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2007 RUBICON WANTS TO KILL ME!

wagonmaster

wagonmaster

ONE TON 'O WAGON
Location
springville, UT
Hey good day to all! I am wondering if anyone can help out here. I have been struggling with the families four door rubi because it wants to death shake occasionally on the freeway. It is all original as far as lift wheels and tires and does have a +2 budget boost lift in the suspension (aka pucks). I have thrown it on the lift and checked out the suspension components a few times and all ball joints and track bar etc. seem super tight. I upgraded the steering stabilizer and it seemed ok for a few months now, however over the weekend it did it again! I had a simular problem with the waggy which i solved by adjusting some slack out of the steering box. Has anyone been dealing with anything like this and if so what worked for you? Thanks for any input! :D
 
skippy

skippy

Pretend Fabricator
Location
Tooele
In my personnal experience it seemed to always lead to the track bar but since you have checked all that out and thats good. I would lean towards the puck lift with the puck lifts it keeps the same control arms wich changes your caster angle and often times leads to death wobble.....
 
wagonmaster

wagonmaster

ONE TON 'O WAGON
Location
springville, UT
Thanks for your idea, the only thing I don't understand is that it has had the pucks in it for all of it's 36000 mile life and it is just now being a thorn in my side. I just am having a hard time faulting the pucks because they have always been there with no issues.
 
xtremexj

xtremexj

Active Member
Location
Edmonton, AB, Canada
Some of the JKs have really low positive caster from the factory so even the 2" lift could throw it out of whack. I would suggest you get some adjustable caster cams for the front end and have an alignment shop put more positive caster into it. I go through that occasionally with some of my customers and it takes care of the problem most of the time.:)
 
1995zj

1995zj

I'm addicted
Location
Herriman, UT
CA joints are what I would lean towards. Make sure they are all in the best shape possible and not torn/damaged. A front alignment wouldn't hurt either.
 
Coco

Coco

Well-Known Member
Location
Lehi, UT
My old TJ had death wobble, we replaced everything in the front end it seemed like, and still didnt fix it, well I rotated the tires, and it never did it again?? It was wierd and must have been a Jeep thing I guess :rofl:

That waswith an older set of Xterrains that I had on that Jeep, I replaced them with several different setsf tires, and it never did it again...That jeep was frustrating to say the least.
 
ret32

ret32

Active Member
Location
Midvale
planman said:
Here is a write-up thread I did that includes an inspection checklist:

http://www.jkowners.com/forum/showthread.php?t=30723...
Click to expand...

Excellent writeup! Thanks for sharing. The graphic is very helpful. I've had DW a handful of times in my WJ and I've slowly learned what to look for and how to fix it. It would've been nice to have your writeup handy the first couple of times. In my case, your analysis is spot on for each of my DW experiences.

In each of my cases, the trackbar bushings were always the ultimate culprit. Nearly always, there was also some other "play" in the system that was creating a shimmy (as you call it), which got the movement started just before the full on DW hit.
 
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RockChucker

RockChucker

Well-Known Member
Location
Highland
i had major death wobble problems in my TJ. it was a combination of many thing, as it usually is. you fix one thing, and it cures if for a while, and then you fix something else, it goes away etc. BUT, the number one thing that made the biggest difference was putting in more positive caster, like xtremexj said. that is the golden ticket. i suspect that your jeep is still within 'spec' on the tolerances of TRE and bushings, but not as tight as they were brand new obviously. i would start with a tire rotation/balance and then an alignment. and when you have whomever do the alignment, like has been said, have them push those lower arms out and get more positive caster than stock.

in my jeep's case, there were a lot of things that were within 'spec' but all that little bit of play adds up when everything starts to move.

also, one more thing, if someone tells you it is your steering stabilizer being worn out that causes this, they are lying. i had a 4wd shop tell me that was my problem, and they even were kind enough to throw 2 on. well it was fixed for about a week at the most. a steering stabilizer is just a bandaid and cover up for the real problem. right now, i don't have a steering stabilizer on my jeep. i have no shimmy whatsoever. best of luck to you figuring this out. it is a booger. i know.
 
wagonmaster

wagonmaster

ONE TON 'O WAGON
Location
springville, UT
Thanks again! I had been trying to fight this problem on the waggy and had thrown into it some more caster and ended up causing even worse DW because of the added load onto the steering box. In the end the steering box was the real issue and after adjustment to it and removing the added shim i had installed in the front i have been running around with no stabilizer and also no issue. That is why I wondered about the steering boxes or anything else having pattern failure in the land of JK when everything "seemed ok". Thanks for the shared knowledge!
 
RockChucker

RockChucker

Well-Known Member
Location
Highland
the wagoneer is a leaf sprung vehicle, and as such, i believe DW is a whole different ball game. my buddy had DW in his CJ and it ended up being that his steering box was toast. not to say that isn't a cause in linked vehicles either, but usually it is play in joints and the alignment being off.
 
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