My life with a Brick

[JKbrick]

I'm really close to giving up on this damn thing. I've been fighting death wobble since July. It is a 2009 2dr rubicon, 13,500 miles on it now. I had a JKS lift that ended up giving me 3 1/4" of lift. Flipped my drag link, raised both stock track bars. All Currie adjustable control arms except front uppers. Wheel spacers and stock rubicon tires and wheels. It never looked great lifted with stock tires so I never drove it much and just drive my work truck. It all started in July when I had my tires balanced and I rotated them. That was my first death wobble, I could tell the trackbar bolt had moved by the paint scratched away from the hole. Had the tires rebalanced and put them back to original location and then no death wobble but a sensation of my front pass side tire felt like it wanted to fall off when I hit a bump. Got so sick of it I took my lift off and put steering and track bars back to stock locations. I even had the local dealer give me a set of 16" steel wheels with the little car tires on them brand new to eliminate the problem being a tire. Yesterday I was anticipating a test drive like driving a new jeep but 2 miles down the road the f'ing thing had death wobble back, so it got worse not better. My son came over and turned the wheel for me and nothing seemed to move at all that shouldn't have. He pried up and down on the tires and there seemed to be no movement at all. So I'm down to throwing money at parts in hopes I guess the right ones or just parking it till I hit the lotto. So damn frustrated.


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[OverlanderJK]

Factory ball joints? Do you have gussets? Unit bearings stock?


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[JKbrick]

Yes factory ball joints unit bearings and steering and c gussets


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[Clutch]

When did you put the lift on? Did you have your tires balanced a 2nd time? Is the bolt hole in for your front track bar wallowed out at all? Are you sure your unit bearings and ball joints are still good?

Sorry for all the questions, I know death wobble sucks! I had it over the summer and it turned out to be a combination of a loose front trackbar, busted steering stabilizer, and caster being too low.

I sincerely hope your find the problem.

[desertrunner]

I feel for you! i had mine tore apart for 3 weeks bumming rides to work because i couldnt drive it due to death wobble.

Mine had a lot more miles on it than yours but ill at least tell you what i found with mine

Idk if i wasnt doing it right (im sure that was the case) but when prying up and down on the tires it didnt look like my ball joints were moving at all but i Bit the bullet and swapped them out for pro steers, when i pulled the stock ones out they basically fell apart in my hand they were so shot. What size tires are you running? I know the stock ones are cheap and could get wore out pretty quick.

I didnt have a drag link flip at the time so i went ahead and did that and when i did the joint that connected my drag link to my knuckle was shot as well might be something to look at?

And i had my caster about 2* off what it should have been

Once i fixed those my Death wobble went away, I didnt mess with my unit bearings although i think i should have but i ended up selling the jeep before i got to it.

[JKbrick]

When did you put the lift on? Did you have your tires balanced a 2nd time? Is the bolt hole in for your front track bar wallowed out at all? Are you sure your unit bearings and ball joints are still good?

Sorry for all the questions, I know death wobble sucks! I had it over the summer and it turned out to be a combination of a loose front trackbar, busted steering stabilizer, and caster being too low.

I sincerely hope your find the problem.

Put the lift on in 2012, redid the balance and unrotated them back to where they were, I've been looking at replacement track bar bushings and hub bearings on rock auto today, none of it seems bad but something sure is


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[JKbrick]

I feel for you! i had mine tore apart for 3 weeks bumming rides to work because i couldnt drive it due to death wobble.

Mine had a lot more miles on it than yours but ill at least tell you what i found with mine

Idk if i wasnt doing it right (im sure that was the case) but when prying up and down on the tires it didnt look like my ball joints were moving at all but i Bit the bullet and swapped them out for pro steers, when i pulled the stock ones out they basically fell apart in my hand they were so shot. What size tires are you running? I know the stock ones are cheap and could get wore out pretty quick.

I didnt have a drag link flip at the time so i went ahead and did that and when i did the joint that connected my drag link to my knuckle was shot as well might be something to look at?

And i had my caster about 2* off what it should have been

Once i fixed those my Death wobble went away, I didnt mess with my unit bearings although i think i should have but i ended up selling the jeep before i got to it.

I have a set of used Dynatrac ball joints I got from a guy on here a couple years ago I was saving for a pr44 housing, I guess I'll throw them on and replace everything else if it seems bad or not. What a pain in the ass


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[JKbrick]

Both of you mentioned caster but I think mine was right on, since I took my lift off I'm going to throw my stock control arms back on for now


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[desertrunner]

I have a set of used Dynatrac ball joints I got from a guy on here a couple years ago I was saving for a pr44 housing, I guess I'll throw them on and replace everything else if it seems bad or not. What a pain in the ass


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It was kinda a pain in the ass yeah but i did it in my garage in half a day with a rented ball joint press from Napa or Advance AP and in my case it was worth it. I did have to improvise a bit with some random hardware i bought at lowes to make the BJ press work with the Pro Steers if i had to do it again i would just buy their little $12 washer kit

Both of you mentioned caster but I think mine was right on, since I took my lift off I'm going to throw my stock control arms back on for now


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Right i dont think that was really a factor in my case it was just something else i found while tearing apart my front end.

[JKbrick]

It was kinda a pain in the ass yeah but i did it in my garage in half a day with a rented ball joint press from Napa or Advance AP and in my case it was worth it. I did have to improvise a bit with some random hardware i bought at lowes to make the BJ press work with the Pro Steers if i had to do it again i would just buy their little $12 washer kit



Right i dont think that was really a factor in my case it was just something else i found while tearing apart my front end.

I bought an Astro Pneumatic ball joint press and the washer kit from Dynatrac when I got the prosteers so hopefully I have everything. Waiting to hear on a stock steering knuckle I'm going to install to replace the one I drilled when I flipped my drag link


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