Grand Cherokee Death Wobble

[Richie]

Ok here's the situation... Our Grand Cherokee, 3" of lift, 31's on Factiry rims, and never offroad just developed the dredded Death Wobble. Driving down the road at highway speeds, hit a bump and it's time to get off the freeway and change shorts. I've been through this before on my Jeep pickup and simply changed steering stabilizer and that was the end of it. I changed the stabilizer on the Grand with no improvement. Rotated tires. There is nothing visibly loose underneath. Next Step?


After reading the archive, I'll be getting the tires balanced tomorrow. Should I have the alignment done too? My tire guy said that bad alignment shouldn't cause death wobble... Time to find a new tire guy?

Other thoughts??

[mrblaine]

Richie- you must absolutely, beyond any shadow of a doubt, without fail, and under any circumstances remove the tires from the equation.

Stand there and watch the balance being done. Watch for tread squirm, any hop in the outer circumference, and make them balance them until they come up zero's.

Only then can you start looking elsewhere for the other things that cause problems.

When that is done, have your wife get behind the wheel and rapidly move the steering wheel back and forth. Have the rotation decrease until you are just starting to get tire movement.

Inspect every connection point of the front suspension. My bet is on the trackbar being loose at one end.

[Texas ZJ1]

If your alignment is bad, you'll have the DW. Most have it cured just by that. Loose steering components are next.

You might want to find a new tire guy. Ask him if his tires are balanced and aligned. Would he drive his vehicle like that?


Hunter