majority of your problems are with the rk lift. From the bushings to the 1" stretch.
I know I already said it, but glad you're figuring out stuff and for future reference to people who are looking at their products.
Your drag link looked bad also.

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hence why now that the front is done this is next http://wayalife.com/showthread.php?25668-Rock-Krawler-rear-suspension-1-quot-quot-Stretch-quot :bleh:

yeah if i could ditch the whole RK lift i would but $ is standing in the way of that. I didnt want to just replace the bushings i wanted to ditch the arms for something better but $10 bushings was what i had to settle for in order to afford to do prosteers and get to work on the rear. other than the bushings though i didnt have any problems with my front arms that werent my fault like the wrong lengths. all the other joints were still super tight and move great even after 25k miles without ever greasing or oiling

and dont feel bad if you feel like a dick putting down the RK lift hopefully in the end it will just help ppl save money and avoid doing what im going through right now.

Congratulations on getting it fixed and without having to buy into the silliness of replacing your bolts or installing a heavy duty steering stabilizer. :thumb:

It may be the RK, but also, your Jeep is an '08? Have you ever changed these parts before (other than perhaps during lift)? If not, I think your front end was overdue for an overhaul!

wayoflife said:

Congratulations on getting it fixed and without having to buy into the silliness of replacing your bolts or installing a heavy duty steering stabilizer. :thumb:

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HAHA I have been learking around this forum long enough to know better now

ArmyofMike said:

It may be the RK, but also, your Jeep is an '08? Have you ever changed these parts before (other than perhaps during lift)? If not, I think your front end was overdue for an overhaul!

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my jeep is an 08 yes but I bought it in 12' with almost 60k on it so who knows what was done to it (or not done) before I got it. but yes your right things like my ball joints and my drag link end for all I know could have been wore out before hand and I never checked them. It was all stock when I bought it as well. I also was really bad about checking my suspension as routine maintenance in college and I beat the crap out of it living in CO for two years. So yeah you are very correct it was in dire need of an overhaul in the first place. Oh and not to mention the # of tire rotations that I can count on 2 fingers I did in 25K miles :doh: yeah learning lots of lessons

so you know after going through all of this stuff I overlooked checking out my unit bearings. any good way to do this w/out a dial indicator? that isn't part of my tool box and it soon needs to be! Might as well while I already in here tearing stuff apart look into those too.